All posts in the topic Why the MPS are broken... (Short link)

From: Michael Atherton Date: May 24 13:53 UTC Short link

...and why no amount of money will fix them.

First, we must acknowledge that if the MPS were
transported to the suburbs they would function as
well as any existing suburban school. The MPS do
not lack facilities, equipment, materials, or
experienced teachers. However, they do lack
two fundamental requirements of General Systems
Theory: accurate feedback channels and the processes
to utilize the feedback provided by to optimize quality.

The feedback problem has been addressed to some
extent by NCLB (there are interesting reasons
this had to occur at the Federal level), however
both the State and the MPS have failed to take
advantage of this opportunity to streamline and
maximize the information provided, for reasons
that are less than oblivious because of an intentional
campaign to obscure the value and validity of testing.

However, it is often difficult for middle-class
families to understand the value of testing because
middle-class cultures have implicit processes which
supplement the feedback and quality requirements of
public education systems.

The problem with the MPS is that the population
it serves is overwhelmingly not middle-class and many
families lack the cultural supports necessary to
correct for the system failures within the public
schools.

What's most curious is the MPS reluctance to correct
it's deficiencies. The system steadfastly resists
using testing to insure that all of its students
receive quality services and also fails to adjust
processes to insure that environments are adapted to
the needs of students outside of the middle-class.

Most of the reforms that would make significantly
improve educational opportunities for poor students
are changes in management policies, not funding deficits.
No amount of money will improve overall educational quality
unless the MPS use testing feedback to set up controls
to insure that students actually learn the material
they are taught.

What we currently have in Minneapolis is an implicit
system of apartheid, in much the same way as Rhodesia
and South Africa. Our decision to vote for the referendum
is much the same as deciding whether to grant a World Bank
loan to one of these governments. Indeed if we fail to
grant it, people will suffer, yet granting it will perpetuate
an unjust system in which the minority retains exclusive
benefits. The difference in this analogy is that because
the oppression in the MPS is passive it makes it much easier
to blame the victims.

[Cross-posted to the MPS Parents List:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MPS_ParentsForum/.]