Guest MINDSETTER™ Brett Smiley: A Clear Path to Success for Providence Schools
Friday, June 13, 2014
Our schools are vital to any efforts to transform Providence. When we invest in our schools, our students and our teachers, we make down payments in the future of Providence. But to improve our schools takes much more than an investment in our school buildings, although we do indeed need to fix our buildings. Improving education in Providence requires leadership that recognizes what is at stake and can get needed things done. Our students cannot learn if they lack adequate transportation to get to school. Our students cannot learn if they come to school hungry. Our students cannot learn if high rates of lead poisoning, asthma, diabetes, and other chronic, preventable and treatable illnesses keep them out of the classroom. Our students cannot learn if they lack access to books and technology that can lift their minds and expand their horizons.
And here’s the good news – this can all be accomplished! With a good eye for budgeting, the right strategies to recruit and retain the best teachers, a student-centered approach to education and a little creative thinking, we can dramatically improve the quality of public education in Providence. Last week I introduced my education plan, titled “School Success: Achievement for All” (the full plan can be read at smileyformayor.com/schools). That’s what we need – achievement for ALL our students, in every classroom, in every school, and that’s what this plan delivers.
In my plan, I outline the path to success for our schools. We must set high standards and expectations, invest in early childhood education initiatives that help enable students to enter school ready to learn, identify and support struggling students early on, give our teachers more freedom to innovate and more. I will implement new strategies to attract better teachers and leaders into our schools and fix crumbling school buildings. And I will oversee a biannual performance review to improve school services, cut wasteful spending, and free up funding to pay for services that directly enhance student achievement. Reviews such as this have saved millions of dollars in school districts around the country, and it’s unacceptable that Providence has never done a review of this sort.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIf you ask anybody what makes the biggest difference in education, the answer is always the same: a great teacher. We have some fantastic teachers in Providence, but there isn’t enough attention placed on allowing them to collaborate and share new strategies and ideas, nor is there a strong enough emphasis on outreach and on making Providence an attractive place to teach. Also, our best teachers should have the opportunity to remain as teachers and mentor their younger colleagues. Far too often, great teachers become administrators merely as a step up the career ladder, but this takes them out of the place many would rather be – the classroom. That’s why I’ve proposed a “master teacher track” so that our best teachers can gain better salaries and professional prestige while still doing a job they love.
At the end of the day, the path forward requires bringing everyone – student, teachers, school administrators, parents, community organizations, and businesses – to the table. Our schools will be successful only to the extent that their leadership is devoted to a quality education for all, open communications, and a commitment to collaboration and partnerships that support better outcomes for all Providence students.
We have an obligation to provide, and our students have a right to receive, a high quality public education. If we truly wish to drive student achievement, we need a mayor with the skill-set to see beyond the four walls of the classroom and clear away the barriers that are preventing too many of our students from succeeding. Effective education does not exist in a vacuum. It needs to work in tandem with everything the city can do to improve transportation, healthier outcomes, poverty, housing, libraries, access to the Internet, and public safety. As Mayor, I will start this process and I will see it through to the end.
Brett Smiley is running in the September Democratic primary for Mayor of Providence.
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