Education
As the ProJo reports, the Chariho teachers have approved a new contract (PDF) that includes nearly the complete eradication of the traditional increases (go “here” to see what I mean by “traditional”) in the hard-coded contract step increases. This is what the Chariho contract looks like: Usually, a step contract would have something like a…
Can’t Republicans at least agree that the last thing the state needs is more government “investment”? Governor Carcieri Friday morning said Rhode Island must invest more in higher education and mentoring programs if it wants to encourage young, educated people to stay here for the long haul. “As you invest in higher education, you make…
If you’ve paid even moderate attention to union squabbles in this state, you’ve got to drop your jaw at some of the pro-binding arbitration ads that the National Education Association is putting out. Look at the clippings at the top of the picture highlighting all of the lawyers fees and other bad effects of recent…
Is it too cynical to be suspicious of union enthusiasm to develop evaluation standards for teachers? The Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals has received a $200,000 national grant to develop a much more demanding method of evaluating and mentoring new teachers. The union will work closely with four urban school districts: Providence,…
Rhode Island Education Commisioner Deborah Gist has quickly become a breath of fresh air, indeed (via 7to7): Dropping a bombshell on Rhode Island’s teacher unions, state Education Commissioner Deborah Gist announced Friday that districts must abolish seniority as a method of assigning teachers. Gist, in a letter to all superintendents Thursday, said the Board of…
I’ve got an op-ed in the upcoming Providence Business News addressing a topic that’s on a great many Rhode Island minds: binding arbitration.
What to make of the story of the teacher who accidentally stapled a student’s head? A Superior Court judge has upheld the firing of a Smithfield social studies teacher for stapling a student’s scalp during a classroom stunt three years ago. Judge Daniel A. Procaccini ruled that the Smithfield School Committee, the state education commissioner…
Marc’s post on education and “dirty jobs” — the entire recent discussion about college and the necessity thereof — brings to mind this passage from Walter Rose’s wonderful book The Village Carpenter, which reflects on Rose’s family business as the era of the automobile and the machine came on strong: These words are not to…
I don’t know if this will go anywhere, but the lawsuit by the ACLU against the Pawtucket Parks and Rec Department for supposedly giving parochial schools priority over public schools for athletic field use caught my attention. As summarized at 7to7: The ACLU, in a news release Wednesday, alleged that parks and recreation gave the…
The Tiverton School Committee meeting has gotten around to the abysmal NECAP science scores, which I described when they came out. Superintendent Bill Rearick has run through the process of evaluating the problem, yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda. It takes some years to turn things around. The East Bay Collaborative is attempting to come up with…