Angel Taveras reaffirms NECAP concerns
Providence Mayor Angel Taveras reaffirmed his opposition to using the NECAP test as a graduation requirement, Dan McGowan of WPRI reported this morning. Taveras sent a letter to the state Board of Education he wrote: “I worry that state leaders have imposed a graduation requirement on our students that is tied to a questionable measurement [...]
Teacher: Keep Gist and state will see civil disobediance
“If you want mass civil disobedience from your teachers, go ahead and renew Gist’s contract,” said Brian Chidester, a teacher in the Bristol Warren school district during an impassioned speech at a teacher rally Monday. The state Board of Education begins debating the embattled education commissioner’s contract tonight. Chidester said he is prepared to lead [...]
Charter school: site students on toxic waste
Last year the General Assembly unanimously passed the “Environmental Cleanup Objectives for Schools” sponsored by Senator Juan Pichardo and representative Scott Slater. The bill, which took over three years to pass, was signed into law by Governor Chafee on June 6, 2012, nearly a year ago. Commonly referred to as the “School Siting Law,” this [...]
Board of Ed begins to debate Gist contract tonight
Former CVS CEO Tom Ryan envisioned the arena that bears his name at URI hosting high profile sporting events. Tonight at 5:30 the Ryan Center plays host to a high profile political event as the new state Board of Education begins the process of debating Deborah Gist’s future employment in Rhode Island. The Board may [...]
ACLU, others highly opposed to high stakes tests
More than two dozen community organizations, including the ACLU of Rhode Island, have this week formally asked the Rhode Island Board of Education to rescind the regulation that conditions the receipt of a high school diploma on passing a “high stakes test.” Although the groups have diverse reasons for opposing the measure, they all agree [...]
With Gist, it’s public sector enemies against the rest of RI
There’s something – if not good, at the very least honest – in getting to see the politics of public education play out publicly this week. As educators, activists and parents across the state are deriding Deborah Gist, the business community has her back. The so-often-called education reform movement – what progressives know as education [...]
Report shows education reform isn’t working
A new Economic Policy Institute report that is highly critical of the so-called “education reform” movement reads like an indictment of Deborah Gist’s tenure as commissioner of public schools in Rhode Island. The report compares large urban school districts with New York, Chicago and Washington DC – three cities that have implemented strategies almost identical [...]
Our schools and the truth about policy
The commissioner of education has an op-ed in the Providence Journal this morning. Entitled “Our Schools and the Truth about Testing” it painted a rosy picture of what high performance in schools means: “Every high-performing school I have ever visited has been a vibrant, rich educational environment where learning is fun and well-rounded, and where [...]
Department of Education responds to Sgouros post
Tom Sgouros’ post showing that Deborah Gist and the Department of Education of covered up and altering published descriptions of the NECAP test’s veracity as a graduation requirement caused quite a stir yesterday. As such, RIDE spokesman Elliot Krieger sent me this email yesterday afternoon: Commissioner Gist has been forthright about the changes in our [...]
Sneaky changes in NECAP documentation
The NECAP-as-graduation-test has occupied a lot of my attention recently. As I have written before, the NECAP test is a fundamentally different kind of test than one you would use as a graduation test. The questions you’d put on a graduation test are exactly the ones that the test designers consider a waste of time [...]
Gist surprised teachers don’t like her
Education Commissioner Deborah Gist said she was surprised and by the widespread lack of support among local teachers for her and her policies that a new Fleming and Associates poll revealed yesterday. 85 percent of teachers asked said they didn’t want her contract renewed. “I’ll definitely take it seriously,” she said. After she delivered the [...]
Dueling speeches on reforming education
There were two speeches on reforming education at the State House last night – Deborah Gist gave the annual State of Education speech inside and outside the Providence Student Union gave the State of the Student speech. The Providence Journal covered both Gist’s speech and the PSU speeches. You can read their coverage here.
Poll: Local teachers don’t like Deborah Gist
Deborah Gist isn’t very popular with the educators she is supposed to be the leading, a new poll by Fleming and Associates indicates. Almost 90 percent of teachers asked for the poll felt that moral in Rhode Island public schools is not good. More than 80 percent of the local teachers polled said they feel [...]
Another Issue With High Stakes Testing: Cheating
Education reformers in Atlanta have raised another potential concern with high stakes testing. The 2009 superintendent of the year and 34 Atlanta educators were indicted Friday for allegedly running a racket to change students’ answers on standardized tests so they would seem more proficient than they actually are. I guess this is the superman we’ve [...]
Gayle Goldin, High Stakes Test Garner National Press
There was a ton of news to be reported this week in Rhode Island, but the one that made the most national news might well be the Providence Student Union’s Take The Test event this weekend. The idea is if adults think it’s such a good idea to judge a student’s education on a singular [...]
NECAP Grad Requirement Trumps Good Grades
Just 30 percent of high school seniors in Central Falls will get diplomas, if the other 70 percent doesn’t improve on their high-stakes standardized test scores under a controversial new state graduation requirement. In Providence and Pawtucket, two of every three students won’t graduate if they don’t do any better on the test. In Johnston, [...]
‘Uproar’ Grows Over New Graduation Requirement
There are more than 4,000 local high school students in danger on not graduating because they didn’t do so well on those standardized tests that kids have historically used to hone their art skills by filling in column of multiple choice bubbles for aesthetics rather than accuracy. If you think it’s a bad idea to [...]
Zombies March Against Education Deform Efforts
The Providence Student Union’s zombie march, a planned protest from Burnside Park to the State House against standardized testing, has gone national. Diane Ravitch, the most widely read and respected blogger on the ed reform debunking beat, picked up the item today and mentions that RI Ed. Commissioner Gist probably won’t be able to make [...]
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