New statewide school busing plan

From the ProJo, a new statewide busing plan aimed to save district expenditures on out-of-district busing costs. Useful application of scale and consolidation! Next step: get rid of law that mandates that students choosing to use private/parochial schools are entitled to school buses to get there.

Read this: "Rhode Island Risks Losing $4.3 Billion ‘Race to the Top’"

As the recent weather has demonstrated, when it rains, it pours. And same here: 2 blog posts in a day! I wanted to take just a minute, which is less than I have given the amount of work I've got, to share Angus Davis' statement on behalf of the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education about Rhode Island's foolish move to cut charter funding. Read Davis' statement here.

The effect is not only to squash educational innovation here in RI, but also to put our state in serious jeopardy. We are otherwise likely to be in good standing to receive competitive Race to the Top ARRA stimulus funds. With this, as well as with Governor Carcieri's move to use the first round of educational stimulus money to plug budget holes, we're losing access to those funds, and to the advancement that will result.

Lacking the time, capacity, or expertise to get deeply into this infuriating decision, I want to inspire you to learn more. Read Davis' statement, think about it, and demand better for our young people and systems set up to educate them.

summer unschool

Three more days left for kids in this school year, make-up snow days at this point. If any teachers are still planning lessons and working on content and creating powerful teaching and learning at this point in the year, wow, my hat is off to you.

Elias, my third grader and Leo, my kindergartener, both students at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School, are looking forward to summer (and, with this terrible weather we've been having, aren't we all) and sad that school is ending. Elias is captivated by science, for which we have his teacher, Kathy Sullivan, and Brown University's K-12 science program to thank. Science has replaced gym as the highlight of his week. Leo mostly talks about missing his friends, but is also reluctant to part with gym, and centers, and the routines of his classroom. I am sad that his wonderful teacher, Joan Abrames, is retiring even as I am gratified that she, and teaching assistant Ms. Eileen, and everyone at King has given Leo such a great first year of school.

Next week, I'll talk with them about what they want to learn and explore this summer. Elias wants to experiment with bridge building, and he has two research projects inspired by music, to investigate the names and places cited in "We Didn't Start the Fire" and "Harvey Haddix. I think that Leo wants to work on math and numbers, and also explore beaches and learn how they work and what's there. I think we may get down to DC, so need to get more immersed in space so we can have a great experience at the Air and Space Museums. I'll post about what they're learning this summer, and how we find ways to support that while also having fun and allowing their minds to run free. And - how we find time to support them as fulltime working parents of three young kids. I want to find a way to give them ways to explore a subject in some depth, in a project-based way, so they know how to do that and what that feels like.

And I'll get back to post about what's happening at PPSD and Providence students, including looking at summer programs and learning--both intentional programmed learning, and the great, mundane, terrible, life-shaping learning that happens no matter what. What are Providence kids learning this summer? I hope to have better citywide insight into that question by September.

(I don't want to overlook three year old Henry--he's starting camp fulltime at the JCC and will be learning what it's like to spend the day out of the house, learning a new routine, bringing his own lunch. Exciting stuff! He is fired up. I think he'll be learning a lot more; we'll be working on the alphabet and numbers through sensory stimulation now and then.)

RI equitable school funding formula: now! but how?

This past Sunday's ProJo featured "State aid formula is desperately overdue," in which Edward Fitzpatrick looks at two equitable school funding formulas that will be before the General Assembly. Rep. Edith H. Ajello, D-Providence's bill phases in a new formula over three years: 25% the first year, 50% the second, and 100% the third. Sen. Hanna M. Gallo, D-Cranston, is introducing another bill that calls for a funding approach in which "no districts would see their state aid fall under a new formula. Instead, they would stay at current levels until the formula says they deserved an increase."

Describing Ajello's bill, Rhode Island Policy Reporter wrote:

There was a bill introduced in the House last week calling for a real school aid
formula. It had 38 co-sponsors, including much of the leadership. You'd think
this was enough to pass it, wouldn't you? Silly you. A fair education formula
would cost money, and nothing that costs new money can pass this legislature,
because no one in a position of influence will endorse paying for it. They'll
"call" for a program like this, and talk about how wonderful and fair it
would be, but they won't pay for it, so it won't happen.

While the lack of will that RIPR describes make Gallo's strategy more politically viable, we're far less likely to get the results our state's education system so desperately needs, and in this case, something may not be better than nothing. Without an established implementation date, and without certainty about when funds will be available, Fitzpatrick observes, states won't get the funding predictability they require to create budgets that allow them to carry out instructional initiatives that make a real difference to learning and ultimately--as Deborah Gist, our new state education commissioner has pointed out--the state's bottom line.

Ajello's approach forces reconciliation, shifting money to some towns and away from other in order to address the inequities that have become status quo in the system. In the real money (ha) quote of his piece, Fitpatrick observes, "...while there would be winners and losers under a new formula, there are winners and losers now — meaning some districts are getting more than they should and some are getting far less." Facing that political reality and summoning the collective courage and will to address it is the most meaningful way the General Assembly can make a positive difference to the most disadvantaged populations in our state and, ultimately, to our bottom line. No one wants anyone to lose funding--there should not be losers, and with many others, I hope that state leadership will reassess priorities and combine the best of Ajello and Gallo's approaches, thereby raising all boats and damaging none.

In this financial climate, choices must be made, and the best choice is not to continue to try to ostrich the problem away. Put Ajello's funding in place, and work over its three-year phase-in to identify funds to supplement districts' budgets that may take a hit. Let the sand fall from the General Assembly's eyes so the see that this is a challenge to our state's welfare and sustainability that can't be ignored any longer.

R.I. Commissioner of Education appointed

The ProJo covered the State Board of Regents' appointment of Deborah Gist to be the next state commissioner of education yesterday. I like that she's come in talking about how great schools are the best way to revitalize a struggling economy. As her leadership direction emerges, I'll write about it here, and we'll explore the role of a state commissioner of education on the progress of schools in every community and neighborhood.

Also in question, at least at this early date, are the levels of consistency and divergence with outgoing state ed commissioner Peter McWalter. Of particular interest to me is how committed Gist will be to Rhode Island's high school graduation framework, which contain requirements for students to participate in senior projects, presentations, and portfolio assessment, as this 2008 Education Week story from last year described. In this area, Rhode Island is a leader nationwide. Among Gist's many priorities, I hope that she values this sort of performance-based assessment, which allows all students--including those who may struggle demonstrating what they know and can do solely through high stakes standardized testing--to connect to their communities, apply their academic skills to real-world situations, and demonstrate skills regarded as essential for 21st century success. 

And what will Gist do to build on McWalters' February 2009 letter that established policy that allowed cities to eliminate bumping, shifting instead to more school-based control over teacher hiring? More on that to come...

Somewhat Trusty Blogger Felled by the Flu!

My friends,

Apologies for the lack of posts here this week. I got the flu or should I say, really, the flu got me, over the weekend and it has totally roughed me up. Hot tip: don't get the flu. And yes, I actually did get a flu shot in October.

I will be back in action ASAP. If any readers have anything you'd like to post about Providence school doings, please to share in comments!

Teacher Quality state by state (bad news for RI)

Hit and run post to get discussion going; I'll be back with more analysis. The National Council on Teacher Quality released its state by state assessment of teacher quality, "2008 State Teacher Policy Yearbook," based on a variety of factors: identification of effectiveness, retaining effective teachers, and exiting ineffective teachers.

Link to national study and online data is here. Rhode Island results here.

The report provides a boatload of data that's summarized by overall scores for each state. Just like student's letter grades, these grades are a 10,000 foot snapshot that isn't useful for analysis or improvement. And just like if own kid got an F, I'd likely be dancing around trying to explain and contextualize that grade before I just told you, hey, it's an F. So I'll stop dancing and just tell you: along with the company of the District of Columbia, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, and Vermont, Rhode Island was rated "F." (A list of state's summary scores is here.)

It's key to note that the study was not looking at teacher quality per se; it examined local and state systems to ensure and improve teacher quality. We can't discuss our teacher quality on a comparative or absolute basis because we don't have a system to assess it. Many of our teachers as individuals may be great but we have no way of assessing or understanding that, or creating improvement.

Rhode Island's dismal systemic performance adds fuel for the fire for the many stakeholders (many of who are teachers themselves) demanding a better system to acknowledge their good work and professional growth, to support or eliminate ineffective teachers, and to keep good and great teachers in the system. What steps does RIDE and the districts have in place to gain traction?

More on this to come soon.