Education
With the stories about teacher’s buying their own supplies and student athletes having to pay participation fees in North Smithfield, I wondered: Why? Recent Census Bureau data showed Rhode Island’s cost per student was #8 overall in the U.S. Where is that money going? Well, as I discovered, 85% of that cost went to compensation…
Whispers among administrative types are expressing skepticism about the regents’ call for teacher evaluations (PDF). Perhaps, like Monique, the current system has beaten them down to the point of not believing such a thing to be possible, in Rhode Island, but they point to this paragraph as the potential trap door: Establishing parameters for evaluation…
Talia Buford’s report in today’s Projo on the pay-to-play sports proposal in North Smithfield concludes with a quote from School Committee Chairman Robert Lafleur that helps illustrate how Rhode Island’s focus on a lack of a closed-form “funding formula” as the source of its educational troubles obfuscates more than it clarifies…“We’re hoping the commissioner and…
Kids paying for school sports. Teachers paying for their own supplies. The PTOs and PTAs being asked to do more and more every year. According to the Census Bureau (2007 data published in 2009), Rhode Island is 8th in the nation in per pupil spending at $12,612. Where does all of that money go? Of…
Is it too early to say: pinch me? The Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education approved a proposed set of standards that would, for the first time, require that all educators –– new and tenured teachers, principals, assistant principals and support staff –– be evaluated annually and that the evaluations meet a rigorous…
Tom Sgouros used his just-about-regular column in the reputedly right-wing Providence Journal, yesterday, to promote his new book. Obviously 800 words is insufficient to synopsize such a work and present much depth from the arguments that appear therein, but one thing Sgouros accomplishes is to convey his role in the left-wing–labor alliance in Rhode Island:…
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I responded to Michael Morgenstern’s offer to grant me access to a digital copy of his movie, Castle on High, which is currently part of the Rhode Island Film Festival, with a screening tomorrow at the Columbus Theater. It was definitely more engrossing than I’d expected. The documentary…
Amidst all the talk about what can and might be cut in Woonsocket, this paragraph stands out: The 40 no-pay days were intended to save about $5 million. Council President Leo T. Fontaine questioned why the committee considered that approach, saying it was a violation of federal labor law. Schools Supt. Robert J Gerardi Jr.…
Updating my post of a couple weeks ago (and confirming a comment by WJAR’s Bill Rappleye at the time), the RI Department of Education has issued a statement that school districts can’t charge fees for interscholastic sports (via ProJo 7to7): School districts cannot, under current state law, charge fees for interscholastic sports, and if a…
Did you know that the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers opposed proposals for binding arbitration? Neither did I. But hey, now that the union has dropped its opposition, we might as well move forward with the practice, right? That’s the implication of Jennifer Jordan’s online report: A change of position by one of the state’s…