Among the report’s highlights:
The great majority of students are not learning on, or even near, grade level.
With rare exception, teachers are demoralized and feel unsupported.
Most parents feel shut out of their children’s education.
Principals find it very difficult to demonstrate leadership.
Many school buildings are deteriorating across the city, and some are even dangerous to students’ and teachers’ wellbeing.
You can view local television coverage of the “devastating” report here and here.
Meanwhile, the Digest of Education Statistics shows that Rhode Island spent a total of $16,496 per pupil in the 2014-15 school year compared to Florida’s per-pupil expenditure of $9,962.
The John Hopkins researchers visited multiple Providence classrooms and found reading classes where no one was reading and French classes where no one was speaking French. They did, however, observe kindergarten students punching each other in the face, students staring at their phones during class, and students communicating over Facetime during class. One can only shudder to think what might be going on when university researchers aren’t touring the school.
Madison spends far more, between $18 and $20K/student, despite tolerating long term, disastrous reading results.