The Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education spent its first regular business meeting after swearing in five new members looking backwards to the Comprehensive District Design passed by the school board in May 2020. At the January 10 meeting, Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox presented a detailed update on the academic, equity and sustainability components of the CDD that were intended to provide a “high quality, well-rounded education” for “all students- regardless of their background, zip code, and personal needs.”
“Implementation of the CDD has not, as you can imagine, proceeded at the pace that we initially intended. However, much has been accomplished,” Cox told the board in her opening comments. “No matter what you thought you knew about the CDD, I hope to make one thing clear. The CDD was about much more than boundary changes.” Much of the public criticism against the CDD was focused on the changes to which schools students attend.
Cox’s presentation included over 74 slides detailing which components of the CDD have been completed and which components are ongoing. Some components of the CDD were labeled as both completed and ongoing, indicating that some work had been completed but that additional work remains in that area. For example, in academics, the district has completed the selection and purchase of a K-5 math curriculum, but the professional development and implementation of that curriculum is ongoing this school year.
Cox said she would give the board additional updates on the CDD in February and March, including what parts of the CDD have worked, what needs additional improvement, “and how we move forward to achieve the initial goals of the CDD, and ultimately, the goals of our MPS strategic plan.”
The following tables summarize the contents of those slides.
Completed CDD work by category
Ongoing CDD work by category
Cox acknowledged that the district still has work to do to meet the academic goals that were intended as part of the CDD.
“I want to be clear. Because this is on the complete page does not mean that there’s not more work to be done but that some foundational elements are in place to keep our work moving forward,” Cox said.
Harshest criticism of the CDD is focused on the equity components.
The components of the CDD that continue to face the most public backlash include:
- changes to student placement policies which significantly reduced the ability of families to choose community schools other than the one assigned by their home address
- changes to magnet programs within MPS, including adding STEM magnets and eliminating Open magnet schools
- shifting away from K-8 elementary schools to K-5 elementary schools and middle schools.
These components are listed under the equity category in the CDD.
The changes were intended to equalize enrollment across the district’s schools, improve access to magnet programming for students who qualify for free and reduced price meals, and improve access to electives for sixth through eighth grade students.
Additionally, the district funds schools based on enrollment, so equalizing enrollment is a strategy to equalize funding and programming across schools.
“I also want to say out loud that I know the change in attendance areas was very difficult for many families,” Cox said at the meeting. “We understand that and we still believe that the goals of the CDD made changes of vital importance for our district.”
The CDD shifted the location of special education programs to make them more accessible in community schools and magnet schools.
The CDD included changes to special education services, with the goal of providing school-based special education programs, also known as Federal Setting III programs, in community schools. Students receiving Federal Setting III services spend more than 60% of their school time in a separate special education classroom. The intent was for more students to be able to access Federal Setting III services closer to home.
Additionally, the CDD created space for some students receiving Federal Setting III services to receive those services within magnet schools. Cox noted that since 2017 the district has reduced the number of special education students who have had to change schools to fewer than 40 from over 400.
While the district has called this shift of programs “inclusive pathways,” as noted by Director Sonya Emerick, the CDD did not include a shift towards so-called inclusive classrooms, where special education students–even those qualifying for Federal Setting III placement–receive many special education services within a general education classroom.
“So we don’t really have anything in our CDD, which is supposed to help integrate our schools, about decreasing segregation for our students receiving special education services, which is around 18% of our students,” Emerick noted.
As part of the ongoing equity work, the district is waiting for approval from the State of Minnesota of its own teacher licensure program.
Pending State of Minnesota approval, the district will begin its own licensure program for existing MPS employees that focuses on interventions and methods specific to MPS, and, ideally, is offered at no cost. The district’s current teacher licensure pathway program, where staff take courses at a university to complete licensure requirements, includes financial barriers for some staff that the new program hopes to overcome.
The first cohort of educators participating in this program will begin coursework in July and enter MPS classrooms in the fall of 2023. Participants in the program must already have an undergraduate degree, and will complete their license requirements over fifteen months while working in MPS classrooms. The program will only be open to current MPS employees.
The approval of the district's licensure program by the State would allow it to train as many as fifteen additional special education teachers next school year, according to Senior Human Resources Officer Candra Bennett.
One area where the district had a substantial number of vacancies this fall was in special education, where 46 of the 150 job postings in August of 2022 for MPS classroom teachers were for positions in special education classrooms.
Cox noted that while the initial focus will be on training special education teachers, the program could be expanded to include other licensure areas in the future.
Additional meeting highlights and updates
- As part of the consent agenda, the board voted unanimously to approve a settlement with the family of Deshaun Hill, the North High School student who was killed last February when walking home from school.
- The board voted unanimously to approve a contract with Axiom to provide a combination of in-person and online preparation courses for the ACT. Each high school principal can choose to opt-in to the course for their building, and tailor the program to meet the needs of their students.
- Senior Academics Officer Aimee Fearing provided an update on the online, high-dosage tutoring program approved by the school board in November 2022. There are currently 128 reading groups, 141 math groups, and a total of 598 students participating. There are still some unfilled seats under the terms of the contract. Special education students were not assigned to any groups, except for students who are receiving only speech therapy services. In addition, no kindergarten students were assigned to the program.
- The majority of public commenters were staff members at Mona Moede, the district’s early childhood program in North Minneapolis. They shared comments about the closing of the program. Minneapolis Schools Voices has reached out to the district for additional comment on this, but have not heard back at this time.
The board will meet again on January 17 in a special meeting to discuss hiring a firm to search for a new superintendent. The next Committee of the Whole meeting will be on January 24 at 6 p.m. at the Davis Center. Both of these meetings will be streamed, and neither will include time for public comments.
Community engagement sessions on the search for a new superintendent have started, and are listed here.
