The appointment of a commissioner of
education in Minnesota is highly political, with the selection occurring at the
behest of the governor. With one
exception in recent memory, Republican appointees tend to be less
activist; they have no ties to Education
Minnesota, the state teachers union, so they are not tainted by that
association, but inasmuch as Republicans lean toward local control, nothing in
the way of very assertive policy typically occurs during Republic administrations. By contrast Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL)
administrations are heavily beholden to Education Minnesota as a key supportive
lobby and campaign funder and enact policy consonant with teacher union
positions.
A major exception to the rule of
Republican passivity on education policy came durng the TimPawlenty
administration(2002-2010), the first part of which his commissioner of
education was Cheri Pierson Yecke. These
were the days in which No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was launched, Minnesota
State Standards were written, and the Minneapolis Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs)
were formulated. The standards and the
assessments were in accord with NCLB strictures; for the next half-decade, a harsh light shone
on locally centralized school districts as disaggregated data indicated massive
failure on the part of districts throughout the state to impart even basic
skills in reading, mathematics, and science to students, especially those on
free and reduced price lunch and bearing the burden of historical abuse.
As forces of both the political left
and right went to work to terminate NCLB, pressures mounted on Yecke and forced
her exit. In 2016, the Every Student
Succeed Act (ESSA) replaced NCLB; by
this time, Mark Dayton’s administration (2010-2018) that included education
commissioner Brenda Cassellius had been in office for six years and seized on
waiver opportunities offered by the Obama admistration to undo much of what had
been put in place under No Child Left Behind.
A waiver produced a Multiple Measurement Rating System (MMRS) that
relegated the MCAs to just one of a number of other measures (including
graduation rates and incremental academic improvement) used to judge school
performance. Then within the last two
years of the Dayton-Cassellius administration, the Minnesota Department of
Education announced its new North Star Accountability System.
During the Dayton Cassellius years,
the MCAs continued, fulfilling the continuing mandate under ESSA that objective
assessment be part of school accountability.
But the 9th grade writing test was eliminated and academic
proficiency as indicated by the 10th grade reading and 11th
grade mathematics MCAs students was no loner a requirement for graduation. This created a climate in which the MCAs as
assessment tools were vitiated and the opt-out movement could ensue. The anti-assessment advocates in Education Minnesota and local
affiliates such as the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers had had their way.
The advent of the North Star
Accountability System (NSAS) serves as
an example of the cynicism and corruption that invests the Minnesota Department
of Education.
Please review my objective
presentation of this system in Part One, Facts, then consider the following
comments and experiences I had with officials who are perpetrating this ruse on
the students of Minnesota.
At 6:00 PM on Monday, 24
September, in Conference Center B at the Minnesota Department of Education,
Brenda Cassellius’s aide Michael Diedrich went and got the nearest security
guard after I raised tough questions and the meeting that he and other
presenters tried to control in the manner of people in public positions
attempting to defend the indefensible.
I
waited through two prior question and answer sessions as the presenters went
through three phases in an effort to explain the new North Star Accountability
System (described in full as you scroll down through previous recent entries on
this blog). This is the system of
purported accountability now being foisted on the public in the latest failed
proclamation hailing a program that nevertheless has no chance of raising
academic performance of Minnesota students.
Of
the approximately 2,000 schools in Minnesota, 485 of them have failed to
demonstrate acceptable performance along
several indicators: graduation rates,
attendance, academic progress for English learners, general academic progress,
and proficiency as demonstrated on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments
(MCAs). Note that the latter indicator,
which is the only measure that reveals the actual proficiency levels of
students in a given academic year, now is a mere inclusion in an array of
indicators. Much mention was made at the
meeting of reference to how schools now have multiple ways of demonstrating
that they are making progress; the
matter of academic performance is not clearly in focus, as was the case during
2002-2016 before Congressional jettisoning of No Child Left Behind and the
passage of the new Every Student Succeeds Act.
The Every Student Succeeds Act and the North Star Accountability System
designed by staff at the Minnesota Department of Education allow for
considerable more wiggle room for failing schools to claim some level of
success:
Perpend,
on the latter matter: One MDE
presenter gave his approval to a case in which a school has done particularly
good job of cleaning up around and plugging bullet holes; this could be a case of what MDE staff is
touting as “Quick Wins, complete with categorical capitals. I (Gary Marvin Davison) kid you not. And some members in the audience comprised
heavily of people from Minnesota Public Schools systems gave verbal expressions
of approval. I kid you not on that, as
well.
After
the meeting had transpired through three presentations and the clock indicated
that we had rolled past the hour point in the meeting, with less than thirty
minutes to go (even though the meeting was announced as providing two hours for
presentations and discussion), I raised the following question, with introductory
comments as follows:
“There
are to be six Regional Centers of Excellence, staffed with a total of 45
members, so that each center will have seven or eight people providing
assistance.”
“That’s
about right,” the presenter responded.
I
continued: “Back in the late 1990s and
very early 2000s in the time of the Minnesota Basic Skills Test, the school
systems of Minnesota demonstrated that they could not even educate an
acceptable percentage of students at a grade 8 level. Then we had No Child Left Be hind and more
embarrassing academic results, at that time with the MCAS; No Child Left Behind was attacked by the
left (Education Minnesota, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, DFL) and right
(when the right figured out, ‘Oh, yeah, these are central government
mandates’), so that we then had the Multiple Measurement Rating System, the
Every Student Succeeds Act and with it the current North Star Accountability
System.
“My
question to you, then, is: Do you at the
Minnesota Department of Education live in a fantasy world, or are you knowingly
perpetrating this hoax on the students of Minnesota?”
The
presenter stammered that answering that question would take a lot of unpacking.
I
said, “Sure would. Go ahead and unpack
it.”
“Not
now,” he said.
And
I then responded, “Well then, would you meet me in a public debate”?
“No,
I wouldn’t,” he said.
“Of
course, you wouldn’t,” I asserted, “because you don’t have the ability.”
Members
of the audience, all of those retorting representing either Minnesota school
districts or the MDE, then began to issue rejoinders to me. That was great. I wanted to rouse this audience of automatons
and dissemblers to life. Voices got
loud, including my own. I challenged two
to more MDE members and one school district representative to a refereed public
debate, with of course no takers from people of this ilk, caught in the act of attempting to defend the
indefensible.
As
voices rose, one of the previous presenters came to the fore and threatened to
calla security guard.
“And
on what basis would you do that,” I asked.
“Disturbing
our meeting,” came the reply.
As
Michael Diedrich hastened out of the room to summons the nearest security
guard, I just laughed.
As
the last presenter made one more lame presentation, Diedrich returned with the
security guard as both remained at the back of the room (I was sitting righ up
front). The presenter concluded, called
for questions, there were no takers, and the meeting was over.
I
rose slowly but was the first to stride up the aisle. I expected a few people to meet me in the
eye, of mostly with mean eyes, given the dominant composition of the crowd
representing the state department and the school districts culpable for the
academic results that have no more than sixty percent (60%) of our students
reading and performing mathematical tasks with grade level proficiency. But now a single person met my eyes.
I
continued my trip up the aisle, staring a hole in Michael Diedrich’s
prevaricating countenance.
But
In turned amiably to the security guard and said, “Hey, good to see you, man.”
“Uh-huh,”
he mumbled as he shook my proffered hand.
I
strode out the door smiling at the stupidity that I had witnessed on the part
of the audience at this charade of a meeting.
But
I had three attending thoughts as I strode to my Toyota Matrix and drove home.
With
regard to public and official attitudes about K-12 education; people variously
>>>>> are dimwitted on the issues;
>>>>> are dissembling officials or their
sycophants; or
>>>>> they just don’t care.
………………………………………………………………………….
The chief initiative on which
the success of the North Star Accountability depends is a cooperative
arrangement with six Regional Centers of Excellence (RCE), located in
Rochester, Marshal, Sartell, Thief Rive Falls, Mountain Iron, and Fergus
Falls; additionally, the Minneapolis
Public Schools and St. Paul Public Schools act as their own RCEs, purportedly
in consultation with and the support of MDE staff. In all, the sites have only 45 staff members,
meaning only seven or eight staff members per RCE.
This all a massive gambit.
Here is an introduction to the
RCEs in the words of staff at MDE, from the department’s website:
Minnesota’s
Regional Centers of Excellence (RCE) deliver a wealth of support and services straight to
schools -- and it’s working. Centers are staffed by specialists with a full
range of expertise, including math, reading, special education,
English language development, equity, graduation support, implementation,
data analysis, school leadership and district support.
For districts or charters with schools identified under the accountability system, the RCEs provide on-the-ground assistance to create the capacity and conditions that support change and continuous improvement. The Centers partner with leadership teams to facilitate school improvement efforts focused on equity for underserved student groups.
Once designated, comprehensive
support and improvement (CSI) and targeted support and improvement (TSI)
schools must conduct a needs assessment, build and strengthen leadership
teams, and develop school improvement plans, but they don’t have to go it alone. The schools can get help from
Minnesota’s Regional Centers of Excellence. In addition to content expertise,
center specialists offer an outside perspective on schools’ efforts to increase
student outcomes.
In 2015, the Regional Centers of Excellence were named one of Harvard Ash Center’s Top 25 Innovations in Government.
In attempt to sell the
putative Regional Centers of Excellence to the public, the Minnesota Department
of Education (MDE) has posted feel-good features of certain staff at RCE sites.
One of the chief mantras
of education professors and the education establishment with which they infect their
vacuous notions is that of “critical thinking,” of which they do so little but
that they use as a smokescreen behind which they hide while the teachers whom
they produce know so little and provide such scant knowledge and skill sets to
the students of Minnesota.
Catch these charlatans at
their own game by critically examining these words of introduction to and then
about staff members at the purported Regional Centers of Excellence:
Meet the Regional Centers of Excellence Team
August 20, 2018
The Regional Centers of Excellence (RCEs) work in conjunction with the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) to help schools make long-lasting improvements to student learning, providing hands-on support to help guarantee that every student has the opportunity to reach his or her full potential. The RCEs are made up a team of education specialists, called advocates, who travel across the state to help guide schools and districts through the process of identifying needs, creating an action plan, and implementing changes to improve student outcomes. RCE school advocates specialize in the areas of literacy, equity, math, special education, English language development, high school graduation, and principal and district support.
The most important resource advocates bring districts is active implementation, a systems-based approach that links all of a system’s moving parts and builds a process that creates a way to sustain the good work being done by schools. Advocates do a lot for their schools and bring their unique backgrounds and expertise to each unique situation and challenge. Let’s meet three of them!
Meet three RCE team members who work every day to make a positive difference in our schools!
Sarah Sirna
School Advocate
Central Lakes Regional Center of Excellence at Resource Training and Solutions, Sartell, Minnesota
“I have had the pleasure of working on the Central Lakes team for five years, and in that time, have served as an English language development specialist, equity specialist, and am currently in the position of literacy and equity specialist. Before joining the centers, I was a high school English and reading teacher, literacy specialist, English learner coordinator, and data/professional learning communities (PLCs) coach.
The best part about this job is that district and school needs are so different. I start the process of identifying needs by listening to stories from staff and students. I use these narratives to guide leadership teams to make sense of their state and local data. We create a school improvement plan; then, I coach them to monitor the change process and build their skills to implement new teaching practices. Most days, I discuss plans to implement evidence-based practices (EBPs) with administration and build leadership teams. I model the use of an active implementation process to problem-solve challenges that arise.
The greatest reward of working with the Regional Centers of Excellence is that this work sits at the intersection of personal and professional for me. I actively work to ensure equity and inclusion in the communities I live and serve. At its best, the work of the centers positions educators and leaders to use their experience, expertise and research to collectively create equitable learning environments for students, staff and families. My best days are spent with leadership teams using active implementation to problem-solve what seem to be insurmountable challenges. I finish these days humbled by my colleagues and energized for the possibilities of what could be. I continue to work for the centers because I believe in Commissioner Cassellius’ message that Minnesota has the strongest, most knowledgeable educators; it is through supporting the change in their practice that our students flourish.”
Connie Clark
School Advocate and Special Education Specialist
Northern Sky Regional Center of Excellence, Northwest Service Cooperative, Thief River Falls, Minnesota
“In 36 years of teaching middle and high schools students receiving services through special education, I never sat at the table with a family member who didn’t have hopes and dreams for their child for safe and successful social and academic experiences. I learned through that lived experience there are many frames of reference for success and just as many pathways to achieving that success. In 2012, I got a phone call from a friend, asking if I was really going to retire or would consider applying for a position with a new project evolving out of Minnesota’s No Child Left Behind Waiver. Guess how I answered that question.
I am beginning my seventh year as a school advocate with a focus on special education. As an advocate, I am on-the-ground assistance for district and school leadership teams on their continuous improvement journey. A day in my life varies greatly. Many of my days are spent on the road traveling to meet with district and school leadership teams, or teachers and students in classrooms. Some days are spent in my office preparing for work in schools. Office days also include attending MDE webinars, meeting virtually with team members, conducting phone calls with school leaders and RCE team members, and documenting work for reporting purposes. Our six RCE teams meet quarterly at MDE to learn from each other and build our capacity to coach equitable outcomes for all students.
My ‘go to’ strategies are asking questions and listening, whether I’m working as a school improvement generalist or a special education specialist. This work is about relationships, beliefs and intentional systems processes. In my partnership with schools, I offer evidence-based resources and tools from the RCEs and MDE collaborative work to support technical and adaptive needs. We know that technical supports without adaptive shifts in thinking will not yield improved outcomes for all students. For example, creating leadership implementation teams, building high-quality data visualizations, or selecting EBPs, without digging into beliefs, attitudes and dispositions, will not result in improved outcomes for all students.
Our work as educators at every level is to build and strengthen our systems to welcome every child every day with a focus on their strengths. We are beginning a new, three-year partnership with districts and are in the process of scheduling time to meet leadership, learn about successes and challenges in their systems, build positive working relationships, strive for continuous school improvement with many stakeholders, and plan for next steps.”
Carol A. Swanson
Implementation Specialist and Reading Specialist
Southeast-Metro Regional Center of Excellence, Rochester, Minnesota
“I grew up on a small dairy farm in northwestern Minnesota. I graduated high school and attended Mankato State University (Minnesota State University, Mankato). I then moved to Palm Springs, California, where I taught grades kindergarten, one, two, and three, and earned a master’s degree in reading and language arts, while my two children were born. In 1998, I moved back to southern Minnesota and taught seventh and eighth grade reading and communications for five years before becoming an instructional coach in an elementary school in support of the Minnesota Reading First grant. In 2012, I joined the Regional Centers of Excellence as an implementation specialist and reading specialist. In 2017, I attained my principal licensure through Hamline University. I now live in Owatonna, Minnesota.
As an advocate, I typically work with district staff, school administrators, school leadership teams and individual teachers on school improvement processes to promote an equitable education for all students. I serve as a coach and/or consultant, depending on the needs of the school or district. As a reading specialist, I support schools in literacy-specific, evidence-based practices. I have coached principals, instructional coaches, professional learning communities and individual teachers in literacy instruction. I assist/coach schools in leadership team development, mission/vision processes, PLC development, and evidence-based practice implementation and equity. I support districts and schools to find their areas of strength and elements of concern through a needs assessment process. I coach school staff to analyze their specific data to discover what is working well and discover areas of need. When leadership teams have narrowed their focus to a specific area of need, I assist the staff in choosing the EBP to implement. If the EBP is in literacy, I support the school as a reading specialist to create the implementation and training plan for the EBP. If their area of need is in a different content area, I coordinate and collaborate with other specialists on my team.
The students’, staff’s and school’s needs drive my schedule. At the beginning of a partnership with a school, I collaborate with school leaders to create or refine school leadership teams to focus on school improvement processes. After the school conducts the needs assessment and selects an EBP, I assist the school in the EBP implementation. Implementation planning includes training for staff, a schedule for improvement cycle monitoring, and creating fidelity measures to assure successful implementation. I attend and support the principal and staff in leadership team meetings, PLCs, and individual classrooms. I also collaborate and learn with my RCE and MDE colleagues in professional development on a regular basis.”
Article #4 in a Series
>>>>> The Attempt on the
Part of the Minnesota Department of Education to Mask Failure with the
Pretensions of the North Star Accountability System and other Public
Deceptions >>>>> World’s Best Workforce as Salient Empty
Jargon from the Minnesota Legislature and the Minnesota Department of Education
During the Mark Dayton/ Brenda Cassellius Tenures
Regional Centers of Excellence
Directors Name and Region Phone Number Email Address
Lowell Haagenson Central Lakes Region Cell: 320-492-9092 lhaagenson@mnce.org Resource Training and Solutions 137 - 23rd Street South Sartell, MN 56377
Tara Lindstrom Northern Pines Region Cell: 218-410-8111 tlindstrom@mnce.org Northeast Service Cooperative 5525 Emerald Avenue Mountain Iron, MN 55768
Becca Neal Northern Sky Region Cell: 218-686-9719 bneal@mnce.org Northwest Service Cooperative 114 - 1st Street West Thief River Falls, MN 56701
Jane Drennan Southeast-Metro Region Cell: 507-696-5572 jdrennan@mnce.org Southeast Service Cooperative 210 Wood Lake Drive Southeast Rochester, MN 55904
Nicole Lydick Southwest Prairie Region Cell: 231-878-1925 nlydick@mnce.org Southwest/West Central Service Cooperative 1420 East College Drive Marshall, MN 56258
Staci Allmaras Western Lakes Region Cell: 218-255-1650 sallmaras@mnce.org Lakes Country Service Cooperative 1001 East Mount Faith Fergus Falls, MN 56537 Minnesota Department of Education - Regional Centers of Excellence Support Name and Region Phone Number Email Address
Toni Cox RCE Program Manager Cell: 218-416-2416 toni.cox@state.mn.us Minnesota Department of Education c/o Northwest Service Cooperative 114 - 1st Street West Thief River Falls, MN 56701
Tyler Livingston Director, Division of School Support Office: 651-582-8427 tyler.livingston@state.mn.us Minnesota Department of Education 1500 Hwy 36 West Roseville, MN 55113
Greg Keith Chief Academic Officer Office: 651-582-8316 greg.keith@state.mn.us Minnesota Department of Education 1500 Hwy 36 West Roseville, MN 55113
These Regional Centers of
Excellence, six in number, with approximately 42 total staff members and
designation of the Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools systems as their own
RCEs, have no capacity to improve education in Minnesota by lifting overall
achievement or addressing the particular injustices perpetrated on students on
free and reduce price lunch or student populations bearing the bruises of
history.
This is a salient example of
the kind of hoax perpetrated decade after decade on the students of Minnesota
by the Minnesota Department of Education.
