Education Crisis: Four Providence Schools Still Have No Plans For Next Year
Monday, July 04, 2011
On March 29, the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) identified four Providence schools (and the RI School for the Deaf) as persistently low achieving and in need of intervention, setting a 45 day deadline for the Providence School Department to select one of four potential school-reform models.
Nearly two months after the deadline, a decision has still not been made.
Now School Department officials say plans are on hold while education leaders and parents are demanding to be more informed about potential changes on the horizon for Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School, Hope Information Technology School, Mount Pleasant High School and Mary E. Fogarty Elementary School.
The Options
RIDE identifies schools as failing based on a formula that shows poor performance in a number of areas over the course of multiple years. The schools are then given four potential options for intervention, which fall under federal guidelines.
The options include: Restart, which involves reopening the school under new management; Transformation, which brings in a new principal and includes more evaluations for teachers; Turnaround, which gets rid of half of the teaching staff and fires the principal; and school closure.
Five schools that were selected for intervention in 2010 (including Central Falls) have chosen the transformation model.
Process On Hold
The plan calls for implementation of the school-reform models to take place over the course of three years, but school districts are encouraged to move “as quickly as they are able” according to a press release issued by RIDE in March.
But in Providence, plans have not progressed at all. When asked for comment, Mayor Angel Taveras’ communications office referred all questions to the School Department. Schools Spokeswoman Christina O’Reilly said it is her understanding that the whole process has been put on hold.
“The RI Department of Education is still sorting through some issues with the federal guidance, so Providence is unable to proceed with the schools identified in 2011 until that is settled,” O’Reilly said.
Discussions Continue
But RIDE spokesman Elliot Krieger said the state is still discussing options with the school district. He did not mention federal guidelines as the reason for the missed deadline.
“We are in discussions with the Providence district about the selection and design of a model for the reform of the persistently lowest-achieving schools identified this year,” he said. “As with the persistently lowest-achieving schools identified last year, the selection of the school-reform model involves a series of stages and discussions before the Commissioner approves the selection.”
Parent Doesn’t Understand
A decision doesn’t necessarily need to be made the start of the school year. The schools identified in 2010 didn’t have their plans officially approved by Education Commissioner Deborah Gist until this March, although implementation had already begun.
But some parents say the entire process hasn’t been transparent and that they are unsure about what the future will hold. Tatiana Ramos, whose child is supposed to start their freshman year at one of the failing high schools, said she had no clue about the reforms set to take place.
“No one told me anything,” she said. “I haven’t heard about the schools changing anything. It would be nice to know what’s happening.”
Leadership Transition To Blame
Part of the problem, according to Karen Feldman, the Executive Director of Young Voices, is that the school district’s central office has been decimated in recent months. On the same day the schools were identified as failing, Superintendent Tom Brady announced that he would not be returning for another school year.
Since then, the district has lost its Chief of Staff, Chief Academic Officer and handful of other top administrators. Feldman said this makes implementation a difficult task.
“The situation is complicated,” she said. “There is so much transition going on and this is the cost of leadership turnover.”
Feldman said her biggest concern is making sure students are involved in the reform process. She said both Central Falls and Juanita Sanchez (the combination of Cooley and the Providence Academy Of International Studies) have done an excellent job including young people in their decision-making process since being identified as low-performing in 2010.
“Once you figure out what you want to do, the students have to be involved in the redesign,” she said. “Who else would know how to make the school more engaging?”
Parents Should Demand Answers
But “figuring it out” has been the issue. It is now July and with the School Department saying plans are on hold, the timeline for the entire process appears to be up in the air. Rhode Island Campaign For Achievement Now Executive Director Maryellen Butke said it is time for the community to step up and ask questions.
“Although four additional Providence Public Schools were named as Persistently-Low Achieving in 2011, we have not yet seen the plans to turn these schools around,” she wrote in an e-mail. “With only two months remaining before school opens, parents and young people should demand answers!”
Butke had but one question.
“How can we force parents to send their children to failing schools without a clear plan for improvement,” she asked. “The children of Providence deserve excellent schools and it is our responsibility to ensure that they have a first class education. “
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Comments:
barnaby morse
6:51am on Monday, July 04, 2011
Let's hope Providence has more sense than to follow the debacle in CF. That really worked out well!
Buc Kner
7:17am on Monday, July 04, 2011
students involved in reform process? REALLY? why not eliminate the teachers & the kids can teach each other on a new curriculum: how to text & facebook in class, how to smoke pot, how to drink illegally, gang initiations, 4years of routine disrespect, etc etc
students & reform?? really?
John McGrath
7:26am on Monday, July 04, 2011
Don't be so negative about not planning. As a distinguished English gentleman points out, not planning has its positive side.
"The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression." ... Sir John Harvey-Jones
Concerned Taxpayer
8:43am on Monday, July 04, 2011
Let us not forget the Commissioner's role in this debacle....the reason there has been no planning is because Gist reported the wrong information! Providence can't plan until they have identified the correct schools as lowest performing.
Charles Drago
9:04am on Monday, July 04, 2011
_________________________
Throughout the 2010 campaign cycle, David Cicilline boasted of how "proud" he was of what he had done for Providence public schools.
The lowest performing school district in America is one of David Cicilline's despicable legacies. And when his Primary opponent Anthony Gemma held a press conference on City Hall steps to reveal documentary evidence of Cicilline's criminal mismanagement, he was ignored by the vaunted "investigative" press of Rhode Island (Go Local Prov excepted, by the way).
And so I ask the Raised Pinky Radicals of Providence's East Side -- the David Cicilline enablers who, along with the aforementioned press and Democratic "leader" Gordon Fox, must be held chiefly responsible for the elevation of the Little Liar to Congress -- if they are proud of themselves.
For Myrth York, Howard Sutton, Gordon Fox and company stood silent as their champion, David Cicilline, victimized the children of Providence public schools in the name of his own sick ambition.
David Cicilline bought off the East Side Progressives with one rebuilt middle school.
Oh Myrth York ... Do you have anything to say to the children of the rest of Providence's failing public schools?
I know that David Cicilline does.
"Screw you, suckers!" says David Cicilline to our children.
stephanie zhou
10:08am on Monday, July 04, 2011
Maybe when Brady open his consulting firm he will help turn around the Providence schools.
Hope should hve been left with the plan they had in place, they wwew starting to make progress. Parents if you have questions about your child's school and cirriculum get involved, be part of the process.
The ES needed to have a middle school, there were no alternative in the school departments descision to reopen Nathan Bishop. One thought though to the East Siders is that it is a Providence Middle School, not a ES middle school.
Nina Stoner
11:46am on Monday, July 04, 2011
Here's a plan. Forget politics. Forget brain research and teaching with poverty in mind. Forget alternative assessments and layered lessons. Put students in uniforms. Institute discipline policies and enforce them. Teach the basics first. Allow teachers to do their jobs, and support them in their efforts. Demand parent involvement and hold the parents accountable for their child's education and behavior.
None of this is rocket science.
Charles Drago
12:01pm on Monday, July 04, 2011
____________________________
Right.
Back to the Dark Ages.
Back to the Hitler Youth.
Uniforms ... discipline ... enforcement ...
No science ... no thought ...
Screw all that "enlightenment" jazz!
Obey orders!
Sorry, but the alternative to the horror that is David Cicilline is not mandatory singing of the "Horst Wessel Song."
Nina Stoner
1:19pm on Monday, July 04, 2011
Drago Dude, You’re right in that this isn’t “1984,” but your Neo-Nazi comments are off base. I’m not talking about incinerating children if they don’t sit on the line. Unless you’ve been in a classroom during the last 15 years or so, you don’t have a clue. And when I say classroom, I’m not talking about a suburban classroom where the demographics slant toward white bread society; I’m talking about Title I inner city schools. I’m referring to tough kids, weapons, drugs, gangs, etc. I’m talking reality not fantasy.
“Enlightenment jazz”? Really? If you’ve read the books about brain research written by non-scientific authors and then you read the research by the scientific community, you’ll see that the “new” trend to “teach to the brain” that’s being embraced by the education community is years away from practical application. Madeline Hunter, teaching using icons, LAPS, individual instruction, alternative assessments, quantum learning, Harry Wong, Eric Jensen, Summerhill, differentiated learning, layered lessons to name just a very few “fads” that have come and gone through the years are just that – fads.
Your comments tell me that you “jest at scars that never felt a wound.” Until we put discipline back in the classroom, until we make parents accountable for their child’s education and actions, and until we hold students accountable for their part in the learning process, all of the “best laid schemes” by those who aren’t in the classroom will continue to “go oft awry.”
Ed Jucation
9:01am on Tuesday, July 05, 2011
With an incompetent and vindictive Executive Director of High Schools in place it's no wonder these 3 high schools are the pits. The Providence School Department continues to promote those of questionable ethics, inexperience and those interested in "getting even" with those they perceive have slighted them. The entire third floor of 797 Westminster Street should be clean out and true professionals brought in.
Charles Drago
9:17am on Tuesday, July 05, 2011
_____________________________________
The "third floor" of the Providence public schools administration building was infested by David Cicilline with his political rats -- a group of operatives with little or no experience/success as educators but with plenty of the arrogance, vindictiveness, and staggering incompetence that characterizes their boss of bosses.
As David Cicilline's surrogates, these individuals willingly enabled the disgraced and disgraceful mayor to run roughshod over Providence public schools -- and in the process wreak havoc on the education and the futures of our children.
If such neglect and even abuse were to occur elsewhere, the neglectful and abusive would face civil and criminal charges.
In David Cicilline's Providence -- as mythologized and protected by the likes of Myrth York and the Providence Journal -- they are hailed for their "service" to our city and our children.
Ed Jucation
9:39am on Tuesday, July 05, 2011
How's this for criminal behavior. In 2005, 33 laptop computers "disappeared" from Hope High School. After a State Police investigation, the computers were found at the home of Nkoli Onye, one of the Principals at Hope. State Police confiscated the computers and the donor of the computers, IBM, wanted to press charges. Someone high up covered for her and she was fined a couple weeks pay. 2 years later, she was promoted to Executive Director of High Schools! Her actions denied students the use of those computers, some of which she gave away to friends and students. Anyone who spoke out about this incident was put on a "Do Not Hire" list. Sounds unbelievable but absolutely true.
Charles Drago
10:54am on Tuesday, July 05, 2011
_______________________
"Someone high up" is just not good enough.
Neither is "covered for her."
Specific names and actions must be presented before an investigation can be mounted -- or, for that matter, before politically damaging revelations can be honorably presented.
Ed Jucation
12:05pm on Tuesday, July 05, 2011
State police investigated...there must be a report...I do not know who "covered for her" but obviously someone did. Last year a teacher at Providence Career and Technical Academy stole 2 laptop computers. He was arrested, led out in hand cuffs and eventually fired. I suggest searching for the State Police investigative report, although that may have been "covered up" also. I will keep you posted.
Charles Drago
12:14pm on Tuesday, July 05, 2011
_________________________
The Problem with Pseudonyms
"Ed Jucation," I don't know who you are, so by definition you cannot take what follows "personally."
But with the entity alternately known as "lOUIS PRIMA" and "Buc Kner" -- and others -- lurking to do David Cicilline's business, your pseudonym sets off alarm bells.
So too does your direct appeal to me -- a frequent target of Cicilline's surrogates (including Gonzalo "There's Profit in Peace" Cuervo -- watch the headlines for more on that soon-to-break story).
So just to get on the record: If this is a set-up, don't bother.
If, however, you're sincere, then please keep it coming.
Ultimately, I'll be the judge.
Again, if you're on the level, no offense intended.
John McGrath
2:44pm on Tuesday, July 05, 2011
ON THE THIRD FLOOR PROBLEM: This whole story, with some helpful specific leads, sounds like a good story for the New York Times. The Times is bound to do a story on Cicilline. But the stories here, if corroborated, would make for a truly big article. Of course, Cicilline is probably going to brand himself as a spokesperson for education to ingratiate himself with the Obama people. The way Paolino, driving around high in his limo, branded himself as the anti-drug mayor. Yikes!
John McGrath
2:47pm on Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Another angle for the NY Times on the Cicilline Illusion would be the role of the moneyed "liberals" on the East Side. Could they really have been that naive?
Charles Drago
3:02pm on Tuesday, July 05, 2011
_____________________________
To be clear, I define my politics as locating me distantly to the left of Che Guevara.
Accordingly, my contempt for the East Side Raised Pinky Radicals is not rooted in their political values, but rather in the disconnect between those self-espoused values and their actions.
The York Barrel politics they practice reflect physical and intellectual cowardice and a sense of entitlement so overpowering that they would sooner sacrifice the agendas they allegedly hold most dear rather than admit that, in David Cicilline, they backed the most personally corrupt and professionally incompetent candidate in the history of RI politics.
So no, I don't think that naivete explains the Raised Pinky Radicals' support of David Cicilline. Rather, it is ego -- the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity -- and the near-total absence of the courage of their convictions that tell the true tale.
The Raised Pinky Radicals of Providence's East Side continue in the roles of David Cicilline's enablers and willing executioners. The terrible fates of Providence's public education and the children it so heinously abuses, and the economic ruin of Providence, are their legacy.
So when Democratic "leaders" like York and Gordon Fox and M. Teresa Paiva-Weed step forward to defend David Cicilline, let all of us who cherish our Progressive principals look them in their watery eyes and say, "Shame on you!" and "Be gone from public life!"
Ed Jucation
8:58am on Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Charles I assure you I am on the level. I use a pseudonym because I fear for my job. I assure you that what I have said is true: The Executive Director of High Schools stole 33 computers from Hope High School and the story was covered up, as are many stories in the public schools. I am going to follow through and try to obtain the State Police report on this incident. Read this link for another story about this Principal. http://www.proteun.org/news/archives/arc10-2005.html
Mrs. Silva
10:54am on Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Ed speaks the truth!
In RI, only liars and fools speak openly in public.
Mrs. Silva
11:01am on Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Sounds like Butke wants charters.
Feldman waits to see who her group will impersonate, or rather, advocate for/against.
But it is all about the kids for both of these leaders, right?
Charles Drago
11:03am on Wednesday, July 06, 2011
_________________________
"Ed Jucation,"
I accept and understand your rationale. And I suspect that you will understand why I'll continue to be suspicious -- to varying degrees -- of all pseudonymous postings.
As for "Mrs. Silva," I'll simply note that her/his/their comment, if honestly offered, is the insightful product of a poisoned culture.
Recall the lyrics to "Fools Rush In" -- although given the decline of the aforementioned culture, you'll likely have to head to GOOGLE.