Education
Pink slips are flying at teachers in Woonsocket, East Providence and Lincoln and probably soon in your town, too. Two points: 1) State law dictates that all layoff notices be sent by March 1st. Why then and not later, say mid-May? Could it be that it is more politically beneficial for some to have teachers…
On the day that the news section of the Providence Journal acknowledged that abstinence-only sex-ed programs could potentially be successful, the editors of the Lifebeat section thought it necessary to rush to the defense of their modern kulturkampf with the headline, “Program blamed for rise in teen pregnancy” on the section’s front page. Of course,…
Julia Steiny presents some thoughts on how to hire great teachers, and this point caught my eye: [Delia Stafford, CEO of the Haberman Educational Foundation] adds that an interviewee might answer a question with: “‘What do they expect of me? The parents don’t show up and the kids don’t bring homework.’ If they tell us…
You may have read that North Smithfield students have been making significant gains: In a single year, the school’s test scores jumped more than 20 percentage points in reading — the largest improvement in the state — and more than 9 percentage points in math. Only Barrington, East Greenwich and Jamestown — the state’s highest-performing…
Having challenged the premises (and the math) of naysayers of abstinence-only education, I don’t find these results surprising: Billed as the first rigorous research to show long-term success with an abstinence-only approach, the study differed from traditional programs that have lost federal and state support in recent years. The classes didn’t preach saving sex until…
I was surprised to learn that Warwick is alone in “weighing” its students based on whether or not they have an IEP (Individual Education Plan). It goes like this: kid with normal educational needs = 1; kid with IEP = 1.5 (and sometimes 2). So, as the Warwick Beacon reported last week, “there are 10,482…
Further to Justin’s post, national ranking of the Rhode Island public school system in certain areas of interest. Academic Achievement: 40th [Source: ALEC Report Card on American Education, 15th Edition] National Ranking of Rhode Island Teacher Salary: 9th highest [Source: NEA, middle column, Page 37, of this PDF] Ratio of Students Enrolled per Teacher: 51st…
Pat Crowley’s in the comment section slinging mud at my numbers. For consistency’s sake, here’s the relevant chart for the state as a whole: Crowley’s claim is that the increases in teachers’ salaries are not keeping up with inflation. One could argue the relevance of that fact on the grounds that everything else must therefore…
Anchor Rising readers shouldn’t have any trouble guessing (let alone discerning) what’s missing from this report out of Cranston: Wednesday night, on what was the first chance for the public to speak on the proposed budget, students, coaches and parents flocked to Cranston West’s auditorium, where the School Committee budget hearing was moved to accommodate…
As the only state without a funding formula, there is certainly something to be said for putting something in place so that cities and towns can have some ability to forecast what they’re going to have for education spending. That being said, I’m sure I’m not alone in having mixed feelings when I hear such…