Article #2 on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education >>>>> Kim Ellison’s ’s Tragi-Comically Silly Comment Regarding Alternative Schools as a Model for the Minneapolis Public Schools >>>>> Time for Resignation of Another Member Who Should Have Departed a Long time Ago

At the same Tuesday, 22 October 2019, Committee of the Whole meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education at which District #1 member Jenny Arneson made her astonishingly stupid comment regarding the sequence of United States history courses in the district, At-Large member Kim Ellison chimed in with a remark of her own that, when taken together with her nearly decade of ineffective participation on the board, should induce her resignation and departure with Arneson out the Davis Center door.     

 

After hearing Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Aimee Fearing and Chief of Research, Evaluation, Assessment, and Accountability Eric Moore engage in double talk and jargon-infested presentation of an academic plan that has no hope of success, Ellison felt impelled to make a comment pertinent to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).  Social and Emotional Learning  is part of a four-point emphasis in that academic plan that has no hope of succeeding, for reasons I have detailed in many places on this blog and in my Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect;  the other components of that hopeless plan are Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS), Literacy, and Equity.

 

Ellison commented that Graff’s emphasis on Social and Emotional Learning resonated with her immediately because of her experience as a teacher at an alternative school.  She did not mention the name of the school, but the school of reference was known as Plymouth Christian Youth Center (PCYC) for a number of years, now rendered as Plymouth Youth Center (PYC) Arts and Technology High School.  Ellison said that at her school there was a strong emphasis on teacher and staff relationships with students, with the implication that this produced student success.

 

Ellison is half-right but the half-wrong part reveals the abominable level of academic substance delivered at such schools.  The City, Inc., and the Street Academy/ Minneapolis Urban League High School were schools at which relationship building was touted;  those schools are now defunct.  The Minneapolis Public Schools contracts with seven privately run alternative schools to provide academic and other services to students whom MPS failed to engage.  Those contract alternative schools are 800 West Broadway, Loring Nicollet, Menlo Park, Merc, PYC Arts and Technology (Ellison’s school of reference), Tatanka Academy, and Volunteers of America (VOA) High School.  Academic performance for many years at these schools has stagnated at levels witnessed in the following aggregate results for academic year 2018-2019:

 

Percentage of Students Proficient at MPS Contract Alternative Schools  

(Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment [MCA])

 

Mathematics                        2%

(52 tested) 

Reading                              

(32 tested)                          22%

Science

(30 tested)                          13%

 

Many more than 52 students are enrolled at these alternative schools, so that even the number (52) representing students taking the mathematics MCA fails to capture the number of students enrolled.  But absences are high;  on any given day, a small percentage of enrolled students actually are in attendance.  There was also some formal opting out, as well as spontaneous refusal to take the tests.

 

Staff members at alternative schools do tend to build amicable relationships with students and to reach out to families with a persistence and compassion not prevailing in mainline MPS schools.  In that sense, the overwrought term, Social and Emotional Learning, could resonate with Kim Ellison’s experience at PYC High School.  That she would only mention this facet of the school, though, is telling:

 

I return to my abiding questions.  Are the members of this constituent composition of the MPS Board of Education

 

1) ignorant;

 

2) in denial;

 

or

 

3)  corrupt.

 

Accumulated evidence over five years of observation strongly suggests to me that the members of this board manifest all three qualities:

 

1)   They are ignorant as to the history and philosophy of education in the United States and have little understanding of the components of an excellent education.  

 

2)   Given their fascination with their ability to attain membership by winning elections with the strong support of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), they are in denial on matters of curriculum and teacher quality;

 

and

 

3)   They are corrupt political hacks who care more about maintaining their positions, in some cases for potential to spring from the school board to a legislative seat or other political position---  than they do about the academic sustenance of the precious students whose lives they disregard.

                                                                          

Kim Ellison is ignorant, in denial, and corrupt in making such comments as attend her advocacy of alternative schools as models for the Minneapolis Public Schools.  She has made such comments and failed to identify the problems pertinent to curriculum and teacher quality for her near-decade of membership on the MPS Board of Education.

 

Ellison needs to catch sight of Jenny Arneson’s exit out the Davis Center door and follow with due haste. 

Article #1 of a Ten-Article Series on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education >>>>> Jenny Arneson’s Second Astoundingly Stupid Statement Obligates Her to Resign from the MPS Board of Education

District 1 (Northeast and Southeast Minneapolis) Jenny Arneson is an enigma:

 

Arneson is the hardest working of the members on the current Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education.

 

She is a courageous person who appears to be triumphing over a very serious case of lymphatic cancer.

 

Arneson is a masterful accumulator of factual detail on many aspects of the inner workings of the district, notably information pertinent to her Northeast Minneapolis stomping grounds and items relevant to current district finances.  She also was an adept chair during her term of service in that position , a knowledgeable manager of meetings per Robert’s Rules of Order, a skill that stands her in good stead in her current role as chair of the finance committee.

 

But three moments impel me to call for Arneson’s resignation:

 

………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

In the spring of 2016 a forum sponsored by the League of Women’s Voters unfolded at Bryn Mawr K-5 school.  This forum offered one of the very few chances for audience members to ask open-ended oral questions;  that is to say, there was none of the usual scripted nonsense, such as questions having to be written down on slips of paper and then vetted for posing to members of the board.  The MPS Board of Education then consisted of Arneson, Siad Ali, Tracine Asberry, Carla Banks, Kim Ellison, Rebecca Gagnon, Nelson Inz, Josh Reimnitz, and Don Samuels.  Ali, Banks, and Reimnitz were not in attendance;  Asberry arrived only very late.  Hence, the members fully available for questioning were Arneson, Ellison, Gagnon,  Inz, and Samuels.

 

Most of the questions from the audience were nondescript and had little to do with academics.

 

I by contrast posed a question that made reference to the opposing philosophies of education represented by the knowledge-intensive views of E. D. Hirsch and the student-driven curriculum advocated by Alfie Kohn;  each of these views have roots in a discussion that began in the 1920s with William C. Bagley and William Heard Kilpatrick of Teachers College at Columbia University.

 

My question to the members of the MPS Board of Education in spring 2016 was:

 

“Given the description that I just gave you of the views expressed in Hirsch’s 1996 The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them  and Alfie Kohn’s 1999 The Schools Our Children Deserve, do you favor Hirsch’s knowledge-intensive established curriculum or Kohn’s open-ended, student and teacher driven curriculum?”

 

Board members were tongue-tied and tried to have it both ways, articulating their views no better when I maintained that for clarity they had to favor one of these views over the other, because Hirsch and Kohn would agree that these approaches result in very different curriculum and pedagogy. 

 

Jenny Arneson was as inept as the others in articulating any philosophy of education.  She does not to this day reveal any coherent philosophy of education, a telling observation regarding a board member who is now in the midst of her ninth year on the MPS Board of Education.

 

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Arneson should resign for having not developed an internally consistent philosophy of education in nearly a decade of board membership.

 

Two recent statements further obligate her to resign:

 

>>>>>    Eight months ago Jenny Arneson noted, as part of her final report at a meeting of the MPS Board of Education (of the sort with which board members conclude each of their meetings) that her son had been accepted by his first choice for college attendance, Grinnell College in Iowa.  She then opined that “This proves that every student at MPS is College and Career Ready.”

 

That statement was astonishingly stupid, given that fewer than thirty percent (30%) of students on Free and Reduced Price Lunch and those of several ethnicities who tend to fall in the Free/Reduced category are not proficient in mathematics, reading, or science;  and that one-third (33%) of MPS students who matriculate on college and university campuses need remedial courses.

 

>>>>>    At the Committee of the Whole meeting of Tuesday, 22 October, Arneson  conveyed the essence of a conversation that she had had with a student who liked the idea of ethnic studies courses offered as alternatives to a United States history course, because the high school course is just a repetition of what students learned in a course focused on the same subject in grade seven.  Arneson accepted the student’s view uncritically, thereby revealing appalling ignorance for a graduate of St. Olaf College, albeit in the academically undemanding field of social work.

 

The pertinent truth is two-fold  >>>>>

 

1)  The grade 7 course is typically taught via videos and through packets that students fill out in the absence of teacher-imparted information or comment and without class discussion.  And unless students take Advanced Placement (AP) United States history in high school, the mode of teacher disinterested, unengaging instruction evident at grade 7 abides also in the high school course---  and lamentably even in some AP courses, taught as they often are by knowledge-deficient teachers.  

 

2)  Limiting the number of United States history or any other courses in core subject areas should be determined only as a practical matter, since the number of such courses would be multiple if the amount of information to be conveyed were the determinant.

 

Perpend:

 

>>>>>    Various American Indian groups, tending toward one hundred (100) in number, upon arrival of Columbus and subsequent Europeans---

 

>>>>>    Impact of American Indians and Europeans on each other---

 

>>>>>    the different ruling styles of Spaniard, Portuguese, French, and British imperialists---

 

>>>>>    pre-slavery organization of agricultural labor---

 

>>>>>    reasons for the economic appeal of slave as opposed to indentured labor---

 

>>>>>    exact functioning of the slave trade, from the sale by Ashanti and Dahomey kingdoms of African human commodities to the Portuguese, French, Dutch, and eventually mainly the British shippers and traders---

 

>>>>>    everyday slave resistance and occasional rebellions---

 

>>>>>    Loyalists versus Rebels in the run-up to the American Revolution;  the tough, extremely constrained options for African Americans in assessing potential for manumission via participation---

 

Now consider that I have not even arrived at the precipitating events and fighting of the American Revolution, the American Constitutional Convention, the replacement of the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution,  or the first decade (1790s) of the new republic---  nor to the little matter of the two complete centuries (19^th and 20^th) that by definition reveal the bulk of events in the history of the United States.

 

Thus, Arneson’s comments regarding the repetition involved in two courses of United States history is appallingly stupid because

 

 >>>>>   the problem is not repetition but rather that students learn nothing of great substance in either course because of the approach to curriculum and pedagogy;

 

and

 

>>>>>    on the basis of amount of information important for conveyance, even multiple courses could not impart all that there is to learn concerning American and United States history---  so that the decision as to how many courses to offer is a matter of temporal practicality:  Repetition except as a matter of review as foundation for new learning is a matter of teacher inadequacy, not intrinsic to the abundant knowledge sets for mastery of American and United States history.

 

…………………………………………………………………………………….

 

For reasons that I will detail in looming articles, all of the current membership of the MPS Board of Education should resign.

 

For lack of a coherent philosophy of education after nine years on the board, and for the two starkly stupid comments tendered by her as given above, Jenny Arneson should lead the others out the door.

 

>>>>>    Jenny Arneson should resign immediately from the MPS Board of Education.

Reflections on MPS Board of Education Corruption and Superintendent Ed Graff’s Academic Inadequacy As Revealed in March 2019

My abiding question regarding the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education at this point, with the advanced draft of my book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect, complete and ready for circulation, is what mix of corruption, denial, and ignorance describes the members of the board.  As noted in my article on the Committee of the Whole Meeting of Tuesday, 22 October, District 1 (Northeast Minneapolis) board member Jenny Arneson revealed terrible ignorance in her comments on courses pertinent to United States history;  and At-Large member Kim Ellison demonstrated similar cluelessness regarding alternative schools as models for the Minneapolis Public Schools.     

 

So ignorance abides and, given the strong ties that each member of this board has to the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, this unfortunate assemblage of representatives definitely is also in denial, especially as to the terrible quality of teaching in the district.

 

But the MPS Board of Education is also corrupt:

 

Chair Nelson Inz and most other members of the board do anything they can to prevent meaningful discussion.  The protocol that Inz reads before every phase of the monthly meeting given for Public Comment was crafted by former At-large member Rebecca Gagnon (ousted in the election of November 2018) and Superintendent Ed Graff to prevent my telling the abominable facts concerning the performance and stances of numerous Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway) officials and board members.  Given my venues for expression of opinion provided by my new book, my blog, my television show, my academic journal, and my many public appearances and circulation in the community, this pitiful attempt to impede my message can never work.

 

But at the March meeting, Chair Inz and Assistant Chair Kim Caprini did everything they could to make the protocol prevail.  At greatest stake that evening was a board vote on a new contract for Graff, so that this was a logical topic of concern for anyone speaking at Public Comments.  But the wording of the protocol prohibits mentioning of individual names, reference to specific job positions, or issues related to employees;  further, the interpretation given to this wording is broadly applied in an attempt to block any criticism of people who are not doing their jobs.  Impeding such truth-telling was the purpose of Gagnon and Graff in devising this shabby piece of ill-written verbiage.

 

Thus, as I began in my Public Comments to recount Ed Graff’s lack of substantive academic credentials with specific reference to his online masters of educational administration degree received from the low-tier University of Southern Mississippi, Caprini leaned over to Inz and advocated citing my comments as delving into employee relations.  I just smiled, referred to my blog coverage of the issue, noted the corruption of Caprini and Inz, and then made my essential recommendation that Graff not be given another contract. 

 

My point was made.

 

People could read the full text of my comments on my blog.

 

There is nothing, given my multiple venues, that this dissembling and corrupt board can ever do to prevent my message from going forth. 

 

Other speakers that evening were more impeded than I by Inz’s attempt to protect Graff from candid opposition;  yet these other speakers, too, did clearly state their opposition to anther contract being tendered to Graff.

 

KerryJo Felder was absent that evening;  the vote went 8-0 in favor of granting Graff a new contract.  In voting this way and in their many other moves revealing their dishonesty, denial, and ignorance, this board is positioned to take a tumble, along with the many Davis Center offenders at the Minneapolis Public Schools.  And, though Graff is now a few months into his new position, he will also depart the Davis Center under the tremendous pressure that will be mounted for his removal in the course of the next few months.

 

For the benefit of my readers I now present the insubstantial nature of the master’s degree that Graff maneuvered to obtain in the online University of Southern Mississippi program.  Readers should also scroll on down to the abstract of the similarly flimsy dissertation that new Department of Teaching and Learning Executive Director Aimee Fearing wrote for her insubstantial and low-status doctorate from Hamline University, one of the three major degree mills for teachers and education administrators in the Twin Cities.

 

Now, regarding the Graff degree,  

 

perpend  >>>>>

 

Overview

---

The Master of Education in Educational Administration and Supervision prepares graduates for P-12 school leadership. The program is a fully online cohort model, with new cohorts beginning each fall semester.  Each cohort can accommodate only a limited number of students; therefore, prospective students are encouraged to apply as early as possible.


Students enrolled in this program will be required to complete an administrative internship over three semesters, beginning in the second semester of the program. As part of the internship experience, students will be required to identify a primary and a secondary mentor (Principal or Assistant Principal) who will agree to supervise the student during the internship and evaluate the student's performance at its conclusion.


This program of study meets Mississippi's state standards for advanced licensure. Students who intend to seek licensure in another state should verify that this program of study meets the desired state's licensure requirements. For assistance with out-of-state licensure questions, please complete the Professional Licensure Form.

Admission Requirements

---

In addition to the requirements detailed in Admission Requirements and Procedures , applicants must meet the following requirements and submit the following documents:

1. Official GRE scores or other acceptable standardized graduate-level exam scores
2. Statement of Purpose - In a letter or essay format, describe your professional experiences and goals and how obtaining this degree will help you to realize those goals.
3. CV/Résumé
4. Copy of current educator license (with at least three years of teaching experience) 
5. Three Letters of Recommendation

This program admits new students each fall term. Members of underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

Program Requirements and Academic Policies

---

See General Degree Requirements  and General Academic Information .

Course Requirements (34 hours)

---

• EDA 602 - Foundations of School Leadership 3 hrs.
• EDA 603 - Leading Diverse School Populations 3 hrs.
• EDA 604 - Intro to Leadership for Organizational Effectiveness 3 hrs.
• EDA 605 - Intro to Instructional Leadership 3 hrs.
• EDA 606 - Advanced Leadership for Organizational Effectiveness 3 hrs.
• EDA 607 - Advanced Instructional Leadership 3 hrs.
• EDA 608 - Socio-Political Issues and Educational Leadership 3 hrs.
• EDA 609 - Transformational Leadership 3 hrs.
• EDA 636 - Administrative Internship 1-12 hrs. (7 hrs. required)
• EDA 661 - Practitioner as P-12 Researcher 3 hrs.

Low Level of Academic Accomplishment Revealed in MPS Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Aimee Fearing’s Ed. D. Dissertation

For many decades now, those on college and university campuses who aspire to become administrators must have received a Ph. D., by definition in an academic field.  The Educational Doctorate (Ed. D.) is regarded as a professional certification lacking in academic focus and carries none of the status of the Ph. D.  Thus, those holding the Ed. D. are not considered for administrative positions, because they would not be regarded by their colleagues as fellow scholars.

 

Those who do pursue an Ed. D. do so with the aspiration of rising in the strange world of the preK-12 public education establishment.  They seek to be education professors or public school administrators.   Their acquisition of the Ed. D. does nothing to further the academic achievements of students, because those holding the Ed. D. have little knowledge of those academic subjects that matter most:  mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, history, government, economics, literature, visual arts, musical arts, technological arts, and the broad array of vocational arts.

 

Those who write dissertations for the Ed. D. do so as an obscure, vacuous exercise for personal ascendance in the public education bureaucracy.

 

This is the case for new Minneapolis Public Schools Department of Teaching and Learning Executive Director Aimee Fearing, who matriculated at a low-tier religious institution---  University of Northwestern (in St.  Paul---  by no means the fine Northwestern University in Evansville, Illinois [Chicago area]) to acquire a bachelor’s degree in English as a Second Language (ESL) and then received flimsy master’s and doctoral degrees in education from Hamline University.

 

None of such bureaucratic maneuvering does our students any good.  The typicality of the Fearing profile for public school administrators resides as one of the major factors that engender the low quality of academics in locally centralized school districts.

 

Consider the following abstract of Aimee Fearing’s dissertation for an understanding of why our children are under such lamentably low quality administration in the Minneapolis Public Schools:  

 

The Role And Impact Of Reflective Practice On Education Doctorate Alumni’s Professional Practice

Author

Aimee Young Fearing, Hamline UniversityFollow

Term

Spring 4-30-2015

Capstone

Dissertation

Degree Name

EdD

Primary Advisor/Dissertation Chair

Barbara Swanson

Secondary Advisor/Reader One

Laurel Walsh

Peer-Reviewer/Reader Two

Kimberly Byrd

Abstract

Reflective practice in its most complex form can most impact one’s professional practice. A mixed-method research design, including the use of survey and interview, was used to address research questions of how do alumni of a specific Education doctorate Degree (EdD) program describe the impact of reflective practice in their professional work, and how do they describe reflective practice as it relates to their experience in the EdD program. Findings from survey and interview indicated reflective practice is highly valued yet challenging among EdD cohort alumni in professional practice. Additionally, participants felt empowered within and beyond their professional practice to incorporate equity and social justice in their personal lives. Findings varied regarding the implications of reflective practice based solely on EdD cohort membership. Implications for teachers include incorporating reflective practice the best they can within the systems in which they work and should seek and define equity within their classrooms as indicated in the literature as being a catalyst for critical reflection and transformation. Leaders should reflect-for-future in order to be a change agent of structures and systems. Educational leaders in this study felt empowered to change, personally and professionally, in order to make a greater impact. A foundation of a cohort is based on opportunities for relationships within the academic culture. Reflective practice can be implemented through activities that engage members in dialogue and challenging situations. Recommendations for further research include the impact of reflective practice on scholarly research and writing, relationship between reflective practice and various roles of educational leaders and impact of personalities and level of reflective practice in a cohort.

Keywords

Community Building, Reflective Practice, Staff Development, Teachers/ Teaching

Recommended Citation

Fearing, Aimee Young, "The Role And Impact Of Reflective Practice On Education Doctorate Alumni’s Professional Practice" (2015). School of Education Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations. 115.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_all/115

Irony, Deceit, and Ignorance Abide at 22 October Meeting of the MPS Committee of the Whole in Demonstration of Massive Academic Division and Board of Education Incompetence

Last evening (Tuesday, 22 October 2019) at 6:45 PM I was working with a student of mine in the Tuesday program of the New Salem Educational Initiative, a grade 6 student who could be attending the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) but, exercising an option similar to those decisions made by so many others, is attending Harvest Preparatory Academy.  She had high-quality mathematics homework focused on order of operations;  she needed a few guiding comments from me but ultimately used the PEMDAS code with pre-algebraic alacrity that escapes most students who come to me from the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

Reluctantly but dutifully, I asked one of my tutors to take my place with this student and dragged myself over to the meeting of the MPS Board of Education Committee of the Whole, at which Chief of Research, Evaluation, and Accountability Eric Moore gave his annual report of dismal academic results at the Minneapolis Public Schools.  So sloppily was the draft for “Committee of the Whole Academic Report” proofread that the identifying day of the week and date were given as Thursday, October 22, 2019---  the correct date but missing the day of the week by two.

 

The document is a part fact, part propaganda rendering of the current academic morass of the district and what purports to be the solution.  The solution focuses on Superintendent Ed Graff’s four-point program of Social and Emotional Learning, Multi-Tiered System of Support, Literacy,  and Equity---  which is not sufficient to address the grave knowledge and skill deficits of the students of the Minneapolis Public Schools.  There is a vow to carry forth with intensive Professional Development work, with great emphasis on cultural competence and differentiation according to student need, in the context of the four-point program.  But cultural competence is a hard trait to teach, and as deficient in such as are the teachers of the Minneapolis Public Schools, their even greater deficiency is in the knowledge and skill with which they themselves emerge from woeful teacher training programs.

 

The document is replete with yet another round of deceitful vows, fronted by a “Call to Uncommon Courage,” followed by a quotation from T. S. Eliot: 

 

Only those who will risk going too far

can possibly find how far they can go.

 

The claim of courage and risk-taking propensity from the moral cowards leading the Minneapolis Public Schools is tragi-comic:

 

Actual moral courage would find academicians and board members committing themselves to knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curricular overhaul and teacher training that would find preK-5 (elementary) students actually studying history, natural science, fine arts, and quality literature;  completely reworking the current grade 6-8 curriculum to extend knowledge of those subjects and provide language and vocational training options;  and proceeding in logical sequence to a transformed high school (grades 9-12) curriculum that would now offer academic and vocational options reminiscent of the first two years at colleges and universities.

 

But the courage and ability to design and implement knowledge-intensive curriculum at the Minneapolis Public Schools is lacking:

 

There are no academicians at the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway):

 

Superintendent Ed Graff is an able slimmer of the central office bureaucracy and custodian of finances.

 

But

 

>>>>>    Graff is an academic lightweight who has topped out with an online masters of education administration degree from low-tier University of Southern Mississippi. 

 

>>>>>    New Department of Teaching and Learning Executive Director Aimee Fearing’s degrees are in education programs;  she has no expertise in any specific academic field.  Staff at the Department of Teaching and Learning also are devoid of qualifications as scholars.

 

>>>>>    Eric Moore is well-trained in data collection and assessment but has been unsuccessful as an academic decision-maker.

 

Thus, what the Committee of the Whole (COW) Academic Data Report offers as the new “Academic Plan” for the Minneapolis Public Schools relies heavily on generalities from the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), World’s Best Workforce (WBWF) Minnesota legislative regulations, Graff’s four-point program, and values expressed by the MPS Board of Education that have been incorporated into the MPS Comprehensive District Design (the latter still in formulation pending further public vetting).    

 

But, in order,

 

>>>>>    staff at the Minneapolis Public Schools do not grasp the meaning of the ESSA definition of a well-rounded education and have no ability to provide such if they did; 

 

>>>>>    enforcement of WBWF falls to the hapless staff at the Minnesota Department of Education and that department’s understaffed, comically named Regional Centers of Excellence; 

 

>>>>>    Graff’s program is inefficacious in the extreme;  and

 

>>>>>    the academic program portion of the most current draft of the MPS Comprehensive District Design presents the same jargon-infested proclamations pervading the COW Academic Data Report.

 

……………………………………………………………………………………………

 

There is an abiding assumption in the new academic plan that once cultural relevance in coursework is attained, African American, Hispanic, Hmong, American Indian, and Somali students will be on their way to better performance;  and that enhanced social and emotional sensitivity will promote those relationships among teachers and students conducive to effective delivery of culturally relevant curriculum.

 

Two comments by MPS Board of Education members exposed the problematic nature of reliance on such assumptions:

 

>>>>>    District 1 (Northeast Minneapolis) representative Jenny Arneson cited a conversation that she had had with a student who advocated for ethnic studies courses over a reported rehash of United States history already taken in grade seven.  But MPS students learn very little United States history unless they take Advanced Placement courses in high school;  whether at grade 7 or at high school, given the propensity of teachers to rely on worksheet packets and videos in the absence of class discussion and teacher-imparted knowledge sets leaves students devoid of historical knowledge.  Arneson’s assumption that a high school student is repeating at the high school level what has already been learned at grade 7 is possibly rooted in denial or dishonesty but most likely is grounded in her failure to understand classroom teacher incompetence, despite Arneson’s children having matriculated in the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

>>>>>    At-large representative Kim Ellison cited her experience as a teacher at the alternative school of Plymouth Youth Center (PYC) (formerly Plymouth Christian Youth Center [PCYC]) as a model for the Minneapolis Public Schools.  She cited success in teacher-student relationship building but failed to mention that fewer than twenty percent (20) of students at PYC now or when she was a teacher at that institution demonstrate or demonstrated grade level academic ability.

 

……………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Two moments must suffice for any evidence of discernment at the woeful affair that was the COW meeting on Tuesday 22 October.

 

>>>>>    Student Representative Janaan Ahmed commented that she is a keen advocate for ethnic studies but wanted to see a more complete version of history conveyed in mainline United States and world history courses, rather than for the curriculum to rely on ethnic studies courses in high school to impart the pertinent information.

 

>>>>>    At-large representative Josh Pauly noted the Eliot quote, said that we have heard vows courageously to forge our way to better academic results before, but wondered what is really in the new plan to give us hope.

 

To the Pauly comment, Fearing and Moore gave the usual jargon-infested double-talk that confirmed Pauly’s skepticism rather than answered his question.

 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Massive incompetence characterizes academic decision-makers and board members of the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

As we endeavor to overhaul curriculum and train teachers of excellence in the courageous steps actually needed for the achievement of academic excellence, we must show these prevaricating, ignorant actors their way out the Davis Center door.  

Phenomenon of MPS Academic Decision-Maker Incompetence Parallels the Southern Police State and the Historical Abuse of Women

From the early-mid 17^th century, the southern realms of what became the United States constituted a police state for African Americans.  The police state prevailed under changing jurisdictional authority, through stages of colonial control, the government-plantation complex maintaining slavery through 1865, and the Jim Crow system prevailing through 1965.

 

For a much longer period of time, patriarchal systems throughout the world kept women in subjugation.  In the United States, women gained suffrage in 1920 but awaited legislation of the late 1960s to forge a way to equity, and only now give evidence of seizing the opportunities along less obstructed paths.  Subjugation of women too often included sexual abuse that lamentably included the acquiescence of women themselves until a few spoke and quite a few others whispered or proclaimed, “Me too.”

 

Injustice quite often occurs in the open, under a glaring metaphorical sun that begs, “Speak the Truth,” until someone does, someone such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett, A. Philip Randolph, or Gloria Steinhem.  Then once the Truth is proclaimed, those crouching in the shadows emerge to verify the assertions of those speaking Truth to authority.  Then often those perpetrators, who had survived on the basis of unspoken Truth, tumble as their protective edifices crumble and a new order appears on the landscape, sometimes sooner, at others later but, whatever the time frame, ineluctably.

 

And so it will be with those who for decades have made such incompetent decisions regarding academics, the core function of the locally centralized school district.  At the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), matters other than academics have been much better attended.  There was a financial mess until brilliant Chief Financial Officer Ibrahima Diop cleaned it up, but he and his extraordinarily talented staff have done so.  Technology was not well-used before immensely skilled Fadi Fadhil took the Chief Information Officer post, but his Source and Pulse initiatives are superior in potential if only academic decision-makers and teachers have the wit to realize that the promise of technology is not realized by merely parking a youth in front of a computer.

 

The Truth in the shabby case of the Minneapolis Public Schools that has not been told is the stark incompetence of academic decision-makers, namely

 

Superintendent Ed Graff; 

 

Deputy Chief of Academics Cecilia Saddler (who recently made her way out the Davis Center [MPS central office] door);

 

Associate Superintendents Carla Steinbach-Huther (also as of recent happenstance not at her long-ineffective post), Ron Wagner, and Brian Zambreno (a contingent unfortunately now including Shawn Harris-Berry and LaShawn Ray); 

 

Office of Black Male Achievement Director Michael Walker; 

 

and the heads of the Departments of Indian Education and Teaching and Learning, as of this academic year 2019-2020 now respectively occupied by

 

Jennifer Rose Simon

 

and

 

Aimee Fearing.

 

For years those at MPS posts pertinent to finance, technology, and operations must have wondered why they were so good at what they do but nothing ever seemed to change or improve involving or emanating from the academic division.  And the answer that long awaited revelation has been clear to anyone knowing the system that produces such incompetence but demurred in uttering the words.

 

Thus, now know that in my none-demurring formulation the words are as follows  >>>>>

 

Academic decision-makers, Minneapolis Federation of Teacher (MFT) staff, and rank and file teachers are trained by those lamentable campus presences known as education professors;  thus, given the ideological corruption and intellectual vacuity of those figures, incompetence among the core functionaries in an organization that should thrive on academics is predictable.

 

And now that failure shall be known.

 

The reality of injustice perpetrated by academic decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools is just as stark as the southern police state and the patriarchal system.

 

As did those situated on the historical parallel, academic MPS decision-makers will resist change---

 

but eventually they shall be swept away as systemic detritus extirpated by the PreK-12 Revolution.