MORE ARTICLES

Stay Connected!

Receive the latest updates in your inbox.

LATEST ARTICLES

Randi blah-blah-blah?

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Central Falls (RI) School Superintendent Frances Gallo is moving to fire all that city’s high school teachers as part of corrective action mandated by RI education commissioner Deborah Gist. The CF high school and five schools in Providence would be affected. “We need to be able to move this school,” Gallo said Tuesday afternoon. “We are persistently in the low-performing category and therefore we have options we must look to.” Gallo said that the 74 teachers can re-apply, but their job descriptions would be different. Under the termination-of-teachers reform model, no more than 50 percent can be re-hired. I know CF really well having spent my youth next door, having relatives there, knowing folks who were police officers and teachers […]

Charters and disadvantaged students

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

We’ve had some long discussions with legislators and the media over the past few years about “disadvantaged students” and how they fare at charters. As we often note, the number of poor and minority students in charters are higher on statewide comparisons; and they are well within the range on “sending” district to charter comparisons. And their students by and large do far better those in district schools. But the question raised during the recent legislative debate was, well, how about Limited English Proficient (LEP) and Special Needs (SPED) kids. A new study out by Angrist, Dynarski, Kane, Pathak and Walters takes a micro-look at this question by focusing on the KIPP Academy in Lynn, a school that is mostly […]

Calling Glenn Koocher

/0 Comments/in , , /by

I am pretty sure you have seen the number of online tools Pioneer has created for citizens interested in government transparency and civic engagement on issues like government performance, regionalization, the quality of our schools, etc. Here is a breath of fresh air blowing north from Rhode Island. I was going to say Rhode Island of all places, but then remembered that I am a former Rhodey guy… MassOpenBooks MassReportCards MassCityStats MassHousingRegulations The Regionalization Clearinghouse The GIC Cost Estimator (general, Revere, and there are other community estimators – just ask) So, we were very interested to see that the RI Association of School Committees now puts all their collective bargaining agreements on-line for members — something that could help communities […]

The missing link – student data and teacher performance

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Dan Willingham’s good piece in the Boston Globe on what makes for effective accountability in our schools chided the lack of detail behind the Obama administration’s Race to the Top criteria seeking to “hold teachers accountable for student scores.” There are ways of making accountability work. The two key elements are evaluations that take place over long periods of time, to increase stability, and evaluations that are conducted by people who are knowledgeable and are known by teachers to be knowledgeable. Unfortunately, neither element is part of the Obama administration’s plans. Data is super-important, but how we use it matters. So where does MA stand on the use of data, you might ask. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) is a […]

Time for the Essex County Retirement Board To Go

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Governor Patrick, either through PERAC or through legislation, needs to put the Essex County Retirement Board into receivership until it can demonstrate a minimal level of compliance with basic standards of transparency, ethical conduct, and board governance. It seems support for this position is growing. What should be the final straw occurred at a meeting last week when the board tried to reelect Tim Bassett (yep, that Tim Bassett) after the Essex County DA had ruled that a previous election was invalid. And the state’s pension oversight agency, PERAC, reiterated that they alone had the right to elect the chairman. The board’s blatant unwillingness to comply with the legal and ethical standards set by the Commonwealth are the latest demonstration […]