Why I support Gayle Goldin to be the next RI District 3 State Senator

I am taking a few minutes to shift gears away from education per se and share a few thoughts about the upcoming Primary Day election, which is a week from today, on September 11. Democrat voters from my neighborhood, in State Senate District 3, will be electing a new state senator following the retirement of Rhoda Perry. (If you're not sure if you're a District 3 voter, click here for a PDF map of the district's boundaries.)

I will vote for Gayle Goldin because I believe she has the experience, commitment, and capacity for thoughtful, fair decisionmaking that we need in the Rhode Island General Assembly. I say this carefully, because also know and respect her primary opponent, Maryellen Butke. I am gratified to see a contest between two strong, smart, capable women.

Gayle is among the parents with whom I am privileged to spend lots of time with during the Little League baseball season. When we’re not cheering on our kids, we have time to talk about a whole range of education issues. Gayle asks smart questions, researches issues, understands the intricacies of policy, and considers a range of viewpoints in ways that make it clear to me that she will be an effective legislator. I know that Gayle will work on behalf of Providence's public schools in ways that build on current strengths to create better places for teaching and learning for all students. 

Gayle also understands the ways that strong public school systems--rather than a preponderance of charter schools--best serve our state's students. She knows that while charter schools have a critical place in school improvement efforts, they're not the only answer to the real challenges Rhode Island's young people face. She is committed to equitable funding and focusing the power of the state legislature to create improvements in areas such as accessible technology that can support all schools in all communities. And she knows well that good schools depend on statewide efforts to mitigate the effects of poverty, family instability, neighborhood safety, health challenges, and more.

I also respect Gayle's expertise in these other areas. She has years of experience in health care policy, women’s issues, and issues impacting families. She has a compelling personal story and a record of work and public service that have prepared her well for service in the General Assembly.

If you are a District 3 voter and haven't yet made your decision, it's up to you to learn more. Please consider attending the College Hill Neighborhood Association's candidate forum tomorrow, Wednesday, September 5 at 6:30pm at List Arts Building, 64 College Street on the Brown campus. 

And if you'd like more time with Gayle, I am co-hosting a coffee and dessert hour with her on Thursday, September 6 at 7:30pm. I’d love to see people who would like to get to know Gayle there Email me at jill.davidson@gmail.com and I'll send you an invitation.

There's baseball and then there's waiting

More accurately, for this blog's readers,  because there's baseball, there's waiting.

Sad to say, my kids' baseball days are finally over for this summer. The Fox Point East Side All Stars team lost last night to Johnston 16-0. They were most definitely outmatched but they played hard and with heart. I'm grateful to have my evenings back for a bit (until Fall Ball in September!) but will miss watching them play.

Between our three kids playing this year, plus playoff games, All Star games and now this summer tournament, we estimate we've been to around 100 baseball games this spring and summer. As I've written before, I get wrapped up in not only the games but also the guys' emotional states heading into the games. Ahead of the big game last night, I could hardly focus on work during the day and as it's been clear from the lack of posts here, I haven't been thinking about much else, either. Yes, it is summer and Providence education news is slow, but it's also that my head hasn't been in this game. It's been in the game on the field.

Serendipitously, as I was thinking about how to get this blog's engine to turn over, I came upon Moneyball, Superman, Angry Royals Fans and Education Reform? from School Finance 101 which compares inequity within Major League Baseball to school finance inequity. Apparently, I am not the only one in the headspace that connects baseball and education.

Bottom line, in education and baseball, money matters. We've been wildly distracted from dealing with the implications of economic inequity both within education and more generally. And, course, the critical difference is that baseball is a game and education - and the lives it impacts - isn't. We cannot afford, nor can we tolerate, Yankees and also-rans among our children, and we can't pretend that paying for kids' basic needs, including education, doesn't matter or can somehow be compensated for by "no excuses." I didn't like hearing the boos for Cano either, but I think that School Finance 101's Bruce Baker has a point that the KC fans weren't simply ungracious.

(Who said "there's baseball and then there's waiting?" to describe how we feel about the time after the World Series ends and spring training starts? Wish I could remember - I love that idea.)

thoughts from the sidelines, part 1

Readers of this blog know that I was on hiatus for much of the spring due to the demands of Little League. Three kids on three different teams added lots of logistics to our already busy lives. As I previously have hastened to clarify, I am not complaining. Every scrap of evidence indicates that my sons adore playing baseball, and most spring evenings, there's nowhere I'd rather be than watching them and their teammates do their thing. I see Little League season as nine weeks of insanity in which we are totally invested, knowing that the demands of that  investment will ease after the last All Star and playoff games. As much as I deeply dig it, I was eager for the end of the season in mid-June so we could get back to some semblance of a routine that, for example, allowed us to eat dinner together before nearly 8:00pm.

A couple of weeks ago, when that end was in sight, a curve ball came our way. The truly awesome volunteer coaches who run our neighborhood Little League got organized to pull together teams for a summer tournament that will, eventually, produce a local team that proceeds to a regional tournament that will, eventually, feed into the Little League World Series. Our oldest and middle sons were chosen for the 11-12 year old and 9-10 year old teams. Practices started the day after the last playoff game, with the double elimination tournament starting in late June (on Thursday of this week! 2 days from now!) and running for a few weeks. 

Of course, the guys were totally up for it, superproud and thrilled they had the chance to keep playing. And so were we--not only my husband and I but the bigger we of grandparents, friends, relatives, teachers, coworkers, pretty much anyone with whom any of us struck up a conversation. This tiny thing, their participation on these teams, gave me a glimpse into what athletic success means to people. It's something to celebrate for which most of us have a shared cultural context. 

I am proud of my kids in a thousand specific ways that have not one thing to do with measurable achievement, of course. Just to name three: I am proud of the way my oldest son took on a great deal of responsibility around the house when I started a job with a long commute last year. I am proud of the compassion, empathy, and peacemaking skills that my middle son possesses and values. I am proud of my youngest son's prodigious Lego skills and his ability to focus on what he's building for hours on end in order to achieve his vision. 

These are the things that matter most to me. Nevertheless, I found myself sharing this baseball tournament team news widely and loudly, and really enjoying people's positive reactions. I know full well that their baseball prowess has little to do with their parents. Our support and enthusiasm have made their participation possible. But the fact that the guys are good athletes who are willing to put in hours of practice--that's all them, and we celebrate them for this milestone which will very likely be over quickly. Yes, it disrupted our summer fairly significantly. We changed the dates of our summer vacation, which camps they are attending, and the hours we work. We're still eating dinner at 8:00pm when we want to eat together. My poor littlest kid, who is six - he is one tired guy and he isn't even playing. 

This has given me a peek into what the life of a sports parent - not a soccer mom, but whatever is beyond that - must feel like. And we aren't doing any of the crazy stuff. We have drawn the line at travel teams. While the guys do neighborhood sports camps, we aren't seeking out superfancy training options, and we don't plan to do so. Sometimes, people who are enthusiastic about developing kids into competitive athletes will look at the guys and suggest that we pursue these things. But right now: no. I am happy about this tournament thing, but it's as much additional disruption as we can take.

It's not easy to draw that line, and I suspect it won't get any easier as they get older and want to keep playing. I worry that we're putting our needs for convenience and a stable family life ahead of their pursuit of their passions, though I also know it would be all too easy to put them in a situation in which they could overdo it and be dealing with overuse injuries and/or burnout as teenagers. I'm just starting to discover what parents of kid athletes know very well, that figuring out what's best for your kid is tricky.

Enough for today, though there's way more to say about this and I'll be pursuing that in upcoming blog posts.

back for summer vacation...almost

At least I provided some fair warning that I'd be gone. I didn't expect to be a month's worth of gone, but attention had to be paid to work, the end of the school year (which was last Thursday, June 14), and baseball x 3.

As these things happen, now that school is over, I have more time to think and write about it. So here we re-begin. But first, a vacation day with the kids at

The one in MA, not the one in RI.

It's not going to be hot enough but one must seize one's fun while one may. We think it's a good day for fun seizing precisely because (not going to be superhot) + (some school districts are still in session) = no lines.

So, tomorrow, after a dozen trips down the water slide clear my head, back to thinking about schools.

Happy summer, everyone!

Providence School Board meeting tonight, 6:30pm, public vote on PPSD's next superintendent

Tonight, the Providence School Board is scheduled to vote on the confirmation of the next PPSD superintendent. Originally, this was slated to be a decision that took place entirely in executive session, per this Providence School Board agenda filed on Tuesday, May 1 and posted on the RI Secretary of State's website. On Friday, May 4, a revised agenda was posted stating that the board will meet first in executive session and then reconvene publicly for a vote to confirm the superintendent choice.

This is a welcome change that adds a last-minute smidgen of transparency to a process that has been secretive. I wrote last week about the undemocratic effects of the covert superintendent choice process. I very much wish to be present this evening for the vote in order to take advantage of what little opportunity for participation has been afforded. If you're just learning about this now and have any opportunity to attend, I hope that you do and that you're willing to post here in a comment or otherwise share what you saw and heard.

I didn't plan to be there, since until Friday there was no reason to be there. This week's capacity for evening meetings, already quite limited during Little League season, is already full; I'll be at the monthly PPSD Parent Advisory Council (PAC) meeting on Thursday evening (and if you want to know more about the PAC and how to participate, please let me know!). Mercifully, that's our one baseball-game-free evening this week. Part of me, of course, wants to figure out some way to get to tonight's school board meeting to witness whatever goes down. But a whole lot more of me--as much as I'd like to be there, as vital as it is that we show up and be heard--really needs to be present for my kid who will be playing tonight; for my other kids who will be at the game too; for my husband who's also trying to balance a job, a commute, and a family and who I don't wish to hit with a last-minute plea that he leave work early so I can be at the meeting tonight; and for some semblance of sanity, laundry, homework, dinner, and routine, none of which are easily had right now. 

Had this whole process been more transparent, inclusive, even marginally acknowledging of the importance of public engagement or at least public information, I'd likely have found a way to be at the meeting that should have been public all along. Yeah, I know that I've previously groused about how hard it is for many of us--particularly family members with school-age children--to react to last minute info, drop everything, and show up to stand up for what's right for our schools. We live in an imperfect world, that's just how it goes. Nevertheless, the last-minute change irks me, not because the school board vote has been made public but because it should have been public all along so that (to name just one reason) people could plan to be present  for--and perhaps even participate meaningfully in--important events in the life our our city's schools.

So, to recap: School Board meeting tonight, 6:30pm at 797 Westminster Street, during which the Providence School Board will vote on the next PPSD superintendent. Please go if you can. Please share what you saw and heard. Please know that I really wish I could be there. Thanks,

Leaving it all on the field

Am still here! Busy week at work--am working on producing three new products for release in the coming months. Exciting and intense.  On the other side of the work- life balance, a huge weight just smacked down on the life side; this week, Little League games started. Three kids playing in three divisions on three fields in two locations, each with two to three practices a week is totally awesome! It truly is.

It is also totally intense and requires a whole lot of planning and management to get kids to games, equitably spread parent attention among games, make sure uniforms are clean and equipment isn't scattered to the four winds. Also: how and when to eat dinner with games that go from 5:30 to 7:45 or later and full-time working parents handling the whole deal.

I am so not complaining. I really do love baseball season's eight weeks of intensity. All the guys have played one game do far and they are fired up for the season.

Again, not complaining, but acknowledging that a whole lot of my energy is going toward baseball logistics. I'm leaving it all on the field.  Posts are coming--more on high stakes standardized tests (lots of grumbling out there now from New York and elsewhere), the school shutdowns/takeover situation that's unfolding in Philadelphia, our family's experience playing with Khan Academy, and of course local stuff.