I for one have greatly enjoyed the lively education-related discussions on this list in recent months. While I've been busy and found it difficult to keep up with at times, my interest in education and respect for the many people taking the time and making the effort to inform us of their varied perspectives keeps me coming back for more. And, as David has pointed out, relative to these discussions and others, we are all welcome to participate... or to use the DELETE key, which I also use regularly.
I find MPS funding issues/discussions of great interest and appreciate input to the list from knowledgeable persons working directly with the system, from lawmakers, board members, administrators, parents, teachers and lay taxpayers alike. It's often difficult to separate the apples and oranges, but without knowledgeable discussions it's impossible. MPS Board policy development issues are also interesting to me since they ultimately have such a direct impact on spending and student outcomes. Management and staff development also fall in this chain of command. Personally, I feel that policy development, implementation strategy and monitoring/feedback loops are of paramount importance if we are to experience continual improvement for ALL students, in a cost-effective manner. Easily said! In general, I place great faith in well-documented and peer-reviewed studies, and I have much respect for the quantitative analysis and probabilistic approaches briefly and recently discussed here. I also appreciate the difficulty in applying such rigorous methodology, given the dynamic variables involved, to the highly diverse urban education environment in Mpls.-- as opposed to say, many more traditional business problems. That said, I do think it's important to pursue a scientific approach to policy development in MPS. We are not an island unto ourselves in Mpls.-- there are many urban school systems that face similar challenges. There are also many people/organizations around the country postulating solutions-- hence the value in well-documented and peer-reviewed methods. While I don't think every school board member needs to be conversant in statistical methods to be competent, I'll grant that, in general, some degree of quantitative proficiency at the board-level would be nice. Statistical competence at the staff/managerial levels, however, should be a requirement in any urban district-- preferably a peer-reviewed quantitative team approach within the district. Just as sound forecasting models are reliant upon numerous static and dynamic variables and defined relationships to be effective, so we must be reliant on the diverse talents of our school board members to bring effectiveness to our school system. While it is often too easy to dismiss our critics, we must remember that, in the end, development and implementation of effective policy (including review/feedback) is both art and science. Let's keep up the dialogue! Michael Hohmann 13th Ward www.mahohmannbizplans.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
