Math, Science Top Carcieri’s School Plan

By JENNIFER D. JORDAN Journal Staff Writer

To better train math and science teachers, the governor is seeking a $15-million bond issue in the fall to build high-tech classrooms and laboratories at CCRI, URI and RIC.

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PROVIDENCE – Governor Carcieri unveiled his education agenda for the coming year yesterday, reiterating his push to “move forward boldly, rapidly” in the areas of math and science education, so that Rhode Island can compete in the global marketplace.

He also outlined plans to strengthen professional development for teachers and to create a system for evaluating their performance. The governor hopes to save money by encouraging districts to collaborate on purchases, including energy, and by establishing a statewide system of busing for disabled students.

He said he will also submit a bill to prohibit junk food and soda machines from schools, replacing them with healthy snacks and drinks. Another proposal sets aside $150,000 for a pilot program that would extend the school day in urban districts until 5 p.m.

Carcieri’s education priority this year, however, is to improve the quality of math and science education — a concept that state education officials and union leaders have embraced. Toward that end, the governor is seeking a $15-million bond issue in November to better train teachers in math and science.

“Somebody has to be inventing and creating,” Carcieri said at a news conference at the State House. “The opportunities for young people today are just mind-boggling,” he said, particularly in three areas where Rhode Island already has a foothold: health and life sciences, ocean research and exploration, and defense technology.

But the United States is lagging behind other industrialized nations in both math and science education. Several states, including Massachusetts and Rhode Island, have launched ambitious math and science initiatives to boost test scores.

In Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, President Bush also highlighted the issue. Bush said he would push for 70,000 more high school teachers teaching advanced science and math courses over the next five years.

Spokespeople from the state’s two teacher unions, the Rhode Island chapters of the American Federated Teachers and the National Education Association, said enhancing math and science training for teachers was a good idea, and one they would support.

But adding professional development days to teachers’ school schedules should be left to individual districts, they said, not mandated by the state. “What Providence needs is probably different than what a wealthy district needs,” said Larry Purtil, NEA’s president.

Carcieri wants to extend a teacher’s school year to 190 days; current teacher contracts range from about 180 days to 187 days.

THE BOND PROPOSAL this November would finance the building of high-tech classrooms and laboratories at the state’s three public colleges: the Community College of Rhode Island, the University of Rhode Island, and Rhode Island College, where many of the state’s teachers are trained. New teachers will learn how to operate audio- visual technology and wireless networks in the classroom and will be trained in advanced computing technology and use upgraded science laboratories.

“We want teachers to be prepared to use this new technology,” Carcieri said. The bond would also cover computer systems to track school-district data and information on adult education.

Carcieri has also set aside $2.5 million in “targeted investments” in the fiscal year 2007 budget, due for release next week. About $200,000 would create a statewide science curriculum by 2007. Carcieri said it would resemble the statewide curricula in math and English that are being designed and are scheduled to be approved by the Board of Regents in August. Carcieri also wants to add a year of required science for high school students, increasing it from two years to three years.

The governor wants to make it easier for engineers and scientists to become certified to teach math and science by investing $75,000 in an alternative-certification program already in development at the University of Rhode Island, according to Elliot Krieger, a spokesman for the state Department of Education. In addition, Carcieri wants to create a system for adjunct math and science teachers who want to teach part-time.

The budget also includes $525,000 for the Physics First program, a pilot program in five high schools that alters the traditional sequence of science courses and teaches ninth graders physics, followed by chemistry and then biology in subsequent grades.

Other science and math proposals include: $750,000 to enhance professional development, $120,000 to hire a full-time coordinator to oversee the math and science iniatives, and $240,000 for “telepresence technology” in middle and high schools that will allow televised conferences about oceanographic research to be brought directly into classrooms. The project is linked to research conducted by oceanographer Bob Ballard of URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography.

A CHARTER SCHOOL supporter, the governor is asking lawmakers to lift the moratorium on charter schools in the state’s four largest school districts: Cranston, Pawtucket, Providence and Warwick.

Union leaders questioned the push for more charter schools. Rhode Island has 11, most of which are in urban districts. The governor has touted them as centers of innovation that provide urban students with new options.

Two years ago, however, lawmakers placed a moratorium on new charters opening up, saying they wanted more time to study the issue — a move applauded by the unions. Union leaders say charters divert scarce resources away from poor districts, because the per pupil expenditure follows the student to the charter school.

“The jury is still out,” on how effective alternative schools are, compared to the traditional model, said Colleen Callahan, who heads the Rhode Island Skills Commission, a professional development center run by the AFT. “I’m troubled by the idea that we can solve the issues of public education by turning outside of the public school system.”

Staff writer Linda Borg contributed to this report.

jjordan@projo.com / (401) 277-7254