Panic
By Mitch Berg
Andrew Miller, guestblogging at MinnPost as well as at his own Miller Stop, ponders the future of North Minneapolis now that the Minneapolis School Board plans to shut down North High:
North Side is across the river from where I live and it’s an area I generally avoid. It’s the city’s crime center — have a look at this map of shots fired — and a less than ideal place to move your family or send your kids to school. That has to change. Great cities don’t let entire neighborhoods die.
Should North shut down, what will replace it?
In Waiting for “Superman” — yeah, I know, another tired reference — director Davis Guggenheim illustrates how a struggling school harms the overall health of a neighborhood.
The movie makes an interesting premise – but ignores an equally interesting one. Do bad schools kill neighborhoods? Or do schools reflect their neighborhoods?
Students at North continue to show the lowest math and science proficiency in the city. In 2010, just eight percent of juniors were proficient in math while four percent of the student body was proficient in science.
How do things improve for these students when their school shuts down? Where do they go?
I realize lots of people get nostalgic about their old schools. Even utter failures like North.
But just as the New Orleans city schools took the rebuilding from Katrina as a cue to try to fix their school system – which, to be fair, may not have been as bad district-wide as North is – perhaps it’s time for the Minneapolis Public Schools to try something new.
Eventually, the city must destroy and rebuild the North Side. Maybe that starts with closing the doors at North and exploring innovative solutions to educate and mobilize North Side youth.
Where will they go? Probably to one of the other Minneapolis schools – huge, anonymous factory schools.
We’ll talk “innovative solutions” below.
Maybe we need to take some of the tax dollars spent on crime enforcement and invest in neighborhood programs to keep today’s youth from being tomorrow’s felons. Maybe the school district needs to realize you can’t go $10 million over plan on a project many deemed frivolous in the first place.
The North Side has been at a crossroads for years and it’s beyond me how cozier digs for the Minneapolis School District leads to better education for area youth.
It’s beyond anyone who pays attention to how education really works. But it does reflect Mark Dayton’s education plan; throw more money at the status quo, where administration trumps teaching every time.
North High School is the story of a community in peril and a community in need of action.
Right. But the “ac tion” is what’s important.
This’d be a great opportunity for Minneapolis to try to try a different tack than the one that’s failed most urban school districts.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Don’t Build A Big School: Replace North with several smaller, neighborhood schools, each with a principal, an assistant, a secretary, eight teachers and 200 kids. A school where the principal and every teacher knows every kid by name.
- Tell The Union to Go Pound Sand and turn the more successful charter school operators loose in North Minneapolis. Create a “Charter School Zone”, similar to New Orleans. Turn the whole system on the North Side over to people with new, better ideas. This will, necessarily, lead to the smaller schools I call for above.
None of these will ever happen, of course. School boards love big factory schools, which they see as monuments to their own wisdom and perspecacity. Charters scare the unions. The existing system keeps big superintendents in their big salaries.
But think about what we could do?
October 14th, 2010 at 8:08 am
Public ed is at a flash point right now. The people have finally swallowed so much bilge they’re about to upchuck. I believe we can finally talk about those horrid options: charter schools, tax credits and vouchers.
Let’s hope the Nov 2 elections allow us to begin the debate in earnest.
October 14th, 2010 at 8:39 am
I love when a lefty says – “Hey, let’s quit spending money on crime prevention and invest it into our communities so our kids won’t become felons!!” That is why the left should be called “regressives”. This is apparently a person who never lived in a bad neighborhood. The reason our crime rate is much lower now than in the 60′ – 70’s when money was poured into the urban blight: The courts got their sentencing discretion taken away from them and law enforcement locked up the criminals spending lots of money on jails. This is called “crime prevention” and it works.
October 14th, 2010 at 8:43 am
Test scores are as much an indicators of lack of parental involvement as it is Teacher ability, district philosophy and other deciders. One thing lacking in the whole educations debate is how little expectation is being placed on the home and family. Some schools, especially urban ones, are treated as day cares and clinics for many families. Some by choices, other by expectations. Now to hold off on the “Oh . . blame the parents” comments. I am only pointing out there are many factors.
When they closed a school I worked at, part of it was due to low performing students. But get this, almost a 1/3 of our student body came to us soon AFTER school started. They were students whose parents weren’t even engaged enough in the selection process to pick a school for their kids. And all these students came to us as we were the only one that had room. We were starting from a stacked deck to begin with. We fought to be a neighborhood school and was denied, two years later they closed us.
Your two suggestions, spot on! If anything, after 20 years in the school district, I have become anti union as I watch decisions being made without what is best for the students as the #1 priority. School choice in St Paul was a good idea back in the day. But in times of tight money and declining enrollment, its time to bring things closer to home, get all those buses off the street, and get back to basics!
Flash
October 14th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Your “build little schools” model won’t work. Besides, MPS has all the vacant buildings it needs in the area, including fairly new Jordan Park, closed after about 10 years. It’s just Kansas City on a smaller scale. Any solution that doesn’t tell the teachers unions to pound sand won’t work.
But the lefty is right that fixing our schools would pay a “peace dividend” as “Waiting for Superman” noted. It costs $32k a year to incarcerate them later, better to spend $24k a year sending them to Breck now.
October 14th, 2010 at 8:59 am
Do bad schools kill neighborhoods? Or do schools reflect their neighborhoods?
It is without doubt the latter. I have one graduate from and one senior at Cooper High in the Robbinsdale district. The school is very racially diverse, and while it has the usual problems, it has managed to be a National School of Excellence several times.
This isn’t Apple Valley, it’s a working class area, but people keep their lawns mowed and there aren’t cars on cinder blocks in the driveway. Prolly a lot like Mitch’s neighborhood.
October 14th, 2010 at 8:59 am
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mitchpberg, mitchpberg. mitchpberg said: Mpls North High closing. It's a huge opportunity: http://bit.ly/9Z0WJ2 #stribpol #narn2 Will Mpls school board be smart enough to use it? […]
October 14th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Now Froggie, they don’t use cinder blocks anymore, they just take the tire off, lay it on its side, then lower the car on it LOL
But most of the lawns look pretty damn nice, but there are exceptions
You need to get out more !
There are two neighborhood Grade schools, and both of them I would say are exceptional. The neighborhood Junior High, talked about in my above comment, was closed, so everyone gets on a bus in our area for their secondary schooling. No neighborhood option there. Sad!
Flash
October 14th, 2010 at 9:22 am
“Test scores are as much an indicators of lack of parental involvement as it is Teacher ability, district philosophy and other deciders. ”
Sorry, but we can’t allow the teachers union to use that old copout any longer. Let’s get control of those things the school district supposedly controls and is responsible for, like quality teachers, high standards, high expectations, effective discipline, transparency, effectiveness and accountability. THEN we’ll worry about parents not doing their jobs. My guess is that the lack of parental involvement is borne of frustration and despair more than anything else, and that turning the school around would get 99% of the parents back “in the game.”
October 14th, 2010 at 9:45 am
I have to concur with Flash here (yes, you could knock me over with a feather right now). Parental involvement is a major factor in the success of a school.
My spouse both works at a school and is active with the parent teacher association at our own kids school. Many times, just a few parents show for parent-teacher conferences, even though they are on the school calendar that is provided for free and mailed home a month before the school year begins. Often the teacher has to contact the parents, which they generally only do for kids who are in real trouble, to get them to show. With regard to the PTA, my wife gets lots of complaints about what the school isn’t or should be doing but when she asks for help in resolving these things or attending school board meetings to let their voices be heard, it’s asses and elbows to get the hell out of there. That’s why I’m a fan of charter schools – the parents who care get rewarded and the parents who don’t, well don’t.
October 14th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Flashie, I get out plenty. North Minneapolis is not a destination I want or need to add to my itinerary. I’ve been there, worked there, and have no desire to return.
October 14th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Parents have made thier opinion of North High very clear, with a 80% drop in enrollment over the last 5 years. Most of the parents have examined North and decided to go elsewhere. I sure with the few remaining students there is probably an over representation of students from problem families.
North High should be viewed for what it is today, failed, not what some remember it to be from days gone by. Close it, some will shed a tear but I doubt it will be from the current student body or those that wisely moved on over the past few years.
October 14th, 2010 at 10:37 am
“I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me,” said Reagan and others. And so it is here. The desire for quality education didn’t leave the Northside parents, quality education left the Minneapolis Public Schools.
October 14th, 2010 at 10:41 am
Parent involvement can overcome many of the deficiencies of the public schools, but JE is right that the lack of parental support is no excuse for not pursuing excellence.
October 14th, 2010 at 10:53 am
flash didn’t check DFL talking points before posting? And he essentially agrees with Mitch about the solution, in contravention of all liberal orthodoxy, and merely because he has first hand experience?
Knock me over with a feather.
Large schools are bad simply because if you get too large a group of kids causing trouble it’s much tougher to keep control among the others. Even without parental involvement smaller schools tend to prevent serious behavioral problems better than larger ones.
As to teachers’ unions, I hate to say I agree. Back in the 60s there were issues with low pay and working conditions, but these days the main function of the union is to protect the incompetent and prevent innovation.
I’m not quite as welling as flash to blame the parents/system. Were folks all that much more involved in their kids schooling in the 50s than they are now? Much of the problem is that the “culture” has gone to advocating “diversity” rather than achievement. Look at the pop culture of the 50s and compare to the pop culture of today and tell me which is more likely to produce someone who is going to succeed. Even if we could allow schools to go to the no-nonsense attitudes of 50 years ago we’d see an improvement in outcomes.
October 14th, 2010 at 11:24 am
Blaming teachers for the failure of your child is like blaming the highway department for your auto accident.
October 14th, 2010 at 11:26 am
I’m not blaming parents as much as trying to point out they’re as much part of the problem as they are about being part of the solution. It’s not any one thing as much a combination of things and it seems that many are too quick to not include that piece in the mix.
With the fleeing of students to charter or private school, the pool of quality students (and their parents) dwindles and creates a concentration of challenge in the public system, specifically urban. Like I said about my experience at Wilson, and its eventual demise. if 1/3 of your students are coming from families who weren’t even responsible enough to follow the process to select a school for their kids, what kind of parenting is going on at home.
We had a similar issue at my current school, and our test scores have improved over the last few years. But tied right with that is that 5 years ago, we were a school that got many of those overflow kids like Wilson, as we weren’t full and had openings. Now we are full and have all students/parents choosing to be here. With that brings a higher pool of academic quality. Are our scores going up because we are doing something different and helping the kids get smarter, or is it just because we have a better quality pool of students.
I weigh more on the latter, while acknowledging that the former is certainly a step in the correct direction. Many of our staff has watched ‘Waiting for Superman’ and have said many of those things in the movie we are doing right here. I have not seen the film, but really need to.
Flash
October 14th, 2010 at 11:28 am
“”Blaming teachers for the failure of your child is like blaming the highway department for your auto accident.””
WOW, who isn’t checking their parties talking point now. LOL Wait till Swiftee sees that comment!
October 14th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Star Trib reports today that recent Mpls test scores show <10% of 11th Grade students performing at grade level.
It's so bad that the local NAACP urges parents to pull their kids OUT of the Mpls school system because, in its opinion, there's no difference between Black children being denied an education in 1950's Alabama and Black children being denied an education in 2010 Minneapolis!
Light the fire on the Robbinsdale border, let it burn to the river. Light another on Lexington between the park and I-94, let it burn to 35E.
Start over.
.
October 14th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
I don’t check party talking points. Unlike Democrats, I prefer thinking for myself.
October 14th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
I’m Andrew Miller, the author of the piece to which most of you are responding. I’m a Democrat, but that’s not what’s informed my stance. I was appalled by the final total of the new facility for the school district and felt things had gone/are going seriously amiss if schools are shutting down while office buildings are opening.
Interesting conversation, guys. I hope you don’t mind a “lefty” looking on. My hope is it would stir intelligent dialogue. I believe it has.
October 14th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Mr. Miller,
I strongly encourage “lefties” to look in. I grew up a “lefty”; dad was a teacher, and I’m sure mom woulda been a hippie if she hadn’t had three kids by 1968.
And the amount districts like Minneapolis and Saint Paul spend on administrative overhead is insane. Building projects like the Mpls HQ are great examples. Moreso; 40 years ago, there was one administrator for, if memory serves, every 6-9 teachers. Today, I think it’s pretty close to even.
My dad taught in a district in North Dakota. The high school and junior high principals each had an assistant principal and a secretary, when I was a kid. The Superintendent worked in an office down the hall with a secretary and a business manager. Years later, they took over an entire vacant storefront and filled it with 20-odd administrators, even as enrollments shrank.
There is much more to write on the subject, naturally. Thanks for stopping by! Hope you visit regularly!
October 14th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
I have a similar background to Mitch, starting as a devoted liberal until I actually started studying history and living under Carter.
My folks taught in high school and at a major university, and my mom was actually the head of the teachers’ union in our town for most of the 80s.
So perhaps her revulsion at what the teachers’ union has become is telling. She is retired, but no longer a supporter of the unions. She maintains they were required to improve conditions back then, but she’s appalled at the complete lack of accountability for teachers they have enabled these days.
And I’ve taught at universities, and I’ve watched the professor to administrative staff ratio drop from 12:1 when I started to 1:1 now. It’s telling that the number of professors is almost unchanged in the last 20 years, but the number of staff have exploded.
Education these days is a bloated caricature of what it needs to be, and much of that is simply because it’s run by the government as a monopoly so feedback is limited and the staff is protected by political power.
October 14th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Blaming teachers for the failure of your child is like blaming the highway department for your auto accident.
I’ve seen some pretty badly designed highways where a large number of the accidents are to be blamed on the highway department. US52 on the way to Rochester springs to mind.
October 14th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Highway 14, too.
But I get the point.
October 14th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Born and bred in the briar patch…that’s me in North Minneapolis.
North Minneapolis is being depopulated and so it’s not a surprise that schools are closing. I shocked anytime an administrator has the gumption to close a school.
Much of the drop in crime that Mayor Rybek takes credit for is simply people moving from North Minneapolis to Brooklyn Center or Brooklyn Park.
I thought of running on a platform of “more prisons, fewer schools,” but couldn’t get any traction with that one.
How about converting North High to a workhouse? (Not kidding).
Agree with an earlier commenter about longer prison sentances helping to lower crime.
Earlier commenter mentioned lawns cut and no cars up on blocks. North Minneapolis is a beautiful area with tree-lined streets, building owners who cut their lawns, no cars up on blocks (the city is very good about policing such things), spacious parks and the only downside is you can catch a bullet while you’re putting gas in your car.
October 14th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
“If anything, after 20 years in the school district, I have become anti union as I watch decisions being made without what is best for the students as the #1 priority.”
Right. So you know the union fights for it’s own benefit at the expense of the kids…but you’re still going to continue to vote for people that hang on EdMn like hemorrhoids.
Flush, you’re an excellent spokesmook for the Party of Scrubs.
Blaming teachers for the failure of your child is like blaming the highway department for your auto accident.
WOW, who isn’t checking their parties talking point now. LOL Wait till Swiftee sees that comment!
Nope, he’s right. I know the city of St. Paul employs some of the most feckless workers in the state; I expect the streets to be in the condition they are. So, when I need to get to 94, I take Delaware ave to 110 to 35E, thereby avoiding the pothole riddled streets of Coleman’s folly.
And when I saw how shitty my kids’ teachers were, I pulled them out of the government system and into the care of genuine teaching professionals…so did Mitch.
October 14th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Why yes, yes I am right. And Mr. Swift is able to think for himself, just as Mr. Berg is. Only idiots and Democrats sit around whining about what the government isn’t doing for them.
October 14th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
For the record, Brooklyn Center is not awash in crime pushed north across 53rd Ave. In fact, the Camden area is a bit calmer than the Near North below Lowry.