Minneapolis Schools CEO Rick Mills's systems and structures meet skepticism

For a moment, mutiny seemed afoot at last Friday’s Committee on the Achievement Gap meeting. Rick Mills, Minneapolis Public Schools new CEO and second-in-command, had just finished describing systems and structures he’s implementing that he hopes will help MPS turn all its best laid plans into measurable results.

The truth: it was difficult to pay attention to Mills’ talk. He used phrases like “desired metrics,” “alignment to strategic goals” and “build capacity.” He spoke of the art and science of leadership, but it was hard to see leaders or even students through all the flow charts. He talked about teacher evaluations and curriculum mapping – those yucky things that sound sure to suck creativity and inspiration out of the classroom.

The audience’s reaction was less than sanguine. “I have seen magic happen in classrooms. I haven’t ever seen that magic happen in board meetings,” said one attendee.

“Do you give parents grades?” quipped another.

They asked, where are the kids? Where are the parents? Where is the home? Where is ELL? Where is student mobility?

The system will address them all! assured Mills.

Mills wasn’t there to talk about lesson plans or parent engagement plans or student achievement plans – he was there to talk about structures that will hopefully help all those plans transcend the paper they were written on.

Mills worked for the military for 25 years before taking a job as an area superintendant for Chicago Public schools. He has a master's degree in business and a master's in national security affairs.

One of Mills’ biggest themes Friday was alignment. He said professional development, budgets, policies, curriculums and community partnerships will all soon line up with the district’s strategic plan – which will in turn line up with zone plans, individual school plans, department plans, etc.

He’s working to make data more accessible. He said each school will have a trained data team that will be able to report how the school is doing on a weekly basis. He said student growth will be measured every 10 to 12 weeks, because “You can’t wait a whole year to figure out whether or not your students are on target.”

He advocated for building leadership capacity, saying that the rise and fall of an organization depends on individuals’ capacity to lead. He called for frank assessments of individual leaders, from teachers on up to senior district leaders, where individuals agree on specific professional development goals.

He’s working to improve the district’s use of technology in the classroom. “I can honestly say that we are way behind in technology,” he said.

He’s planning to create curriculum maps through a software program that will be accessible to district and school leaders, so a principal, for example, could easily pull up a school’s geometry curriculum map. This map, of course, would be aligned with the strategic plan.

“I think you need to change how you present your ideas,” said Morgan Tamsky, a retired 3M employee and school volunteer. “I think that’s sound as hell, but I think the emphasis has been inverted.”

Tamsky might’ve had a point, but Mills did, too. It would be interesting to see just how many initiatives Minneapolis Public Schools rolled out in the last decade and where they all ended up.

MPS school board chair Alberto Monserrate stepped forward to quell the brooding audience. “We know our results are not the desired results,” he said. “What we’re talking about is how do we implement these plans and policies that we’ve had for a really long time?”

“This is just a piece.”

Alleen Brown

Alleen Brown (alleenbrown@tcdailyplanet.net or Twitter @AlleenBrown) is a freelance writer from Minneapolis.