Education
The headline is “Districts Cutting to the Bone,” but the interesting item comes at the end: Like many districts, West Warwick has been bringing back students with special needs who previously were sent to private schools in an effort to both save money and better serve students. “We’ve brought back about 90 kids in the…
Monique has already mentioned the headline revelation of an article reporting statements of the states’ two teacher union heads before the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (that they’ve recognized the advantage of regionalization to them), but I’d like to highlight an unrelated statement from Rhode Island Federation of Teachers President Marcia Reback: “[Education] Commissioner [Deborah]…
Sometimes people have to say what they have to say, I suppose, but this comment out of Cumberland really points to the different world in which some Rhode Islanders live: School Supt. Donna A. Morelle stated that the committee and the administration “are greatly appreciative of the sacrifice made by the teachers.” So what “sacrifice”…
As Andrew highlighted in his signature coverage of the Rhode Island Republican Assembly Endorsement Convention, the campaign platform of Republican gubernatorial candidate Victor Moffitt includes regionalization. Audience Question: Unions and union contracts are out of control. What can we do to give more autonomy to the communities? Answer: “I’m actually going to say that I…
In a recent article, John Kostrzewa describes a study (partially funded by RI’s Poverty Institute) by Jeffrey Thompson, Assistant Research Professor at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. As it happens, circumstances lately have put me in a position to agree with some of the professor’s conclusions, particularly those decrying one-company-narrow…
That’s the subject line of an email from Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist announcing that Rhode Island came in fifth in the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Race to the Top competition. Frankly, I find the presentation of the entire give-away creepy. If we begin with the belief that public education is a states’ rights…
Veronique de Rugy points to an L.A. Times article analyzing students’ test scores — against their own prior achievements — to determine the educational value added (or not) by third- through fifth-grade teachers. Here are two findings that give a pretty good flavor (which, overall, Anchor Rising readers will find unsurprising): * Although many parents…
Upon reading of the $9.4 million or so in federal money coming to Rhode Island for the purpose of expanding charter schools, I couldn’t help but wonder about the strings that must be attached even to such a piddling sum, by current government standards. Reviewing the U.S. Dept. of Education’s onlne materials related to the…
So now it’s recess. Well, as a former high-energy boy, I’m not sure what I’d done if I had been forced to while away all the hours of the school day in a structured environment. Back in my day, we had a morning and afternoon recess (plus a lunch break!). The promise of those pending…
The talk has been growing — especially around the blogosphere — that higher education is the next major bubble. With access to loans and all sorts of civic and cultural incentives to attend college, the actual value of a degree is inflating. Of course, education is different from housing; as far as I know, no…