I apologize in advance for the length of this email!! I really do feel a need to correct some misstatements and inaccuracies about the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) that have been placed on this list by Mr. Doug Mann of the Parents Union. I would be the first to agree with Mr. Mann that MPS must do a better job at educating our poor and minority students, and I would like to tell you some of the things that the district is doing to improve in that area. But more importantly, I want to correct some serious misstatements.
Mr. Mann alleges that "the concentration of inexperienced teachers and class sizes have increased at schools serving poor, predominantly black neighborhoods since the community school plan was implemented. Poor neighborhoods usually end up with inferior educational facilities, unless kids from poor and non-poor neighborhoods share the same facilities. Schools serving students in high poverty neighborhoods need more of the resources that make schools good, but usually have to make do with less." These allegations are simply not accurate. First, our MPS schools that serve poor students absolutely do not get fewer resources...in fact, they get more. The MPS gets over $50 million dollars per year in compensatory dollars from the state of Minnesota (above and beyond the per pupil amounts for each student) which, by state law, must be given DIRECTLY to schools based on their number of students that qualify for free and reduced lunch. Second, many of our MPS schools that serve large numbers of poor students use these compensatory dollars to REDUCE their class size to LOWER than the referendum numbers of 19 students in grades K-2 or 25 students in grades 3-8 (with state and federal funding used to lower those numbers further). Lincoln Elementary school is a good example of this. Lincoln is located on the near north side, has over 90% of its students living in poverty, and 21% of its students are English Language Learners. Lincoln has used its compensatory dollars to do intensive work with its underperforming students. They do weekly and biweekly assessments in reading and math and then group the kids to work on skill development in very small groups of 6-12. But, these groups are very fluid and change at each assessment. Finally, they have 2 master teachers, who have a proven track record in teaching (based on both quantitative and qualitative measures) who work with other teachers to improve instruction. I just visited Lincoln yesterday and directly observed what I've described here. Lincoln has been identified as a school that is "beating the odds," and doing very well in spite of high poverty. Third, I have not seen any data to support Mr. Mann's allegation that community schools have resulted in an increase in the concentration of inexperienced teachers at schools serving poor, presdominantly black neighborhoods. Like most urban districts, our most senior teachers have greater choices about where they will teach, but that is a function of the teachers contract, and to my knoweldge, has not been impacted by the shift to community schools. The MPS are working with our teachers' union toward establishing provisions in the teacher contract that helps achieve a balance of new and experienced staff at all of our sites. In the meantime, we have been establishing professional development centers and identifying master teachers that are housed at schools where student achievement is lagging. Fourth, our poor neighborhoods do not end up inferior educational facilities--quite the opposite. The MPS have built FIVE brand new, state of the art schools on the north side in the past several years: Lucy Laney at Cleveland Park, Cityview, Jenny Lind, Nellie Stone Johnson, and Jordan Park. Whittier school, another state of the art school in Whittier neighborhood was also built in the last few years. Our facilities in these less affluent neighborhoods are impressive and award winning, and anyone is welcome to visit them. This is a particularly good time of year to plan a visit, as all of these schools will be having open houses during the next several months as parents go through the choice process. Finally, Mr. Mann's web site contains serious inaccuracies about the MPS curriculum, particularly his statement that the look-say method is being used. The MPS uses the Houghton Mifflin reading curriculum, which uses a combination of phonics, grammar and award winning literature. I don't want to belabor these points. Thank you if you've had the persistance to read through this entire message. Catherine Shreves Chair, Minneapolis School Board _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
