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Fall 2001 Postings to the Mpls Issues list   |   MPS Chief Operating Officer   |   MPS hiring of COO praised by the Star-Tribune   |   Reparations: not ready to jump on the bandwagon   |   Reading Instruction and Ability-Grouping   |   K-12 Schools: To track or not to track? #1   |   K-12 Schools: To track or not to track? #2

Fall 2001 Postings to the Mpls Issues list

MPS Chief Operating Officer
13 December 2001.  Dave Jennings is moving from a job as chief executive of the Minneapolis-Bloomington Chamber of Commerce to a $125,000 per year job with the Minneapolis Public Schools as its COO.

MPS Hiring of COO Praised by the Star-Tribune
14 December 2001

Reparations: Not ready to jump on the bandwagon
Two postings, 8 & 9 December 2001

White Privilege, Parent Involvement, and Vouchers
15 December 2001 "I think the Minneapolis Public Schools should do an ad campaign directed at poor people with slogans like "Don't expect reading instruction" and "don't expect a high school diploma."  

K-12 and the Test Score Gap: It's the Drug War, Stupid?
15 December 2001 "The schools are trying things that don't work, and keep on trying things that don't work to close the test score gap and reduce high school dropout / push out rates. The schools in city after city do pretty much the same things and get pretty much same results.  Similar curriculum, similar ability-grouping practices, etc...

" There is a big difference between a college preparatory curriculum program and the work-readiness curriculum that's designed for a majority of the students in the Minneapolis Public Schools.  Some of the suburban public schools and most of the private schools (for obvious reasons) have all of  their students in grades K-8 on one track: a college-bound track. That is not the case in Minneapolis."

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To Track or Not to Track?
Reading Instruction and Ability-Grouping 17 Dec 2001
K-12 Schools: To track or not to track? #1 19 Dec 2001
K-12 Schools: To track or not to track? #2 19 Dec 2001

Parent Bashing & the Poverty of Culture
4 - 15 December 2001 Ten Posts to the Minneapolis Issues list  

Reading Instruction, Research and Racism
19 - 29 November  2001. Nine posts to the Minneapolis Issues List

Funding, Class Size and Board Accountability
8-13 November 2001. Eight posts to the Minneapolis Issues List.  A ten year old class size reduction program failed to improve the quality of education provided to low-income students in the Minneapolis Public Schools.  Why?  As class sizes were reduced, the concentration of inexperienced teachers increased in high-poverty schools.  Then the district approved a neighborhood school plan that increased class sizes in high poverty schools in North Minneapolis, and further reduced class sizes in low-poverty schools in SW Minneapolis.  Is it fair to say that funds from the "better schools" referendum (which promised lower class sizes] were "misappropriated?"

Final Week of the 2001 Campaign
Evelyn Eubanks for School Board - Statement of support
November 4  K-12 Schools and the Star-Tribune's Agenda  
November 5  Reply to Dennis Schapiro (school board candidate endorsed by the Star-Tribune)
October 31  Do we need to fix the schools, or the kids, parents, and communities of color?
November 1 Response to Catherine Shreves, Minneapolis School Board chairperson
and more