Education
In a Providence Journal op-ed (which now apparently inevitably means “not online”), Sandy Riojas and Daniel Harrop argue in favor of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. The first part of their argument is that President Ronald Reagan would have supported their side of the debate. As admirable and iconic as Reagan may have been, a…
The notion that forcing teachers to work an additional five years before retirement will cost districts money came up during my appearance on the Dan Yorke Show, last week, and it apparently has some currency in the General Assembly. Obviously, though, a replacement hired on a five-year delay will cost less than one hired earlier…
It seems lately one of the topics for discussion is that of the heavy burden from college loans. Some are calling for the loans to be completely forgiven. That means the debt is eliminated. The money was borrowed from a lending institution, where that might be a private bank or the US government, papers were…
I found this interesting: Students watch short online videos of lessons at home and do homework in class with their teacher’s help….The videos are mostly created by the district and led by the best teacher on a topic. And when kids do homework, they’re getting help from their teacher, rather than parents at home….Teachers say…
Well, it’s about time. In today’s Valley Breeze, Marcia Green tells about a new policy at Cumberland High and Middle schools that ban any use of handheld devices. The policy is based on one that was previously instituted in Warwick schools. The Cumberland schools used the first two weeks of the year to inform and…
Last night, with the approval of RI’s chief executive, Lincoln Chafee, the Board of Governors of Higher Education decided to act in lieu of the General Assembly and implement a policy of offering illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates for the state’s public universities. That makes Rhode Island just the fourteenth state to be so generous,…
Frederick Hess: Today, the notion of “closing achievement gaps” has become synonymous with education reform. The Education Trust, perhaps the nation’s most influential K-12 advocacy group, explains: “Our goal is to close the gaps in opportunity and achievement.”…Such sentiments are admirable, and helping the lowest-achieving students do better is of course a worthy and important…
The North Providence school system is getting national notice for letting cameras into their schools to help film the documentary “Bullying: Words Can Kill“. This is a problem that is finally getting some notice around the country, as it has gone on for decades. We have seen multiple examples of suicide among school children (like…
Out in Chicago, Democrat Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel campaigned on a promise of longer school days. Now that he’s actually following through with this, the teacher’s union is balking. But the part of this that is most surprising is the teachers are knowingly and voluntarily contradicting their own union.…
Meanwhile, in education, Commissioner Deborah Gist is trying to change the way in which Rhode Island schools handle’s a teacher’s career trajectory so that performance coincides with raises and advancement. (Readers from the private sector may recognize this strange concept as “the way things work.”) One of the means by which the commissioner would achieve…