Specification of Individuals on the Inept Staff of the Minneapolis Public Schools Department of Teaching and Learning Who are Responsible for Woeful Student Academic Proficiency in Mathematics, Reading, and Science

Because of the meager academic credentials of members of the staff of the Minneapolis Public Schools Department of Teaching and learning, none of these people are scholars of their supposed fields.  All have been ruined as to pedagogical technique for having been ill-trained by academically lightweight and pedagogically incompetent education professors.

 

Below I give proficiency rates as indicated by student performance on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) for academic years ending in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019---  followed by those at the Department of Teaching and Learning who are most responsible for those results;  included among those responsible for reading results are not only reading and language arts staff but also those whose putative field is social studies, since challenging reading material should be well-integrated into all courses, very much including those in history and government    >>>>>

 

>>>>> 

 

Math 

 

MPS Academic Proficiency Rates for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019

 (as indicated by Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment [MCA] results for spring of the given years)

 

Math                     2014       2015       2016      2017      2018         2019    

 

African                  22%       23%          21%        18%       18%          18%

American

 

American             23%        19%           19%       17%        17%         18%

Indian

 

Hispanic               31%         32%          31%       29%        26%         25%

 

Asian                     48%         50%          50%       47%        50%        47%

 

White                   77%         78%          78%       77%        77%         75%

 

Free/                     26%         26%          25%       24%        22%        20%

Reduced

 

All                          44%         44%           44%     42%        42%          42%

 

 

Christopher Wernimont                              

Degrees Conferred         Institution at Which Degree Was Conferred

M.A., Mathematics         University of Minnesota – Twin Cities

B.A., Economics                                                Grinnell College

Licensures:                                                               

Mathematics

 

Erin Clarke, K-8 STEM DPF

B.A., Geology (College of William & Mary)

M.A., Geology (University of Wisconsin)

M.A. Education (Univeristy of Minnesota

 

Jennifer Hanzak, K-5 Math DPF

 

B. A. , Child Psychology (university of Minnesota)

M.A., Education (University of Minnesota)

 

Licensure:

Elementary Education

 

Marium Toure’, K-5 Math DPF                  

M.A., Education                                     St. Mary’s University of Minnesota          

B.S., Education                                        University of Minnesota – Twin Cities

Licensures:

Elementary Education

 

…………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Reading

 

Reading               2014       2015       2016      2017      2018       2019

 

African                  22%       21%         21%      21%       22%           23%

American

 

American             21%        20%         21%      23%        24%               25%

Indian

 

Hispanic               23%         25%          26%       26%        27%      29%

 

Asian                     41%         40%          45%       41%        48%      50%

 

White                   78%         77%          77%       78%        80%       78%

 

Free/                     23%         23%          23%       25%        25%      25%

Reduced

 

All                          42%         42%           43%     43%        45%       47%

 

Julie Tangemann, K-5 Literacy DPF

    K-5 Science DPF

 

M.A., Education  (St. Mary’s University of Minnesota)

B.A., Education   (University of St. Thomas)

Licensures:

Elementary Education

Lisa Purcell, K-12 Social Studies DPF                      

M.A., Education  (University of Utah)

M.A., Education  (Harvard University)

B.S., Social Sciences  (Hope College)

                and History

                                        

Licensures:

 

Social Studies

English as a Second Language

Principal K-12

Meghan Gasdick, K-5 Literacy DPF

 

B.A. Elementary Education (Florida State University)

M. A., Educational Leadership (University of Minnesota)

 

Molly Siebert, K-5 Social Studies DPF

 

B. A., General Studies (University of Wisconsin)

M.A., Education (St. Mary’s of Minnesota)

 

Licensures:

 

Social Studies (5-12)

 

 

Molly Vasich, 6-12 English Language Arts/Reading DPF

B.A., World Languages  (Macalester)

M.A., Education  (University of Minnesota)

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Science

 

Science               2014       2015       2016      2017      2018        2019

 

African                 11%       15%         13%        12%       11%                14%

American

 

American             14%        16%        13%      17%       14%           17%

Indian

 

Hispanic               17%         18%        21%      19%       17%          16%

 

Asian                     31%         35%       42%       38%       37%          40%

 

White                   71%         75%        71%       70%       71%               70%

 

Free/                     14%         15%        17%       16%      15%          14%

Reduced

 

All                          33%        36%        35%        34%      34%                 36%

Christen Lish                     

M.A., Science Education  (University of Minnesota – Twin Cities)

B.S., Education  (University of Minnesota – Twin Cities)

Licensures:

Life Sciences

Earth and Space Science

Science 5-8

Christina Ramsey, K-8 Talent Development and Advanced Academics                  

Education Specialist  (University of St. Thomas)

M.A., Education   (Hamline University)

B.S., Education   (University of Minnesota – Twin Cities)

Licensures:

Pre-Kindergarten

Elementary Education

Principal K-12

 

Erin Clarke, K-8 STEM DPF

B.A., Geology (College of William & Mary)

M.A., Geology (University of Wisconsin)

M.A. Education (Univeristy of Minnesota

 

Jenn Ross, K-12 Science DPF                      

M.A., Science Education                                               University of Iowa

B.S., Biology                                                                       Drake University

Licensures:

Life Sciences

Science 5-8

Consider the Prospect of Lisa Purcell Overseeing the Development of Ethnic Studies Courses--- and Other Education Establishment Fantasies

Remember first that there Is nothing in the new Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Comprehensive District Design that articulates a viable academic program for the district: 

There are errant education professor nods to individualized instruction and culturally responsive curriculum but these references constitute mere jargon that leaves MPS academic academically insubstantial. 

In fact, teachers must be sensitive to the individual life situations of students, with detailed knowledge of cyclical poverty and conditions of life at the urban core, and they must be retrained for the development of knowledge bases that give them understanding of the many cultures from which MPS students come.  But students of all demographic descriptors must be provided the same knowledge- intensive, skill-replete curriculum, with ample opportunity to read challenging quality material and to discuss their readings with classmates and teachers in a whole-class format.

Other than the harmful verbal blather of the MPS Comprehensive District Design, Superintendent Ed Graff continues to rest his hopes on Social and Emotional Learning, Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS), Equity, and Literacy.  The needed curricular overhaul can never be accomplished on the strength of Social and Emotional Learning.  The MTSS program is vague and academically insubstantial.  Literacy should be developed in the context of rigorous reading across all subject areas, and only by offering such curricular opportunity can equity be achieved.  Thus, the emphases of Graff, Interim Senior Academic Officer Aimee Fearing, and the inept staff at MPS Department of Teaching and Learning only underscore the lightweight academic credentials and the fact that not a single decision-maker on matters of academic import knows what she or he is doing.

One of the fantasies of Graff and staff is that ethnic studies can be a major contributor to equity.  Instruction in ethnic studies---  better defined  as courses in history, literature, and the fines arts than as “studies” courses---  at the high school level can only be academically substantial in the context of of strong knowledge sets in United States history, world history, world and ethnic literature, and fine arts of many cultures, developed over the preK-8 years.  Ethnic studies pursued in isolation and without proper context cannot be a bearer of equity.

Then there is the matter of who oversees ethnic studies.  At present, oversight falls to Lisa Purcell, a member of the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning whose academic training is as slight as that of other members of that department’s incompetent staff.

Perpend.:     

Lisa Purcell                        

Degrees Conferred                         Institution at Which Degree Was Conferred

M.A., Education                                               University of Utah

M.A., Education                                               Harvard University

B.S., Social Sciences                                       Hope College

                and History

                                        

Licensures:

 

Social Studies

Discerning, veteran readers of this blog will observe in the above comments and the ethnic studies fantasy under Purcell’s direction the stark incompetence with which the academic decision-making contingent in the Minneapolis Public Schools is rife.  

Do Not Be Distracted by the Ruses of the Education Establishment >>>>> Actual Causes of Educational Inequity in the Minneapolis Public Schools Pertain to Curriculum and Teacher Quality

The actual causes of educational inequity at the Minneapolis Public Schools pertain to curriculum and teacher quality.

 

The Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) have neither knowledge-intensive curriculum nor excellent teachers at the median.

 

Some of the best teaching at MPS actually occurs in preK-grade one classrooms.  Students arrive in grade 2 having very basic reading and mathematical skills.  The key problems accrue not at the early grade levels but from grade 2 forward. 

 

Students from grade 2 forward lack knowledge that they should possess in mathematics, natural science, history, government, economics, literature, English usage, and the fine arts.  They have poor vocabulary development and slim grasp of fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, proportions, and probability necessary to succeed in algebra, geometry, pre-calculus, and calculus courses.  Because of the knowledge-deficient, skill-deplete approach to curriculum and the mediocre teaching in the Minneapolis Public Schools, MPS students do not gain the necessary knowledge and skill base to achieve at a high level on the ACT college readiness exam;  in particular, students from families facing dilemmas of finance and functionality tend to record a score in the 9-14 range, not even reflecting middle school capability.

 

MPS students do not read broadly and deeply across a full liberal arts curriculum.  Students move forward from grade 5 having little knowledge of any subject area.  Curriculum and teaching is not much better in middle school and high school;  only students who take Advanced Placement (AP) courses learn anything of substance, and then only in the off-chance of getting a teacher qualified to impart college preparatory curriculum.

 

There abides in the conversational ether the fallacious notion that early childhood education can be the prime agent of educational equity.  Such a fantasy jibes well with a major contention of Education Minnesota (the state teachers union) and affiliates such as the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), because the assertion deflects blame from the entire preK-12 sequence of knowledge-deficient curriculum and mediocre teaching at the median.     

 

But the actual dilemmas at the Minneapolis Public Schools are those given above as pertaining to curriculum and teacher quality.  The inadequacies of curriculum and teacher quality go unaddressed because of academic decision-makers who are as ill-trained as are teachers and building principals:  Academic decision-makers at the Davis Center (MPS central offices) have all acquired degrees conferred by departments, schools, and colleges of education, where they imbibe the anti-knowledge ideology of education professors and gain little in the way of pedagogical methods or cultural sensitivity for imparting knowledge and skill sets to students of all demographic descriptors. 

 

The absence of knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum falls hardest on students from families facing challenges of finances and functionality, those who tend to be mired in cyclical poverty and limited educational attainment.  The lack of staff comfortable on the streets and in the homes of students facing the dilemmas of life at the urban core exacerbates inequity, as does the lack of a remedial instruction program for students languishing many grades below that of school enrollment.

 

Until current academic decision-makers at the Davis Center are replaced by scholars capable of designing knowledge-intensive curriculum and training teachers capable of imparting such curriculum, ethically abhorrent inequities will abide.

 

Do not be distracted from the actual causes of inequity at the Minneapolis Public Schools by the fixes circulating in the conversational ether: 

 

Such distraction is what the educational establishment counts upon to draw your attention from the actual problems grounded in curriculum and teacher quality.

MPS Department of Teaching and Learning: Expensive, Intellectual Wasteland

Microcosmically representing the most vexing dilemmas at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) is the staff at the district’s Department of Teaching and Learning.

 

This intellectual wasteland costs the district over $2,000,000 in salary, an enormous misuse of funds in a budget that is projected to become ever more challenging as the Minneapolis Public Schools lose an ascending number of students for the next half-decade.

 

As you peruse the following list, understand that no degree in education is an academically substantive degree, that an Education Specialist degree is obtained to avoid writing a dissertation while rising in the administrative hierarchy, but that this is just as well since any doctorate in education is so meaningless.

 

The Department of Teaching and Learning is farcical in its existence: 

This inept staff should be jettisoned as teachers are retrained to become masters of knowledge-intensive curriculum, so that they will as in the case of college and university professors carry curriculum in their brains, with little patience for the pretensions and the ineptitude of Department of Teaching and Learning staff.

 

Perpend:

      

Department of Teaching and Learning, 9 December 2020

 

Abdi Ogle, Cultural Facilitator

 

B.A., General Studies

 

Licensure:

 

ACTFL---  Somali

 

Ashley Krohn, Library and Media

                           District Program Facilitator

  

M.A., Education  (Hamline University)

B.S., Film and Television  (Boston University)

Licensures:

Communication Arts/Literature

Christen Lish                     

M.A., Science Education  (University of Minnesota – Twin Cities)

B.S., Education  (University of Minnesota – Twin Cities)

Licensures:

Life Sciences

Earth and Space Science

Science 5-8

Christina Ramsey, K-8 Talent Development and Advanced Academics                  

Education Specialist  (University of St. Thomas)

M.A., Education   (Hamline University)

B.S., Education   (University of Minnesota – Twin Cities)

Licensures:

Pre-Kindergarten

Elementary Education

Principal K-12

Christopher Wernimont                              

M.A., Mathematics         University of Minnesota – Twin Cities

B.A., Economics                                                Grinnell College

Licensures:                                                               

Mathematics

 

Diane Brenny, Account Specialist

 

 

Erin Clarke, K-8 STEM DPF

B.A., Geology (College of William & Mary)

M.A., Geology (University of Wisconsin)

M.A. Education (Univeristy of Minnesota

 

 

Jeanne Lacey, Administrative Assistant

 

Jenn Ross, K-12 Science DPF                      

M.A., Science Education                                               University of Iowa

B.S., Biology                                                                       Drake University

Licensures:

Life Sciences

Science 5-8

 

Jennifer Hanzak, K-5 Math DPF

 

B. A. , Child Psychology (university of Minnesota)

M.A., Education (University of Minnesota)

 

Licensure:

Elementary Education

 

Julie Tangemann, K-5 Literacy DPF

    K-5 Science DPF

 

M.A., Education  (St. Mary’s University of Minnesota)

B.A., Education   (University of St. Thomas)

Licensures:

Elementary Education

Kelly McQuillan, 9-12 Advanced Academics

                  K-12 International Baccalaureate

                               

M.A., Education                                               University of St. Thomas

Licensures:

Social Studies

Lisa Purcell, K-12 Social Studies DPF                      

M.A., Education  (University of Utah)

M.A., Education  (Harvard University)

B.S., Social Sciences  (Hope College)

                and History

                                        

Licensures:

 Social Studies

English as a Second Language

Principal K-12

Lori Ledoux, K-12 Arts

                       Teacher on  Special Assignment (TOSA)

 

B.A., Dance   (University of Minnesota)

M.A., Education   (University of Minnesota)

Education Specialist   (Education, University of Minnesota, Mankato)

Licensure:

 

Dance, K-12

Principal, K-12

 

Marium Toure’, K-5 Math DPF                  

M.A., Education                                     St. Mary’s University of Minnesota          

B.S., Education                                        University of Minnesota – Twin Cities

Licensures:

Elementary Education

Meghan Gasdick, K-5 Literacy DPF

 

B.A. Elementary Education (Florida State University)

M. A., Educational Leadership (University of Minnesota)

 

 

Melody Lockwood, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support Coordinator

 

Molly Siebert, K-5 Social Studies DPF

 

B. A., General Studies (University of Wisconsin)

M.A., Education (St. Mary’s of Minnesota)

 

Licensures:

 

Social Studies (5-12)

Molly Vasich, 6-12 English Language Arts/Reading DPF

B.A., World Languages  (Macalester)

M.A., Education  (University of Minnesota)

 

Nora Schull, K-12 Arts DPF                          

B.S., Dance (Minnesota State University – Mankato)

            and Theater Arts

 

Licensures:

Dance and Theatre

Paula Killian, AVID Middle School Coordinator                 

B.S., Education     (St. Cloud State University)

B.A., Psychology   (University of St. Thomas)

Licensures:

Elementary Education

Paulina Jacobsson, Cultural Facilitator

 

B.A., Fine Arts  (Peaason’s School of Design

 

Licensures:

ACTFL---  Spanish

Sarah Loch, K-12 Health and Physical Education DPF                      

M.A., Education  (University of Minnesota – Twin Cities)

B.A., Physical Education  (Concordia University, St. Paul)

          and Coaching

 

Licensures:

 

Physical Education

 

Health Education

 

Tara Finne, Fine Arts TOSA

 

B.A., Music   (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

M.A., Education (St. Thomas University)

 

 Licensures:

 

Vocal Music (K-12)

Instrumental Music (K-12)

 

Tommie Casey, AVID Program Manager                               

Education Specialist    (University of St. Thomas)

M.A., Education    (University of Minnesota – Twin Cities)

B.A., English   (Missouri Valley College)

Licensures:

English/Language Arts