Providence Schools Violated State Law
Monday, August 01, 2011
Changes made to the school day last year caused Providence to fall out of compliance with the minimum instructional day regulations required by the state, GoLocalProv has learned.
Each week during the 2010/2011 school year, high school students were dismissed two hours early every Wednedsay, which adds up to nearly two weeks of lost learning time. Middle school students across the city were allowed to leave an hour early on Tuesdays throughout the year.
The reason: Beginning with last year, the state requires middle and high schools to dedicate at least one to two hours each week toward “common planning time,” an inititative used by “teams of teachers, administrators, and other educators for the substantive planning of instruction, looking at student work, addressing student needs, and group professional development,” according to the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE).
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In Providence, that extra planning time came at the expense of the students’ school time. Rather than extending the day and spending an estimated $5 million in extra pay and benefits for teachers, the School Department chose to schedule the common planning time during the school day and dismiss students early one day each week.
Providence City Councilman and former School Board member Sam Zurier, who has two children in the school system, said he became aware of the policy last fall prior to being elected and continued to research the issue throughout the year. In a letter sent to his constiuents in June, Zurier said he remains concerned.
“While school policy is not typically a City Council issue, I became concerned about the impact on our children’s education, as well as the cost we will have to assume if (as I expect) RIDE enforces this requirement next year,” he wrote.
Zurier said he plans to hold a hearing in three weeks to “invite the School Department to explain how they plan to address this issue in the coming school year.”
It’s Almost Criminal
It is unclear how the School Department managed to bypass both the School Board and RIDE in making the decision to allow students to leave school early each week. The Taveras Administration did not respond to a request for comment.
The rule is spelled out very clearly by RIDE. According to June 2004 guidelines regarding the length of the day, “the school day shall consist of not less tan five and a half (5 ½) hours (three hundred thirty (330) minutes) of actual school work, excluding lunch, recess periods, study halls, homeroom, common planning time, student passing time, pre and post teacher time, and any other time that is not actual instuctional time.”
But even parents say they were caught off guard when they learned about the early dismissals. Dawn Clifton, a mother of three with a son in a Providence high school, said her family did not reciever proper notice from the School Department.
“The early dismissal came as a very unwelcome surprise at the beginning of the 2010/2011 school year for my family,” Clifton wrote in an e-mail to GoLocalProv. “We did not receive adequate notice from PPSD and I have not seen any evidence to support how the common planning time has benefited my son. In fact, I find the loss of approximately 185 hours of instruction time per year, for a district that is failing miserably from attendance issues (students and teachers), low test scores and dropping graduation rates is irresponsible, unnecessary and almost criminal.”
Extend The School Day
While Maryellen Butke, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Campaign For Achievement Now, said she is in full support of common planning time, she agreeed that the loss of two hours of instructional time each week is unacceptable.
“Goal oriented common planning time has been shown to improve student outcomes,” Butke told GoLocalProv. “Unfortunately, in Providence, common planning time occurs on Wednesday afternoons during the school day, with students ending the day nearly two hours early. This academic time is critical for Providence students, especially with the proficiency levels so low in our capital city.
She said the school day should be made longer so teachers can adqequately prepare and students can continue to learn.
“Every minute that students spend with time on task is critical to the development of their skills,” she said. “The Providence school day should be longer in order to accomodate both common planning time for teachers as well as extended time for students.”
Difficult Year For Providence Schools
The news of the city violating the state’s minimum class time requriement comes on the heels of a difficult year for Providence Public Schools.
The city made national headlines when Mayor Taveras announced that he would be issuing termination notices to every teacher in the district (the notices were rescinded. In March, Superintendent Tom Brady announced his resignation on the same day four additional city schools were added to the list of the state’s "persistently lowest-achieving" list. And in June, GoLocalProv reported that 41 percent of high school seniors had missed at least 20 days of school, which under School Board rules, would make them inelibile to graduate.
The common planning time rules only add to the disruption, according to Clifton.
“I am utterly and completely against the early dismissal days for PPSD,” she said. “t may work for other districts, but I don't think it's best for our students at this time.”
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