Again "Back in the day" in the second worst (as far as funding goes) school
system in the United States with 35 to 45 students per class, kids living in
abject poverty, and many times missing school because of the need to WORK in
the fields, still mostly got a better education than a great many of the
students in Minneapolis Public Schools today. That was particularly true of
grade school where the basics were drilled into students.
After grade school it became more difficult since after the 6th grade the
student was responsible to buy their own school books. That really made things
like English and Algebra difficult, but some of us managed. Very few of the
truly impoverished went on to high school. Which included myself and all of my
friends and poor relatives. We went to work in the fields, or odd jobs to make
enough to feed the family and ourselves. The unlucky ones went on the Tucker
Farm and many died there. The lucky ones were allowed to join the military and
actually received additional education to augment those basics and of course
many of us died in other fields and rice paddies while on vacation to a
tropical paradise. But those of us who came home went on to college quite
often.
Of my immediate family and the friends I grew up with I went the farthest in
school. I completed the 9th grade. Yet everyone of those of us who did not die
in those "fields" of Tucker Farm and S.E. Asia went on to college and graduated
with degrees from college and became successful. So, please stop with the
"back in day" crap. Without that basic education from those damn poor schools
and those old military non-coms we sure as hell would not have had that
ability. We would NOT have had the basic educations to get scores high enough
in boot camp to go on and get that non-com training, we would not have had the
further education to go on and be successful in colleges and universities.
Lunches were NOT free at any level, though some kids were able to get free
lunches for working in the lunch rooms where you traded an hours work for the
best food you were likely to get that day. (Unless your rabbit traps were
successful the night before :-) So with parents mostly too busy and working,
though malnurished, and scrapping by with a borrowed book here and there, those
kids still managed to get a basic education out of that poor-assed school
system. AND they knew History, Geography, Government, Basic Math, and Reading
that is easily equal to, or better than, what Minneapolis Public Schools
provides for poor children today?
My last question is where the hell does all that money go to, since it clearly
does NOT educate poor Native, Poor Black, and even POOR White kids in
Minneapolis. Clearly the emphasis in Minneapolis is NOT on students but on
Administrators. And just as clearly Minneapolis Public Schools needs to have a
complete overhaul.
Perhaps it needs to use the models that the Catholic Schools use and the United
States Military uses. Because those have been shown to actually work, and to
provide sound basic education for even poor disadvantaged people. In the case
of the Military, some of my finest "Instructors" were people who may not of
even had a High School diploma, but sure as hell knew what they were teaching
and "Demanded" that we learn it. For students that go through Catholic
schools, especially Jesuit schools, 90% of students not only graduate from
High School, they also graduate from a college. AND by the way, those schools
also admit very poor and impoverished children as well.
By the way, "Back in the day" they did NOT "open whole buildings for students
with behavior problems". They took care of those "behavior problems" with the
"Board of Education". You know that "Singapore method" of dealing with
"Behavior Problems".
But I must admit there was one major difference in education of of poor kids
back then. There was a very real EXPECTATION that kids would learn and that
kids WOULD succeed. And that is probably the greatest difference between
Minneapolis and those poor-ass schools back then. Today poor children of color
in particular are taught something else. They are taught by a bunch of
pseudo-progressive and pseudo-liberal jerks that they have NO chance of
success. Even if they do try in school. The media, their parents, and even
their teachers drill that into them, that poverty and social situation, and
skin color has destined them to failure. That they have no chance of success.
Is it any wonder that they fulfill those expectations.
"Back in the day" our parents, our teachers, and yes those damn military
non-coms not only expected us to succeed, they DEMANDED it. Sometimes with
force, but they did demand it. And that is the greatest failure of the
Minneapolis Public School System. They systematically teach failure, and have
thus robbed a couple of generations of children of opportunity. About twenty
years ago a research study of Native children found that more than half of them
did not believe they would live to be 25 years old. If you have such a belief,
really what is the motivation for doing well in school and finishing high
school? Who the hell taught them that??? A Value Free, Pseudo-Progressive
society do you suppose... One that is certainly fulfilled in the Minneapolis
Public Schools.
Start DEMANDING that we have a better school system for all that damned money
we presently waste on a failed one. Though it is now Sunday Morning, my sermon
is ended. Go in peace and sin no more...
Jim Graham
Rest of post
On Saturday, September 8, 2018, 10:16:03 PM CDT, Gwen Spurgat
<<email obscured>> wrote:
Resposes to Connie Sullivan, Jim Graham and Ed Felien
Connie, I forget how many hundreds of millions more it would cost
state-wide to fund those mandates. And many of our Democratic leaders have
believed the "failing narrative" pushed by education reformers so they are
loathe to ask for more money. (See below for some reasons I don't believe
that schools are suddenly "failing" as much as people say.)
The district does have a lobbyist, working on educating legislators about
the need for more funding. Sadly the Republican controlled legislature
isn't interested.
Jim Graham, I'm always frustrated when people say, "Back in my day, Schools
did much better."
No. They didn't.
We now measure differently and we have many more requirements.
Previously, Schools didn't
publish their graduation rates (and get in trouble if they were low)
take care of the medically fragile kids- the County did.
Some students need intravenous feeding,
medication and diaper changing
test kids that were special ed with the same test as typical kids (and
publish the test scores)
have the same "proficiency" expectations for English speakers as for
English Language Learners
keep students who were moms, and their babies
open whole buildings for kids with behavior issues that can't be safely
integrated with the regular population
have 20%+ students that didn't speak English (at least not in Minnesota)
& translate forms to other languages
(MPS has over 100 languages spoken at home)
offer health services to kids in high schools and middle schools.
bus homeless/highly mobile kids to the school they started the year at
regardless of where they live now.
(1,251 students)
(Some MPS schools had only 40% of their students remain
throughout one year)
offer free preschool for many kids (funded out of the k-12 kids' funding)
have computers, networks, network safety, software purchases and
installation, ...
I also get frustrated when people say, "Our parochial school does better
for less money."
No. They don't. They don't have any/many of the kids who need the highest
services.
They can expel misbehaving kids. And don't support them within another
school.
They can invite families to not come back if their student is absent too
much.
They can tell families that speak Karen that they are not able to serve
them.
They don't have the same testing -or other oppressive- requirements that
public schools have
They don't have a bus for each child with a wheel chair, who needs the
driver, and a care taker on the bus,
They don't have an RN on staff to minister to high-medical-needs children.
They don't have the student who is in a juvenile detention center who still
needs a federally mandated education.
They don't have homeless kids and track them down to get them back into
school when they haven't shown up for a week.
And now live 30 miles further.
They don't spend resources on live streaming (and data storage of) board
meetings for transparency
And they certainly do not publish test scores, in fact they don't usually
take the same test. So we don't know how they would stack up against our
typical students anyway.
_
Ed Felien, We should cut the budget of the MPS Admin and get more teachers
in the buildings, but the more I learn, the more I understand why admin
spending is so high...
The nation and the state require top-heavy school districts...
MPS must have legions of paper pushers to apply for, maintain funding for
and determine and serve the needs of
special ed 6,200 students
Title (Title I, Title IV, Title IIIV) 21,700 students
ELL 7,800 students
Free And Reduced Lunch 21,700 students, Probably more, families
don't always fill out the forms
integration funding ... the list goes on
I know that the government shouldn't blindly give out funding to schools,
but to cover the SIGNIFICANT paperwork required for 37,000 students is top
heavy.
Then MPS needs more legions of paper pushers to follow federal and state
mandates to
- prove that teachers are qualified by implementing tons of teacher
evaluations (4 a year for many teachers)
plus (BS) software systems that rate teachers on student test scores,
even for subjects they don't teach.
- prove they are serving kids with special needs, so they have to document
a plan for each student that says exactly what they are
providing to that child that they are *not* doing for the other
children. If it works and they incorporate it into their plan for
all kids, then they document a new plan for that student.
- prove that the kids are in school, by taking and tracking attendance
every hour of every day (HS & MS)
for government reporting and also calling families when kids miss
school.
- prove they value student privacy by getting signatures of everyone for a
year book, etc
- prove students are safe by providing background checks on every volunteer
and verify before each event
And then there is the TESTING mandate! No Child Left Behind and now the
Every Student Succeeds Act require schools to
- prove they are teaching, Data is KING and it costs big money to
collect, store, and analyze.
Did you know
-that EVERY k-8 school has a testing coordinator position? +trainers
-that every school has a testing computer lab or several.
There might be a few weeks per year when these computers can be used
by regular class research.
-that to "prove" kids are learning, they often need to take a pre-test,
then a post test sometimes for each
unit and send the results to the district?
-that the data department at the district is one of the bigger admin
groups, with data analysts
to find ways to "prove" that particular teaching methods are
working,
or to "prove" that money spent on Social and Emotional supports
are "worth it"?
-that teaching teams need to do "data walks" looking at student test
results together and with Associate Superintendents -
and that is how they decide what to do for students?
And, even worse, I think we are falsely determining failure based on
unrealistic expectations. I read once that Minnesota's "proficiency" rate
equates to getting about a 25+ on the ACT. MPS's goal with students is to
get at least a 21. I charge that "proficiency" is really measuring for a
moderately selective 4year college (based on what I see on collegedata.com).
We should have a "practical" knowledge rating to show success of our
students who may move on to 2 year, tech school, or career.
*I challenge all readers to take the sample Minnesota Comprehensive
Assessment (MCA) 10th grade reading test Now*. Decide for yourself if it
is an appropriate measure to determine if the schools are failing our kids.
http://minnesota.pearsonaccessnext.com/item-samplers/reading/
So I still say cut the budget of the administration, but it will take us as
a community to push back on the EXPENSIVE testing/data collection and
analyzation/ teacher evaluation trend that is happening know. And it will
take the public understanding that the measure by which public schools are
being held to is insufficient to judge whether schools are failing.
And I also say, the funding has simply not kept up with the current
mandates or the needs of so many students in urban environments.
We in Minneapolis should fill some of that gap.
#VoteYesTwiceForKids
MPS:
English Learner 7,850 students, 21.6% (Mn 8.3%)
Special Education 6,211 students, 17.1%(Mn 15.7%)
Free/Reduced Lunch 21,730 students, 59.8%(Mn 37.2%)
Homeless 1,251 students,
3.4% (Mn 1.0%)
Total Student Need Count 37,032 students
Gwen Spurgat
Linden Hills
> The unfunded mandates of Special Education and EL services --which are