Education
While looking at Civil Rights data for my previous post, I noticed that they included a category labeled “% FTE of Teachers Absent > 10 days of the School Year”. I then started looking at some of the numbers. To ensure that I was seeing what I thought I was seeing, I went to their…
RI NPR Education blogger Elisabeth Harrison reports on newly released data (collected for 2009) from the federal Office of Civil Rights showing that, when it comes to school discipline, “African-American students are more likely to face harsh discipline than their peers.” Harrison reports that for Rhode Island, it “depends on the school district.” Plenty of…
From a new interview/profile on the Ocean State Current; for the complete article visit the page: Rhode Island is “leaving behind a remarkably high proportion of the population,” Beacon Hill Institute Senior Economist Jonathan Haughton told the audience at a February 28 conference hosted by the RI Public Expenditures Council. “But those who make it…
“It’s an abuse of power,” said Frank Flynn, President of the RI Federation of Teachers (RIFT?). He’s referring to a situation in Woonsocket where the school committee gave notice to all school department employees that they could be laid off this year, similar to what Providence did last year. Now, I agree that it is…
While Education reformer Rick Hess thinks “would-be reformers [are] getting waaaay ahead of themselves” when it comes to implementing “primitive systems to measure everything they can, or to validate everything else (observations, student feedback, etc.)” under the mantle of value-added analysis, he also doesn’t dismiss it out of hand as a way to evaluate teachers.…
Dan McGowan at GoLocalProv has a story on how Governor Chafee’s budget sends more money to the cities and towns. A GoLocalProv review of the Governor’s budget plan shows Barrington, East Greenwich, Lincoln, Cranston, Scituate and North Providence will all receive at least 16 percent bumps in aid, with Barrington and East Greenwich – two…
According to Blackstone Valley Prep’s Twitter feed, the State’s Board of Regents has given preliminary approval to an Achievement First operated mayoral academy to be sited in Providence — with Board of Regents chairman George Caruolo casting the 5th and deciding vote in favor.
The application by Achievement First to open a new charter school (a Mayoral Academy) in Providence is up for approval before the Board of Regents today. In an effort to promote this application, RI-CAN has been rolling out “7 Facts in 7 Days” on their website. Whether you approve, oppose–or are pre-disposed to either–one fact…
Suppose you have two schools. Both are funded with public money. Each is run by a principal, with both principals reporting to a superintendent, who reports to a school committee. (This is a small-scale model of what opponents of structural education reform, in Rhode Island and elsewhere, believe is the primary way — if not…
This thinking, expressed by “Cranston parent,” “graduate of the Pawtucket public schools,” and “professor of law at New England Law – Boston” Monica Teixeira de Sousa in an op-ed, yesterday, is telling of a certain mentality: We know that parental involvement in a child’s education is one of the most powerful predictors of educational success.…