Favorable Diminution of Staffing at the Minneapolis Public Schools Department of Teaching and Learning in the Course of Autumn 2016-August 2018

Ed Graff’s strength as Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) since beginning his tenure on 1 July 2016 has been his incisive trimming of the central office bureaucracy (Davis Center, 1250 West Broadway) and judgment on matters of personnel.  My citing of the latter strength must come with a note that so many people who occupy administrative positions in locally centralized school district offices have been so abominably trained and philosophically vitiated by professors of education that the talent pool is not of high quality for those who make academic decisions or have anything to do with academic programming.  This is particularly true, then, for those who occupy positions in departments such as Teaching and Learning.  

 

This is a department that is coming under my very careful scrutiny as I make my analyses for the final draft of Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect.  I regard as extremely favorable the fact that Ed Graff has nixed many positions in what over time has been a farcically bloated department;   Graff has succeeded in ridding the Department of Teaching and Learning of dead weight and chronic ineptitude.

 

The question will then be how well-placed those current occupants of positions in the Department of Teaching and Learning are to address the wretched academic results, and the knowledge and skill deficits, of the students whom they are professionally and morally bound to serve.

 

For now, note that Graff has pared the Department of Teaching and Learning from 52 staff positions in autumn 2016, to 38 in January 2018 to 30 in August 2018.  This is a 42% reduction since autumn 2016 that critically rid the department of many ineffective claimants to sinecures.  The initial reduction from autumn 2016 to January 2018 was 26.92% (from 52 staff positions to 38);  and from January 2018 through August 2018, a period of eight months, the percentage cut was essentially the same at 26.67%.

 

In the coming days and weeks in the run-up to publication of Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect, I will be examining the likelihood that those members of the current staff at MPS Department of Teaching and Learning have the ability to design a program capable of imparting a knowledge-intensive, skill replete, logically sequenced K-12 curriculum to students of all demographic descriptors.  This will require that department members study curricula such as that of the Core Knowledge Foundation and the curriculum that I presented in the August 2014 edition of my academic Journal of the K-12 Revolution:  Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

For now, contemplate the considerable accomplishment of Ed Graff in trimming the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning staff, as indicated in the details of these staffing positions for Autumn 2016, January 2018, and August 2018 (the current staff composition):

 

MPS Department of Teaching and Learning Staff, Autumn 2016

Administrative

1. Macarre Traynham, Director

Office Support

2. Amanda Andrews ITT and Online, Office specialist
3. Jeanne Lacy, Executive Assistant
4. Yana Manalov, Business Services Financial Specialist

AVID

5. Maria Roberts, Program Manager, AVID
6. Christen Lish, AVID Elementary Coordinator
7. Paula Killian, AVID Middle School Coordinator
8. Tommie Casey, AVID High School Coordinator

 

Elementary Team      

9. Carrie Seeley, Director, Elementary Education
10. Janna Toche, Elementary DPF
11. Julie Tangeman, Elementary DPF
12. Sara Naegli, Elementary DPF
13. Sarah Hunter, Elementary DPF

Focused Instruction

14. Tina Platt, Project Manager
15. Jake Hirschman, Curriculum Assets Assistant
16. Nancy Mai, Curriculum Assets Assistant

Instructional Technology Team

17. James Stock, Learning Assistant Administrator DPF
18. Jeff Brazee, Applications Trainer
19. Kevin Keller, Technology Integrationist DPF Material Management Position
20. Terry Dinovo, Materials Coordinator
21. Judy Stack-Nelson, Materials Handler

Online Learning

22. Edith McDonald, Online Art
23. James Carr, Online Physical Education
24. Karen Maverick, Online Special Education
25. Katy Hemmah, Online Program Counselor
26. Kelsey Zogby (Passa), Online Math Telescope
27. Lynn Lurvey, Online English
28. Seth Levitt, Online Math, Elementary
29. Tom VanErp, Online Health
30. Tony Patterson, Online Associate Educator
31. William Holm, Online Math, High School

Science Center    

32. Timothy Lilla, Science Senior Materials Handler
33. Donell Shinder, Science Materials Handler
34. Mark Berg, Science Materials Handler
35. Tara Newhouse, Science Materials Handler of Living Organisms

Secondary Team

36. Naomi Taylor, Director, Secondary Education
37. Chris Wemimont, Secondary Math DPF
38. Colleen Atakpu, Secondary Math DPF
39. Hibaq Mohamed, Secondary ELA/ Reading
40. Jennifer Rose, Secondary Science DPF
41. Katy Stephens, Secondary ELA/ Reading DPF
42. Kleber Ortiz-Sinchi, Secondary Social Studies DPF
43. Samantha Weiman, Associate Educator

Specialists

44. Ashley Crohn, K-12 Library and Information Media DPF
45. Kathy Dunbar, Arts Exploration and Extension Coordinator
46. Nora Schull, K-12 Arts DPF
47. Sara Loch, K-12 Health/ Physical Education

STEM

48. Charley Ellingson, STEM Integrationist
49. Elizabeth Stretch, STEM Integrationist

Talent Development and Advanced Academics

50. Alyssa Pollack, Elementary Talent Development and Advanced Academics DPF
51. Kelly McQuillan, High School Talent Development and Advanced Academics DPF
52. Theresa Campbell, Middle School Talent Development and Advanced Academics DPF

 

MPS Department of Teaching and Learning Staff, January 2018

Administrative                                

 

1.  Cecilia Saddler, Deputy Chief of Academics, Leadership, and Learning

 

Administrative Support

                                     

2.  Jeanne Lacy, Executive Assistant      

3.  Jake Hirschman, Curriculum Assets Assistant       

 

AVID

 

4.  Tommie Casey, 9-12 AVID   Coordinator         

5.  Christen Lish, K-8  AVID     Coordinator  

6.  Paula Kilian, 6-12 AVID    Coordinator  

 

Elementary Team

 

7.  Carey Seeley Dzierzak, Director, Elementary Education   

8.  Alice Kos, K-5 Literacy DPF, Network   

9.    Jessica Driscoll, K-5 Literacy DPF, Network  

10.  Julie Tangeman, K-5 Literacy / Science DPF                

11.  Kelly Meade, K-5 Literacy DPF, Network   

12.  Kristi Bostad, K-5 Literacy DPF, Network   

13.  Marium Toure', K-5 Math DPF, Davis             

14.  Mary Lambrecht, K-5 Math DPF, Network       

15.  Natasha Parker, K-5 Math TOSA, Network                                                                                                

16.  Norma Alejandro, K-5 Literacy DPF, Network   

17.  Sara Naegeli, K-5 Literacy DPF, Network            

18.  William Samsel, K-5 Math TOSA, Network    

 

K-12 Programming

 

19.  Ashley Krohn, K-12 Library and Media Information DPF

20.  Kimberly Henscheid, SSPA Arts                            

21.  Nora Schull, K-12 Arts DPF 

22.  Sarah Loch, K-12 Health/Physical Ed DPF            

 

Northstar Science Center

Material Management

 

23.  Terry Dinovo, Materials Coordinator  

 

Science Center

 

24.  Timothy Lilla, Science Senior Materials Handler   

25.  Donell Shinder, Science Materials Handler                   

26.  Mark Berg, Science Materials Handler                

27.  Tara Newhouse, Senior Material Handler of Living Organisms

 

Secondary Team

 

28.  Naomi Taylor, Director, Secondary Education                        

29.  Chris Jones, 6-12 Math TOSA/Network    

30.  Chris Wernimont, 6-12 Math DPF/Network                

31.  Colleen Atakpu-Shiggs, 6-12 Math DPF                        

32.  Hamdi Ahmed, 6-12 Literacy TOSA/Network    

33.  Hibaq Mohamed, 6-12 Literacy DPF                           

34.  Jennifer Rose, K-12 Science DPF                         

35.  Katie Stephens, 6-12 Literacy DPF/Network            

36.  Sarah Huffman, 6-12 Literacy TOSA/Network     

 

Talent Development & Advanced Academics

 

37.  Kelly McQuillan, 9-12 Talent Development/Advanced Academics

38.  Theresa Campbell, K-8 Talent Development/Advanced Academics

 

 

MPS Department of Teaching and Learning Staff, August 2018

Administrative

 

1,  Cecilia Saddler, Deputy Chief of Academics, Leadership, and Learning 

 

Administrative Support

 

2.  Executive Assistant, Jeanne Lacy

 

AVID

 

2.  Tommie Casey, AVID Program Manager

3.  Christen Lish, K-8 AVID Coordinator

4.  Paula Kilian, 6-12 AVID Coordinator

 

Elementary Team

 

5.  Jessica Driscoll, K-5 Literacy DPF, Network

6.  Julie Tangeman, K-5 Literacy /

7.  Marium Toure', K-5 Math DPF

8.  Mary Lambrecht, K-5 Math DPF, Network

9.  Natasha Parker, K-5 Math TOSA

10.  Sara Naegeli, K-5 Literacy DPF

 

K-12 Programming

 

11.  Ashley Krohn, K-12 Library and Media Information

12.  Kimberly Henscheid, SSPA

13.  Nora Schull, K-12 Arts DPF

14.  Sarah Loch, K-12 Health/Physical Education DPF

15.  Ted Hansen, Fine Arts TOSA

 

Material Management

 

16.  Jeff C. Carlson, Materials Coordinator

17.  Katie MacDonald, Materials Handler

 

Science Center

 

18.  Timothy Lilla, Science Senior Materials Handler

19.  Donell Shinder, Science Materials Handler

20.  Mark Berg, Science Materials Handler

21.  Tara Newhouse, Senior Material Handler of Living Organisms

 

Secondary Team

 

22.  Chris Jones, 6-12 Math TOSA/Network

23.  Chris Wernimont, 6-12 Math DPF

24.  Hamdi Ahmed, 6-12 Literacy TOSA/Network

25.  Hibaq Mohamed, 6-12 Literacy DPF

26.  Jennifer Rose, K-12 Science DPF

27.  Katie Stephens, 6-12 Literacy DPF/Network

28.  Lisa Purcell, K-12 Social Studies DPF

 

Talent Development & Advanced Academics

 

29.  Christina Ramsey, K-8 Talent Development / Advanced Academics

30.  Kelly McQuillan, 9-12 Talent Development /Advanced Academics

Why I’m the Guy Whom Officials at the Minneapolis Public Schools Will Never Fool: Accounts of Student Challenges and Accomplishment in the New Salem Educational Initiative >>>>> The Remarkable Case of Maya Cardenas

I’m the guy whom officials at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) will never fool.

 

I often remind them of this in my monthly Public Comments at meetings of the MPS Board of Education.

 

Specifically, in the midst of the academic year, when the New Salem Tuesday Tutoring Program is in full motion (remember that I coordinate two programs:  the Tuesday evening program and the seven-day-a-week small group program), at the end of my comments I frequently say:

 

Now when I walk out of here to go coordinate the

New Salem Tuesday program, I want you to say to

yourselves, “Now there goes the guy whom we will

never fool, because he is departing to run his

program, where he administers to the students whom

we academically abuse during the daytime.”

 

Remember, dear readers, that I have taught at every level and in all situations that you can imagine:  mostly in high schools, but along the way also in a prison (GED curriculum), in Taiwan (English as a Second Language), four and a half years in university and college settings (East Asian history), and in my current programs of the New Salem Educational Initiative, in which I teach students of all ages and levels, most of whom are or who began as students enrolled in the Minneapolis Public Schools.  I get students up to grade level in mathematics and reading, mostly doing the latter by putting them on a track that envisions college attendance and speeds them toward accumulation of university preparatory knowledge in mathematics, natural science (biology, chemistry, physics), world literature, history, government, economics, psychology, and fine arts (visual and aural). 

 

I am now teaching this curriculum to my K-12 students and have a number of college, university, and other adult students, as well.

 

……………………………………………………………………………

 

Some of my most rewarding experiences of the last few months have been with Maya Cardenas (data privacy pseudonym), a student who matriculated at the University of Minnesota/Twin Cities (therefore the flagship university for the state of Minnesota).  She received both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in elementary education.  But courses in elementary education are the lightest weight on any college or university campus.  So, now, pay attention to this:

 

This highly intelligent student, who attended schools of MPS and Columbia Heights and then went on to the University of Minnesota, graduated with woefully deficient knowledge and skill sets from both high school and the state’s putatively best public university.

 

Needing to pass two mathematics exams to secure full licensure to teach elementary school (already teaching second grade, though, on a provisional license), she came to me (as others in her family had done previously) for assistance in acquiring the knowledge and skill that she did not obtain in high school or at the university.

 

So we dug in and went to work.  Maya had to be reminded even of fundamental processes in subtraction (borrowing or regrouping).  She had to master her multiplication tables.  She needed to learn for the first time how to do extended long division operations.  We had to work on all skills pertinent to fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, and proportions.  Then we had to tackle a bevy of skills in algebra and geometry;  we worked, for example, on solving linear equations and inequalities, area and volume respectively for a multiplicity of two and three dimensional figures, permutations, combinations, and applications of the Pythagorean Theorem and the Quadratic Formula.

 

Maya completed her crash course in K-12 mathematics with me and went on to master a number of knowledge and skill sets preparatory for trigonometry and pre-calculus.  She took one of the exams for licensure in June and another just yesterday (Tuesday, 21 August).  She passed them both and told me that understanding mathematics for the first time has opened up a whole new world for her that had been a mystery.

 

Maya is now going to study one of my two nearly complete books and continue to meet with me once a week for two hours to get the remainder of an education that she never received in high school or in her bachelor’s and master’s programs.  That book is Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education, covering in fourteen chapters the most core principles and fundamental knowledge sets of economics, psychology, political science, world religions, world history, American history, African American history, literature, English usage, fine arts, mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics.

 

Maya has also taken a keen interest in my other nearly complete book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect.

 

She has expressed interest in attending a meeting of the MPS Board of Education with me.

 

Maya Cardenas knows and wants to assist me in explaining why I am the guy that officials at the Minneapolis Public Schools will never fool.

Convert Your Dissatisfaction into Concerted and Assertive Action: Percentage of Minneapolis Public Schools Students Recording Grade Level Performance on MCAs: Disaggregated for Ethnicity and Gender >>>>> Academic Years Ending in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017--- A Record of Dismal Failure

As we anticipate new figures on MCA results for spring 2018, everyone who cares about students of the Minneapolis Public Schools should realize that academic performance has been essentially flat but in many key demographic categories (notably, for example, African American and American Indian males) even declining for many years in a row.  Given this miserable failure to fulfill the grandiose goals of the district's Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan, and with insufficient programmatic initiatives (the Benchmark reading program and Multi-Tiered System of Support [MTSS] are not enough), we can expect results to be released later this month to reveal a continuing pattern of failure:


This pattern of failure and stark programmatic inadequacy will be a major theme of my new book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect.


Examine carefully and convert your dissatisfaction into concerted and assertive action:


Percentage of Minneapolis Public Schools Students Recording Grade Level Performance on MCAs:

Disaggregated for Ethnicity and Gender

 

Academic Years Ending in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017

                               

Math

 

                                             2014             2015           2016           2017

 

African American 

 

Male                                     22%               23%            21%            18%

Female                                 22%               22%            21%            19%

 

Hispanic

 

Male                                     32%               33%             32%            29%

Female                                 29%               30%             30%            28%

                             

Native American/ American Indian

 

Male                                    20%               16%            16%            18%

Female                                25%               22%            21%            17%

 

Asian

 

Male                                   44%                 47%            45%               45%

Female                                51%                53%            54%               50%

 

White/ Caucasian

 

Male                                   77%                 78%           77%                77%

Female                               77%                 78%           78%                77%

 

All Students

 

Male                                     43%               44%           43%                41%
Female                                 44%               44%           44%                43%

 

Percentage of Students Recording Grade Level Performance on MCAs:
Disaggregated Data for Academic Years Ending in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017

 

Reading

 

                                              2014             2015           2016           2017

 

African American 

 

Male                                     19%               19%            19%            18%

Female                                 25%               24%            23%            25%

 

Hispanic

 

Male                                     22%               23%            25%            23%

Female                                 25%               27%            28%            28%

                             

Native American/ American Indian

 

Male                                     18%               14%            15%            19%

Female                                 24%               26%            26%            27%

 

Asian

 

Male                                   36%                 36%            39%               37%

Female                               45%                 44%            51%               45%

 

White/ Caucasian

 

Male                                   75%                 74%           74%                75%

Female                               81%                 80%           80%                81%

 

All Students

 

Male                                   39%                 39%           40%                40%
Female                               45%                 45%           46%                47%

Taiwan, One of the Many Nations of Which Ill-Educated Americans Have Little Knowledge

The American people are ignoramuses on all manner of things, including, famously among the better educated populations of a generally ill-educated world, matters of history, geography, and current international circumstance.

 

The controversies between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China are among the many knowledge sets lacking in the American intellectual cabinet.

 

Taiwan is an independent nation whose leaders have thus far demurred from declaring such status under the appellation, Republic of Taiwan.  Ruled from the late 1940s until the of year 2000 by the Kuomintang (KMT, Romanized in pinyin as Guomindang) under the name Republic of China, Taiwan has developed from that millennial year of 2000 into one of the world’s most vital democracies;  the island (one hundred miles off the southeastern coast of China) is also among the world’s most prosperous nations, with a per capita GDP of $39,500 (21^st highest in the world)---  higher, for example,  than France, Great Britain, Canada, and even Japan.  The mainland China nation of the People’s Republic of China, while having a renowned aggregate GDP, is lodged at only number 64 in the world for the more telling per capita GDP.

 

Well into the 1980s, the KMT leadership maintained the fiction of the existence of a Republic of China whose military would return to defeat the communist foes to whom Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters lost control of the mainland in the Chinese Civil War of 1945-1949.  But the KMT never really controlled the vast expanses of China, even before the party and government’s hasty escape to Taiwan in the late 1940s.  While during the years 1945-1996 maintaining autocratic control over Taiwan, the KMT controlled only the island of Taiwan and a few surrounding smaller islands.  During the period 1895-1945, Taiwan had been under the control of Japan.  Thus, no politico-military entity that controlled all of China has ruled Taiwan since 1895, the year that the Qing Dynasty lost Taiwan to Japan.

 

Taiwan and mainland China have had substantially different histories, especially since 1895.  Taiwan has developed into a unique geopolitical entity, one of the most genuinely united nations in the world, with a population that reveres its own history and traditions and, while largely ethnically Han Chinese, identifying as Taiwanese rather than Chinese---  thus resembling, most saliently, Singapore.  The People’s Republic of China is not in accurate political science terms a nation;  it is, rather, an empire, with one-third of its territory consisting of Tibetan and Uighur (the latter in the province of Xinjiang) populations that would break away from the Chinese government if they could.

 

Leaders and corporations in the United States and the other major world economic powers are intimidated by the leadership of the People’s Republic of China, which has a territory about the same size as the United States and an aggregate economy now second only to the United States.

 

But the Taiwanese people remain internationally vigorous and ready to assert their de facto independence.  They deeply resent the manipulations of the government on the mainland.

 

As I close this consideration of Taiwan in the context of the ignorant American population that overwhelmingly has no understanding of the Taiwan-China conflict, consider this recent article from Taiwan Today, emphasizing the resentment of the Taiwanese people toward the bullying tactics of the government of the mainland PRC, one the most autocratic abusers of human rights among the governments of the world:

 

From Taiwan Today August 17, 2018 | Author: |

 

MAC poll finds majority in Taiwan disapprove of China’s political interference

Publication Date: August 17, 2018 | Author: |

 

The majority of people in Taiwan disapprove of Beijing’s efforts to suppress the country’s international space, according to a poll released Aug. 16 by the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council.

Around 82 percent of respondents said politically motivated pressure by China on the East Asian Olympic Committee to cancel the 2019 East Asian Youth Games in central Taiwan’s Taichung City was not conducive to the healthy development of cross-strait ties. A total of 85.2 percent disagreed with China’s pressure on international airlines to change their designation of Taiwan.

Such actions by the authorities in Beijing and their general attitude toward Taiwan were viewed as “unfriendly” by 65.1 percent of respondents, according to the poll.

To facilitate the healthy development of cross-strait relations, 82.9 percent of respondents said that both sides should uphold mutual respect, set aside differences and engage in communication without political preconditions. Similarly, 82.5 percent said that all exchanges should adhere to the principles of equal dignity and the rule of law, and should not be politically motivated.

According to the MAC, as a responsible member of the international community and model of freedom and democracy in the region, Taiwan has consistently worked to maintain cross-strait stability. The government is committed to safeguarding Taiwan’s dignity and sovereignty, protecting the well-being of the people and defending their free and democratic way of life, the council said, adding that Taiwan will not bow to China’s political manipulation.

Future cross-strait development cannot be determined unilaterally, the MAC said, urging China to squarely face the reality that the two sides are under separate rule and to respect the opinion of the people of Taiwan. Only by resolving differences through constructive dialogue can cross-strait relations be improved, the council added.

Conducted Aug. 9-13 by the Election Study Center at National Chengchi University in Taipei City, the telephone poll canvassed 1,093 adults over 20 years of age nationwide. It has a margin of error of 2.96 percent and a 95 percent confidence level.