Providence Journal

It's harder to get into some of Rhode Island's charter schools than it is to get into the Ivy League.

Julia Steiny
Sitting in a conference room at the Providence Academy of International Studies (PAIS), four high school seniors spoke gratefully of the help and opportunities they got from the College Crusade.

This spring marks the fourth in a row that Sara and Christopher Nerone will cross their fingers and apply to the Compass School, hoping that their daughter Sophie, 9, will finally be accepted to the free, public charter school in South Kingstown.

Julia Steiny
When I was a teenager and we got our standardized test results back, I would deflect interest in my actual scores by bemoaning the fact that I got an “F” in sex.

Julia Steiny
Last February, Kelly Connerton and her husband, a chef in Boston, were living in Cumberland, but shopping around Northern Rhode Island for good schools. Their eldest son would enter kindergarten in September. They were more than willing to move to get the best education for their children.

In front of cheering spectators at UC Davis on Thursday, dozens of robots played ball. Heaps of metal on wheels whizzed around, nimbly carrying and kicking balls around the court

Julia Steiny
Public investment in low-income kids is a hard sell. Lots of people believe that their parents don’t vote and maybe even don’t count — hey, they got themselves into this fix by having babies they can’t support. Poor kids are not a popular cause, like the arts or civic improvements.

Brad Vierra didn't take his eighth-grade teachers seriously when they warned his class five years ago about tougher graduation requirements that were going into effect at East Providence High School -- and all high schools around the state.

Julia Steiny
This is the third in a series of three columns about the benefits of improving disciplinary practices.

This is the second in a series of three columns about the benefits of improving disciplinary practices. When Georgeann Lewis, a behavior specialist, came to Calcutt Middle School nine years ago, the place was a disciplinary nightmare. Fights broke out in the hallways.

Julia Steiny
When Elizabeth Legault first became principal, Calcutt Middle School, in Central Falls, was a miserable place for teaching and learning. Kids’ misbehavior was out of control. Fights erupted. Fed-up teachers threw students out of class so often, long lines snaked outside the principal’s and assistant principal’s doors.

Julia Steiny
Rhode Island’s governor has appointed an “Urban Task Force,” to see what can be done about the sad academic performance of the urban kids. The school, political and nonprofit leaders appointed to the group are a predictable mix of usual suspects spiced with a few new faces.

PROVIDENCE -- Local educators, politicians and community leaders today told U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings that while most of them support the intent behind President Bush's education reform law No Child Left Behind, they want her to consider key changes to the controversial, six-year-old law.

Julia Steiny
“I’m probably the only person in the room who was actually at the negotiating table in the mid-1960s when the first collective bargaining laws were being passed.”

PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island elementary and middle school students once again improved on statewide tests, a clear sign of sustained progress, state officials announced today.