Teachers Don’t Like Bumping, Either

As reported by Linda Borg in today’s Providence Journal, Superintendent Evans convened the newly revived “Teachers’ Council” yesterday, to hear teachers’ views about problems in the public schools, and their potential solutions. Teachers expressed concerns about the condition of facilities, funding problems, curriculum and other issues. We at ESPEC were very interested to [...]

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Kindergarten Registration Is Here!

Update: The website Kidoinfo is an excellent resource for Providence Parents. ESPEC Steering Committee member Jill Davidson has a very detailed post about the registration process here.
Tell your friends and neighbors who have small children!
Registration for Providence Public School Kindergarten begins, tomorrow, today February 27th, and continues through April 12th. Registration is [...]

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RIPEC Report on Education Spending

The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council has released its 2008 report on education spending in Rhode Island. Among the highlights are the following:
• “Rhode Island continues to depend more heavily on property taxes to finance education than the rest of New England and the country”. Over 60 percent of education revenues came from local [...]

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East Side Monthly Education Column

Sam Zurier’s most recent column, In the February issue of the East Side Monthly, discusses the authority of the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) to intervene at the district and school level, as was done at Hope High School.  He notes that RIDE  has recently directed attention toward peformance issues in middle schools. Sam [...]

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Donnie Evans Speaks Up

Another link to a Providence Journal article. Superintendent Donnie Evans, under fire from several quarters, gave an extensive interview to the ProJo’s Linda Borg.
I offer the the article without comment, with one exception. Dr. Evans said,
“I need to be hearing from parents, teachers and principals in a less formal way,” Evans said. “People [...]

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Keeping our Children’s Schools Safe

As we approach the start of construction work at Nathan Bishop, we have been relieved to learn from the City that there are no significant environmental concerns about the site. There are no underground storage tanks or other issues that would suggest that the site is in any way hazardous to students who attend. Remediation [...]

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Bumping Bill in Today’s Providence Journal

In the Metro section of today’s Providence Journal, Linda Borg reports on anti-bumping legislation which has been drafted by ESPEC’s Sam Zurier and submitted by the ESPEC Steering Committee to House Majority Leader Gordon Fox and Senator Rhoda Perry. In addition to discussing the bill itself, the story reports that state Commissioner of Education [...]

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ProJo Editorial: Support Your Public School

An editorial in Sunday’s Providence Journal comments on a very succesful effort at Classical High School, where many East Siders attend, to call on alumni to support the school. The editorial cites Classical as an example of a broader the need for citizens to include public schools as part of their plans for charitable giving. [...]

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More Teacher Layoffs Statewide

Despite the words “East Side” at the beginning of our name, ESPEC has always been heavily invested in the idea of improving public education across Providence. As we have emphasized, building a strong middle school at Bishop is a step in getting East Siders more invested in public education, which is, in turn, a [...]

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When Labels Mislead

While no one doubts that Rhode Island’s schools, especially those in urban areas, have plenty of room for improvement in student performance, many of the accounts in the press and elsewhere give an excessively negative picture, and ignore the good news. That’s been particularly true when it comes to test score reports.
As reported on [...]

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Reminder- Meeting Tonight

This is a reminder that there will be a meeting tonight for parents and guardians who, at this point, believe it very likely that they will be sending their children to Nathan Bishop Middle School, either when it opens in the Fall of 2009, or soon thereafter. Your attendance tonight implies no commitment, but we [...]

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Pink Slips and Bumping Elsewhere

The blog Hard Deadlines has an item today about pink-slipping of teachers that mirrors, on a smaller scale, the process in Providence. Here are a few snippets:
In a ritual as sere and overdetermined as Noh drama, the Portsmouth School Committee this evening underwent their yearly “predeprivation proceeding,” or in common parlance, sent pink slips [...]

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Another Round of Bumping

Today’s Providence Journal reports that layoff notices have been delivered to 600 Providence teachers. There are about 2,000 teachers in the system.
According to the ProJo, and consistent with past years, most of the teachers will eventually be hired back. Current plans provide for the elimination of 66 positions, which accounts for only 11% of [...]

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Providence Public School Student Wins Shakespeare Competition

Ari Brisbon, a student at Hope High School on Providence’s East Side, has won the state Shakespeare Acting and Recitation competition.
Arts supporters and dedicated ESPEC readers will remember that the theater progam at Hope High was almost killed in the summer of 2006, but was saved at the last minute through the efforts of [...]

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A Progressive View of the Future of R.I. Education

Yesterday’s Providence Journal contains an editorial by David Segal and Matt Jerzyk that is highly relevant to issues of education. Segal represents the East side of Providence in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, and has been a consistent supporter of ESPEC’s goal of improving public education. Jerzyk is the editor of the [...]

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Students showing progress on tests

The Providence Journal reported Tuesday that Rhode Island students, and urban students in particular, posted strong gains in the Fall, 2007 adminstration of the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) tests.  The NECAP is the instrument used by RI and several other New England states to measure progress in educational achievment.
Statewide, the improvement was 3 [...]

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Bumping Legislation and Letter

Below are links to the text of the the bumping legislation that ESPEC submitted to Majority Leader Fox and Senator Perry, and the accompanying letter.

Bumping Bill Text

Bumping Bill Letter

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