The Impossibility of Finding an Adequate Superintendent
Among the
sixteen (16) superintendents who headed the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS)
from 1980 through June 2022, Richard Green and Carol Johnson are remembered
favorably or are the subject of favorable accounts rendered by education
establishment entities such as the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) and
the Department of Teaching and Learning (the latter a perpetually failed cog in
the unwieldy bureaucratic machinery of the Davis Center (MPS central offices,
1250 West Broadway).
But the
acceleration of the decline of the Minneapolis Public Schools occurred during
the tenure of Green, and the academic performance of students during the Carol
Johnson tenure was abysmal, belying the cheerful obliviousness of the
superintendent and her retinue.
A certain
pretense at corporate efficiency effected during the Peter Hutchinson tenure
brought no favorable academic results. The get-tough rhetoric of
Thandiwe Peebles was in the end just talk as her short tenure ended ignobly.
The best
of the sixteen superintendents from 1980 through 2022 was Bernadeia Johnson,
who promoted such promising initiatives as Focused Instruction, High Priority
Schools, and systematic teacher evaluation; but the bureaucratic
burden grew in the form of an overstaffed Davis Center during her tenure, and
she was not able to prevail in confronting tremendous opposition to her most
promising initiatives from the MFT and many members of the MPS Board of
Education. And, though striking an assertive reformist posture,
Bernadeia Johnson did not address the key issues of the K-12
Revolution: the need for knowledge-intensive curriculum at all
grades and across the liberal, technological, and vocational
arts; and the training of teachers capable of imparting such a
curriculum.
The need,
then is for a superintendent who understands the need for curriculum overhauled
for knowledge intensity and logically sequenced presentation throughout the
preK-12 years and for training teachers capable of imparting such a
curriculum. Such a superintendent would recognize
the need to enlist the services of a university-based or independent
scholar to oversee the needed changes in curriculum and teacher quality.
Rochelle
Cox as MPS Interim Superintendent (served 1 July 2022 through 4 February 2024)
made many favorable moves (Intervention Triads, ACT tutoring, high-dosage
tutoring, and move toward knowledge-intensive curriculum as advanced
by researcher Natalie Wexler in speaking to MPS teachers) by the MPS Board of
Education. She represented unique hope among an inevitably weak pool
of superintendent candidates.
But the
corrupt Superintendent Task Force headed by MPS Board of Education Director
Lori Norvell did not report out the up to three candidates (that should have
included Cox, who applied for the superintendent position) )that fell within
their purview as finalists for consideration by the Board. Instead,
that abominable 17-member Task Force was cowed by two loud voices into
reporting out only the weak candidates of Lisa Sayles-Adams and Sonia
Stewart. Sayles Adams won on an 8-1 vote, bring to the Minneapolis
Public Schools a mean-spirited, insecure superintendent who terminated Rochelle
Cox (who briefly move back to associate superintendent) and courageous Senior
Academic Officer Aimee Fearing, then went on to nix all of the promising
initiatives of Cox and Fearing while dithering on the issues of building usage
that should witness the closing of six schools and the repurposing of two.
In the
interest of the future of our children, we must do much better than did the
superintendents given below who, with the exception of Rochelle Cox, failed the
young people of the Minneapolis Public Schools so miserably >>>>>
>>>>>
1980-2022
Richard R.
Green (June 24, 1980-Feb. 26, 1988) (Acting, for 1st week)
William C.
Phillips (Interim) (March 1-July 31, 1988)
Robert
Ferrera (Aug. 1, 1988-Feb. 2, 1993)
Mitchell
Trockman (Interim) (Feb. 2-March 8, 1993)
John B.
Davis (Interim) (March 8-Aug. 1993)
Mitchell
Trockman (Acting) (Aug.-Dec. 1993)
Peter
Hutchinson (Dec. 14, 1993-May 27, 1997)
Katrina
Reed (Acting) (May 29-Sept. 2, 1997)
Carol R.
Johnson Aug. 30, 1997-Sept. 30, 2003)
David M.
Jennings (Oct. 1, 2003-June 30, 2004)
Mitchell
Trockman (Interim) (July 1-19, 2004)
Thandiwe
Peebles (July 20, 2004-Jan. 26, 2006)
William
Davis "Bill" Green (Interim Jan. 26, 2006-Feb. 13, 2007) (Feb. 13,
2007-June 30, 2010)
Bernadeia
Johnson (July 1, 2010-December2015)
Michael
Goar (Interim, January 2015-May 2016)
Michael
Thomas (Acting, June 2016
Ed Graff
(July 1, 2016-June 30, 2022)
Rochelle
Cox (Interim, July 1, 2022-February 4, 2024)
Lisa
Sayles-Adams (February 5, 2024- present [September 2025 at the time of this
article’s publication])
<<<<<
No comments:
Post a Comment