Education

Steps Don’t Just Go UP

By Marc Comtois | February 23, 2010 |

Reading a couple different articles (and the comments) prompted me to go looking for the Rhode Island statute that required teacher steps. Here it is (16-7-29): § 16-7-29 Minimum salary schedule established by community. – (a) Every community shall establish and put into full effect by appropriate action of its school committee a salary schedule…

The State of Education in Rhode Island, Part 2

By Carroll Andrew Morse | February 23, 2010 |

The district-by-district count data, presented in yesterday’s post, on changes between the 8th and 11th grades in the numbers of students proficient in reading and math needs to be compared to a measure of opportunities for change, in order to be useful for purposes of analysis and accountability. Depending on whether a change in number…

The Cause of the Firings

By Justin Katz | February 23, 2010 |

Every working Rhode Islander, and all of those looking for work, can see the disconnection of Central Falls union rhetoric: “We still hold that this termination of the entire faculty is a violation of the contract and contrary to state law and federal law as well,” [teachers union President Jane] Sessums said. “This is a…

The Same Old Local Political Roundabout

By Justin Katz | February 23, 2010 |

As circumstances deteriorate, it’s instructive to observe the varying reactions and strategies for handling them. In Tiverton, the established order, so to speak, has redoubled its efforts to keep the negative focus on Tiverton Citizens for Change in the hopes that people won’t notice that the plans for improvement bear a striking resemblance to the…

re: The State of Education – Aye, the Co-hort ’tis the thing

By Marc Comtois | February 22, 2010 |

Andrew has inspired me to hop on his coattails concerning the way we look at NECAPs (so read his post first). Basically, I’ve been putting off posting how we can look at the same NECAP data in two ways. As Andrew explains, the “value-added” method would be to follow the cohorts (ie; the same group…

The State of Education in Rhode Island, Part 1

By Carroll Andrew Morse | February 22, 2010 |

The graph at the bottom of this post, compiled from the two most recent years of New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) proficiency scores, contains the information you are probably used to seeing for describing the state of education in the cities and towns of Rhode Island. And if you are familiar with the data…

Learning to Hear the Union

By Justin Katz | February 19, 2010 |

Mike at Assigned Reading is dead on that the Newsmakers head-to-head between Central Falls union representative Jim Parisi and Superintendent Frances Gallo is very revealing about the two sides’ priorities. Perhaps the most crystallized example of unions’ determination to spin rather than inform — because everything’s “negotiable” — comes at approximately 9: in the video:…

Schools and Dollar Signs

By Justin Katz | February 18, 2010 |

Last night, Marc discussed schools with guest host Tony Cornetta on the Matt Allen Show. Stream by clicking here, or download it.

Some Fundamental Fixes Need to be Done in Warwick

By Marc Comtois | February 17, 2010 |

Yesterday, a report in the Warwick Beacon compared the Cranston and Warwick school systems (the teachers for both districts are represented by AFT). By the numbers: Warwick Budget: $164.6 million Cranston Budget: $121.4 million. Warwick Students: 10,507 Cranston Students: 10,774 Warwick cost/pupil: $15,666 Cranston cost/pupil: $11,272 Warwick # Schools: 24 (3 high schools) Cranston #…

Trading Schools for Raises

By Justin Katz | February 17, 2010 |

The Newport Daily News isn’t very friendly about putting information online, so I don’t have a link to the story, but I read this weekend that the Tiverton School Committee is floating the idea of closing the town’s high school. In hopes of saving $450,000, as I recall, the town would either send its students…