Education
One hears in this op-ed by David Mabe the thinking behind centralization’s inevitable failure over time: Even in these times of high unemployment, forecasts of labor shortages are becoming more prevalent. New England has long boasted a highly educated population relative to other parts of the country, but the retirement of Baby Boomers and net…
I sat down last night to write a brief post explaining how the politics of the Cranston City Council is tied to the politics of education reform in RI, discovering in the process that it could not be done briefly. Here’s what should be (and will be) the last paragraph, explaining why readers beyond Cranston…
Looking out the window prior to work, today, brings to mind this article about truants that I’ve been meaning to note for a few weeks, now: For years, magistrates for Rhode Island Family Court’s truancy program have imprisoned students who misbehave during hearings on their attendance, despite a state law created to keep the government…
Another RI Blogger has caught an interesting bit of the education debate: Ok, I can understand why the assistant executive director of the teachers’ union would be upset, for one [Teaching for America teachers] are not dues-paying NEA members. If additional teachers are needed, of course he will want more full time, dues-paying teachers employed.…
This’ll be a useful test case for Governor-elect Chafee: On the snowy steps of the high school, Frank Flynn, president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, said he had called Chafee Tuesday morning and asked him to convene a group of teachers, school and district administrators, union leaders and state education officials to “move…
Although the majority of the teachers probably just wanted to keep their jobs, observers with a cynical (I would say “realistic”) opinion of labor unions likely foresaw the Central Falls teacher absences issue back when Superintendent Fran Gallo unfired the high school faculty back in May. There is no way union organizers want the transformation…
Last Tuesday, when I summarized some points that two state senators and a representative made to the Tiverton School Committee, I misstated something that Democrat Rep. Jay Edwards said, and he corrected me in the comments to the post. At the meeting, Edwards mentioned meetings with the House speaker (Gordon Fox) and the Democrat majority…
Wanna turn a school around? Frederick Hess points out that quick fixes won’t work in and of themselves: When we talk about SIG turnarounds, the four models include things like replacing half the staff, handing control to a charter operator, or “transforming” the school by replacing the principal and embracing instructional reform. All of these…
The ProJo editors got it right in their criticism of the 15% absentee rate of Central Falls High School teachers so far this year, which led to over half of the students receiving at least one “No Grade” on their report cards. Why? Administrators said they could not grade those students for the first quarter…
It’s been a recurring theme, in the news, that Rhode Island’s public institutions of higher learning need more money, and those interested in that outcome pick careful examples. Certainly, we all want to invest in thriving campuses, but too few of us wonder where the money goes. Consider: After two years in collective bargaining negotiations,…