Springfield’s Empowerment Zone Schools Thrive- A Model for Providence?

por Jonathan Howard

Providence Schools have struggled to show any signs of significant improvement over the last five years of state control. Meanwhile, through state intervention of another kind, a group of public middle and high schools in the very poor urban district of Springfield, have thrived. Since [...]

Harry Kizirian 1925-2002: An Angel Without Wings

by Jane Lancaster

Names on school buildings are often from historical eras long gone, making it difficult to keep the honor alive.  The life of Harry Kizirian, who died in 2002, on the other hand, is well within human memory. Kizirian is remembered in Providence most for his [...]

Fiscal vise squeezes Providence students

por Jonathan Howard

UPDATE: Prior to publication, we requested clarification of two budget line descriptions from the Providence Public School Department. PPSD’s response was received only after this article was released. These clarifications are now included in the article. Last November, after months of sniping among the parties, [...]

Music From Junk

by John Sumerlin

Making musical instruments out of recycled or discarded materials, ergo junk, is a worldwide phenomenon. There are entire orchestras in Venezuela and other relatively impoverished cultures, where children use junk instruments to participate in orchestras of their peers, learning to play and concertize together. There [...]

Dual Language Education Offers A Vision for Providence’s Schools

by Diego Arene-Morley

The Boston Globe report on the results of the statewide academic test, the RI Comprehensive Assessment System (RICAS) on October 18, 2024, included one bright spot:  “Students who recently exited multilingual learner (MLL) programs scored higher than the statewide average in both English Language Arts [...]

Legacy Laws Are Hurting Providence Public School Students

by Julia Steiny

Failing urban students is a time-honored habit in Rhode Island, first documented exhaustively in the 1993 ProBE report. The equally depressing 2019 Johns Hopkins report also focused on toxic provisions in the Providence teachers’ contract.  But unlike those two reports, the May 2024 legislative commission [...]

Mary Colman Wheeler (1846-1920) Visionary Artist, Educator, and Founder of Wheeler School         

by Jane Lancaster

Best remembered locally for founding Wheeler School on Providence’s East Side, she was also an internationally known artist and educator, exhibiting in the Paris Salon, receiving an honorary degree from Brown in 1911, and a medal from the French government honoring her role as an [...]

Providence pagará 15 millones de dólares para resolver la disputa con el Estado sobre la financiación escolar

por Alexander Castro

La ciudad de Providence destinará 15 millones de dólares adicionales a sus colegios públicos, lo que evitará una crisis presupuestaria que amenazaba con afectar a servicios para los alumnos, como las actividades deportivas y los abonos de autobús, en los próximos meses, según los términos de un acuerdo alcanzado esta semana con el [...]

The Rise and Fall of Esek Hopkins

by Jane Lancaster

Esek Hopkins (1718-1802) lived a long life as a public figure and sea captain and served as the first commander-in-chief of the American Navy. His current reputation is poor, however, after captaining the disastrous voyage of the slave ship Sally. Was he a hero or [...]

Hope Scholarship Shows Promise at Rhode Island College

por Alexander Castro

The Hope Scholarship at Rhode Island College (RIC) seems to be living up to its title by producing small gains in the school’s lagging enrollment, the first annual review of the program shows. Less than a year into the program, RIC has seen higher retainment [...]