Cut Chiefs Before Indians

Ken O’Brien

According to The Worcester Telegram, Superintendent of Schools Sheryl Stanton observed, “With the [restructure] proposal defeated, … more money will be needed in the budget to fill gaps the district has with instructional coaching for staff, positions it needs for English Language Learners, to develop a discipline program and support for students, and to create positions around truancy and attendance problems.
She said the team would have to go back to the drawing board to reassess goals as a committee and district.” 

How Do We Fix Our Schools?

Ken O’Brien

With the election for local cities and towns on the horizon, GoLocalWorcester.com recently conducted interviews with candidates for the Worcester School Committee.

While Worcester is substantially larger than Southbridge, it shares many characteristics with our community.

Both are level IV public school districts.

Spending Our Way Out Of Level IV

Ken O’Brien

Today’s Worcester Telegram contains an articles by Brian Lee titled “Southbridge schools seek big budget hike”.

In that article Acting Superintendent of Schools Sheryl Stanton makes the observation, “Southbridge is a Level 4 underperforming district with 2,262 students. It projects an enrollment increase of 88 students in 2015-16, Ms. Stanton said.

Its per-pupil spending is $13,366. But similar districts that are working to shed their underperforming status, such as Salem, Holyoke and Randolph, spend $14,873, $16,151 and $15,587, respectively.”

She doesn’t mention other school districts that are also Level IV such as Athol-Royalston, Fall River and New Bedford that spend $13,378, !3,534 and $12,802 per pupil respectively.

MCAS 2014: 4 Year Comparisons

Ken O'Brien

Results for Southbridge, all grade levels.

Just For The Sake Of Being "Fair And Balanced"

New Studies Show Mixed Results Internationally For U.S. Elementary Education

Ken O’Brien

Following several years of dismal reports on the declining state of American education in the international arena, a new set of studies show mixed signs of progress among elementary school students.

On the bright side, substantial progress has been made in reading levels among fourth graders.

On the other hand, little if any progress has been achieved in science or mathematics at both the fourth grade and eighth grade levels.