Education
The reaction of RI Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals lobbyist James Parisi to news that Governor Carcieri’s 2010 budget includes a provision liberating charter schools from some personnel requirements suggests that the teachers’ unions are frightened that charters might become even more successful: “It’s wrong, it’s unfair, it’s unconscionable, it’s absolutely unnecessary and it…
As reported in today’s Providence Journal, thousands of Providence parents “gamble” on charter schools*: That parents are looking for an alternative to traditional public schools is borne out by the numbers: this year, charter schools received 3,454 applicants for 559 openings. The Learning Community Charter School, in Central Falls, had 500 applications for 50 spaces…
Amanda Pereira, a sophomore at Classical High School, and her fellow students in Young Voices confirm that students also see what many of us believe to be obvious, that allowing teachers to be bumped from their jobs based on seniority alone is wrong: [Bumping] has a terrible effect on students. In 2008, we conducted groundbreaking…
The infamous former RI House Majority Leader George Caruolo, who acquired that adjective when he put his name on a bill that permitted school departments to file suit against their towns for more money, argues that his solution is better than the one that it replaced. Rather than sending funding disputes to the courts, as…
Amidst all of the bad news, there are some encouraging things happening in our state. As reported in the ProJo, Cumberland Mayor Dan McKee recently announced that he is going ahead with his Mayoral Academy. McKee said if his proposal wins approval by the Rhode Island Department of Education and secures $700,000 in state financing,…
It would go too far to speculate that this sort of thing is widespread: Statewide testing procedures were violated at Whiteknact Elementary School last October when at least 14 third graders were given extra time, the state Department of Education has concluded. And now school officials are looking into whether another violation occurred when the…
When I walked in, the Tiverton School Committee was discussing the issuance of a few more layoff/non-renewal notices related to a possible move of the fifth grade (it sounded like) to the elementary schools. The move hasn’t even been considered, but the notices have to meet a deadline. 7:14 p.m. I may have noted this…
It appears that the most recent of the their multiple weeks off during the school year mellowed Johnston science teachers with regard to the new program that had recently been announced as foiled: During their winter break, local science teachers changed their minds and decided to participate in a project to improve science education across…
Here comes another historic, philosophical battle, this time in Providence: Education Commissioner Peter McWalters has ordered the city schools to begin filling teacher vacancies based on qualifications rather than seniority, an order that could fly in the face of the teachers’ contract. McWalters, in a no-nonsense letter yesterday to Supt. Tom Brady, said the district…
In the ProJo story about West Warwick handing out 188 layoff notices (wow!), there was this little nugget: State law requires that teachers be notified by March 1 that they will no longer have jobs the following September, and many school districts routinely send out pink slips by the deadline while acknowledging that most, if…