Counterpoint: There's talk about education, and then there's action

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Between Aug. 27 and Sept. 2, a spate of opinion pieces and editorials on pre-K through 12 and postsecondary education appeared in the Star Tribune; writers of each of these articles failed both with regard to analytical reasoning and as to central focus.

On Aug. 27, Kenneth Eban ("Protecting teacher diversity is key") defended the part of a contract, the negotiation of which ended the teachers' strike of the recent academic year in the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), that relaxed the seniority principle so as to retain more teachers of color. In the same edition, Michael Ciresi, Louis King and Bernadeia Johnson ("Protecting the status quo is failing students") mounted an argument, similar to those that we have read before, for a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing "quality education" for all public school students.

The latter article was misguided in the extreme, focusing on the state level for the achievement of change in public education and on legalistic wording that will have no impact at the level of the locally centralized school district where formal academic programs are variously implemented or sabotaged. Eban's cause is worthy but misses as to central focus, which should be the delivery of knowledge-intensive, multicultural curriculum and the training of teachers of all ethnicities capable of imparting such a curriculum.

On Aug. 29, Katherine Kersten ("At Minnesota State, equity is in, learning is out") asserted that the Minnesota State university system is lowering standards so as to achieve uniform graduation rates according to ethnicity; on Sept. 1, this brought a multi-author Minnesota State counterpoint ("Quality education for all is not a lowering of learning standards") arguing that improved graduation rates (rather than immediate uniformity) and better academic results for all students is the actual goal of the state system.

The reality at the postsecondary level is that all too many students arrive on campus ill-prepared for successful collegiate academic experiences because of wretched pre-K through 12 education — and that for many years admissions offices have already been lowering standards, more for pecuniary than equity considerations.

And on Sept. 2, the Star Tribune Editorial Board authored a piece ("More bad news on test scores") reminiscent of those penned by the board annually, bemoaning recent results of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) pertinent to grade-level student achievement and with typical nebulousness urging once again that educators "redouble efforts to use proven strategies and successful models."

Not one of these articles addresses the most vexing issues pertinent to public education. At their best, colleges and universities train field specialists who nevertheless graduate without the breadth of knowledge necessary for informed civic participation. At the pre-K-through-12 level, the quality of education is so knowledge-deficient and skill-depleted that students who manage to graduate walk across the stage to collect a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only.

Anyone serious about bringing change to pre-K-through-12 public education will rivet attention on the locally centralized school district. And astonishingly, at this level, a quiet revolution appears to be in progress at the Minneapolis Public Schools. In just the first two and a half months of her tenure, interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox has created a cabinet that includes an entirely new contingent of associate superintendents who will carefully monitor academic programming and results at the specific schools for which each is responsible. There is a new math curriculum (Bridges/Number Corner) that for the first time in recent memory will be implemented across all grade levels at all schools. And for reading/language arts, a similar uniformity of implementation will be guided by the primary curriculum (Benchmark Advance); supplementary programs known as Groves, PRESS ("Pathways to Reading Excellence in School Sites"), and LETRS ("Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling") will provide resources for critical intervention.

Just as significant, senior academic officer Aimee Fearing, deputy senior academic officer Maria Rollinger and director of strategic initiatives Sarah Hunter are leading an effort to bring subject area substance to grades pre-K through 5 so that students will develop sophisticated vocabulary and contextual information essential for advanced reading development.

If Cox, her administrative staff, and teachers succeed with these highly promising initiatives, the worthy but peripheral objectives sought by the writers of the above-mentioned articles will be attained as students are given the knowledge-intensive, skill-replete, logically sequenced subject area information necessary for lives of cultural enrichment, civic preparation, and professional satisfaction; quite remarkably, the district of the Minneapolis Public Schools will become a model for urban school districts across the nation. Star Tribune readers and writers alike should rivet their attention on these dramatic developments at the Minneapolis Public Schools and elect school board candidates in November who seem most likely to support the work that Cox and staff are doing.

Gary Marvin Davison is director of the New Salem Educational Initiative in north Minneapolis. He blogs at www.newsalemeducation.blogspot.com.