Education
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 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…
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:…
Last night, Marc discussed schools with guest host Tony Cornetta on the Matt Allen Show. Stream by clicking here, or download it.
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 #…
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…
Anybody who’s surprised that the teachers’ union in Central Falls has chosen to stare down mass firings and do battle rather than submit to some eminently reasonable additional responsibilities should think through the future scenarios of the game. With administrators now standing firm on key planks that were previously popular political catch phrases, the unions…
In the Chronicle of Higher Education, Thomas Benton explains why middle-class students should not be seduced by a “life of the mind” in academia; unless they know what they’re getting into. Namely, post-graduate degrees and the academic life are set up in such a way that only the socially and financially privileged can really take…
Tom Ward writes on the success of Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley charter school in Cumberland, noting: “My concern, as the [Lincoln] superintendent (Georgia Fortunato), is that if they move into Fairlawn, Democracy Prep, people are going to think they are part of the Lincoln School Department and I think we are going to lose a…
You’d think some higher-up planner in the teachers’ union would begin advising members that it’s time to back off for a while for the purpose of public-impression rehabilitation. Apart from the wholly inappropriate imagery of using a candle-light vigil for a union action, the particulars of the circumstances in Central Falls are absolutely certain to…