Minneapolis school district gets graded

A recent analysis of operations at Minneapolis Public School headquarters found Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson needs help, and should hire a second in command. The 87-page report, authored by Robert Schiller, offers observations and recommendations for all the district's departments.

The report also reflects on the organizational culture at the District, and some of the observations are not flattering:

Another challenge is to address the perceptions that during the past few years that

"silver bullet /band-aid" or "flavor of the month" approach is used whenever a new

initiative is thought to be needed at the schools. In fact, a major perception of the

interviewees is that the initiatives are not systemic, but inconsistent. Further, there is a

"one-size fits all" mentality and not whether the school needs it or not. It is perceived by

the interviewees that too much direction is top-down and with not enough input from

the staff regarding new initiatives. It has become very prescriptive and

teachers/principals (even some department directors and managers) feel excluded.

You can find the full report here. Ignore the annoying boxes at the top of each page, we were unable to remove them from the report sent to us by the district.

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