Education
Julia Steiny reminded us that it was the time of year when pink slips would rain down. Boy, did they ever in Providence where every teacher is slated to be “laid off”. Well, not really–not all of the teachers will be fired. It’s just a way for the Providence school district to enable the greatest…
My Patch column, this week, questions whether there’s much room for optimism about educational success in Rhode Island public schools over the next couple of years: … the 2010 [NECAP] test was to be the first on which graduation actually would depend. It was do or die for students to achieve at least “partially proficient,”…
East Providence, you were warned. Kinda. Faced with a $6.1 million school budget deficit, the new, labor-supported East Providence school committee took action by axing School Department Chief Operating Officer Lonnie Barham and his $109,000 salary. So, they’re down to $6 million! According to the new School Committee Chair Charles Tsonos: We have more school…
In addition to everything else on the educational plate, Rhode Island needs to increase its graduation rate, even as it requires a diploma actually to mean something: Statewide, 76 percent of the Class of 2010 graduated within four years, up a percentage point from the previous year. More than 2,900 of their classmates didn’t receive…
Previously, I focused on tracking the NECAP results of one cohort of kids as the moved through the Warwick School system (to 11th grade). What I found was that reading and writing continued to improve, while math went in the opposite direction. I took this–cautiously–as good news as does Julia Steiny, with the usual caveats:…
Most of the analysis of NECAP scores seems to focus on the year to year improvement of results at a given grade level. For instance, we’ll read something like “the percentage of students at School X who are proficient and above in Math is 55% this year, which is 5 points higher than last year.”…
Justin believes that Education Commissioner Gist’s decision to delay implementation of tougher graduation requirements until 2014 is the day the reform died. I may not be quite as pessimistic, but I can understand his reasoning. One thing for sure is that, as reported in the Warwick Beacon, Warwick High School principals expect the improvements they…
February third might be considered the day education reform ceased in Rhode Island: Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist wants to push back the deadline for more rigorous high school graduation requirements, and is backing off her proposal that Rhode Island establish a three-tier diploma system. Gist now says the date on the requirements to get…
The Rhode Island Department of Education’s new Infoworks site has been unveiled and looks like it may be a valuable tool for wonks everywhere. Yes, there is student achievement data like NECAP and NAEP scores, but also some new info, like AP exam results. For instance, here are the Top 10 High Schools ranked by…
This being Rhode Island, one expects it to be a long shot, but it’s worth noting that Patricia Morgan (R, Coventry, Warwick, West Warwick) has filed legislation to repeal the Caruolo Act: The Caruolo Act allows school committees to file suit against their taxpayers when they overspend their budgets. Rep. Morgan’s legislation would eliminate this…