Education
Julia Steiny’s column last Sunday focused on declining numbers of students in Rhode Island, but the paragraphs on the cause stick in the mind: Mather elaborates, “In general terms, people leave New England because of job growth elsewhere. Many young people go to New England for college, but when they’re finished or ready to start…
Thankfully, the Tiverton School Committee’s workshop on merit pay is much better attended than has been, well, any other meeting since the poorly considered passage of the retroactive teacher contract. Maybe 50 people. School Committee Chairman Jan Bergandy mentioned some communications that he’s received from teachers to the effect of: “How dare you let people…
I’ve got a letter in the online version of the Sakonnet Times (prospectively in the print edition out tomorrow) that begins thus: Residents who wish to understand the gradual deterioration of Rhode Island’s public school system need only contrast school committee meetings addressing two issues: teacher contract negotiations and abysmal standardized testing results. The passion…
In this week’s Valley Breeze, Cumberland Mayor Daniel McKee lays the groundwork for an educational “funding formula” proposal that looks to be substantially different from the other proposals that have been recently considered for Rhode Island. The key passage in the op-ed is this one…Three attributes mark good governmental funding policy at any level: 1)…
According to the Cranston Herald‘s Meg Fraser, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung is interested in bringing the “Mayoral Academy” model of education reform, currently being spearheaded by Cumberland Mayor Daniel McKee, to Cranston and, if we assume that it would follow the regional design used by Mayor McKee, to the entire West Bay…“I definitely want to…
The footage from last night’s discussion of merit pay by the Tiverton School Committee begins with Tiverton Citizens for Change President David Nelson and continues in the extended entry:
So I’m at the Tiverton School Committee meeting that begins the town’s discussion on merit pay for teachers. Tiverton Citizens for Change President David Nelson proposed a workshop to discuss the topic, and even just the conversation sparked thereby illustrates the need for a more substantial forum to discuss strategy, funding, tie-ins with the state,…
‘Round here, we tend to be skeptical of buzzwords, generally, and “fair funding formula” talk, specifically, but I like what Cumberland Mayor Dan McKee says here: A strong education funding policy would be based on individual student need, establishing the base level of state support every student requires and providing additional support through an equitable…
If I were a legislator of the “there oughtta be a law” sort, I think I’d put forward a law dictating that public meetings seeking citizen participation can’t start before 6:30 p.m. I’m at the Education Commissioner’s event in Warren (PDF), and in typical non-Rhode Islander fashion, I came to an intersection with no signs…
As a follow-up to this morning’s post on Rhode Island’s need to get out of the way of its economy, Tabetha recently offered a comment in our discussion of the economy and higher education to which I’d like to return: If RI wants to keep college grads, the number 1 need is pretty simple: have…