John Hakes for Mounds View School Board '15

Given the focus Mounds View district administrators are placing on what they’ve identified as a struggling middle school math program, is it appropriate to have certain courses appear in the high school Grade Point Average calculation of a seventh grader?

Let’s back up for a moment. Each May, Mounds View presents its District Operational Plan to provide 621 residents a road map of sorts. Particularly useful is the emphasis on what lies ahead for the following year.

For the 2013-14 school year, conducting a Middle School Review Program was determined to be a high priority goal:

“It’s no secret we’ve had concerns … about the performance of our students in mathematics at the middle level,” acknowledged Supt. Dan Hoverman. “We’ve been focused on that for the last 2 or 3 years, and we want to look at it and see if there is something we can do more broadly,” he added.

To help address the challenged program, the superintendent said District 621 has contracted with a nationally-known, outside consulting firm to get its middle school math program back on course, after a few years of flat or declining scores in the performance of its 6th, 7th and 8th graders.

The firm has been charged with producing 3 or 4 “high-yield” recommendations that are financially-neutral and whose impact has been illustrated at other districts.

Results of the firm’s work will be made available for board members and the public as they head into the deliberations around the next annual budget process, likely next December, January, or February.

Many people who have had or do have middle schoolers in the Mounds View schools are aware that the grades of students enrolled in Intermediate Algebra (and perhaps other courses) appear in their respective High School Grade Point Average (GPA) calculations. And according to district-issued information, since such courses include high school level standards, they are included in the GPA calculation per district policy. Seeing as the school board uses a policy governance model approach, excluding/including various courses from GPA is within the board’s purview. (Note: The basis for Intermediate Algebra accruing high school credit is per state statute.)

These things taken together generate a few questions:

1. How do students benefit from including a course grade on their transcripts for
a curricular program the district has identified as needing considerable improvement?
2. Is it appropriate for future college admissions officers to be reviewing the performance
of a 7th grader when a comparable applicant is being judged on the basis of 10th grade work?
3. Should the Mounds View district suspend the policy of including middle school math grades on transcripts until a later date?

Elect John Hakes as your next school board member if you would like these kinds of curricular questions addressed. The previous link provided represents a start.

By the deadline of 5:00 p.m. today, four candidates had filed for three Mounds View School Board terms, each extending from January 2014 to January 2018.  The four candidates include incumbents Jon Tynjala, Marre Jo Sager, and Greg Madsen.  My bid for a seat– the second consecutive board election in which I’ve run– is the only challenge to the present officeholders.

Currently, this site is in development. While you wait to evaluate my campaign platform, please consider subscribing to my Twitter account @johnhakes– a space where I will sift out the best articles on education & forward along information you may find beneficial.

Thank you for your patience as this campaign gets underway.

~John

While District 621 is a leader in many regards (one-of-a-kind early college offerings, 100% ACT exam administration, and high number of National Merit Scholars to name a few) it also has areas where the work never ends– especially considering the technological transformation districts everywhere must factor into the learning equation, and particularly when the game-changing 2013 education bill at the state legislature is taken into account.

Besides these two major outside influences school districts must necessarily deal with, the matter of college & career readiness is what education is primarily about— and also a topic with 100s of moving parts and even more opinions on how those educational components should work together.

In recognition of this main educational purpose, as well as the adaptations required by technology and state law, here are the three broad objectives of this school board campaign:

(1)  Advocate for the clearer integration of technological tools and curriculum in the Mounds View Public Schools.

(2) Engage the community on the subject of the 2013 education bill passed by the Minnesota Legislature.

(3) Help ensure all performance indicators keep students on the path to becoming college or career ready.

For now, these all probably sound a bit dry and wonky, so ‘let the elaboration begin’ for you to determine if they are worthwhile objectives for a potential school board member to advance.