Education
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…
In Julia Steiny’s second article about the Laborers Construction Career Academy charter school in Cranston, she focuses on the difficulty of measuring such schools according to standardized criteria: But the work that [Executive Director Paul] Silvia and his team do is not captured by data in the state’s accountability system. EQ [i.e., emotional adjustment], to…
I suppose this Projo editorial opposing the newly legislated board for statewide health insurance benefits for teachers is better late than never, but the editors continue to keep two and two from being joined: Obviously, Rhode Island can do much better than rushing through a new system whereby a panel of special interests reward themselves…
Friday night’s Violent Roundtable on the Matt Allen Show featured Rhode Island House Minority Leader Bob Watson and legal analyst Lou Pulner, and I was surprised to find Pulner nearly standing alone when the conversation turned toward the teachers unions’ blocking the state’s federal Race to the Top application (on which the RI Federation of…
Here’s some news you’re not likely to hear trumpeted throughout the media or proclaimed in town and state meetings of education officials: After some prodding, yesterday the Obama administration released the long-overdue first grade evaluation of the federal Head Start program. As expected, the results show that the $7 billion per year program provides little…
Mick Schulz has been considering the American condition, with respect to education, as a story in the Texas v. California saga, and he posts a reader anecdote that ought to make every Rhode Island parent uncomfortable: A new neighbor (former migrant worker from northern California who opened a family business, and had to move to…
A supporter of school choice must accept that schools will experiment with, and families will opt for, educational strategies that he or she doesn’t like. I’ve never been a fan of Fame-style schools specializing in music, for example, and for the same reasons, I’ve reservations about Laborers school in Cranston, which Julia Steiny described in…