Atlantic Cup Yacht Race Comes to Newport This Weekend

Catch the action of the inshore race at Fort Adams this Saturday and Sunday!

Rogers Students to Explore Ballard Park

Rogers’s science teacher, Beth Copeley, coordinated the trips with the Friends of Ballard Park thanks to a grant from the Newport Education Foundation.

As the school year rolls into spring time and sunshine, Rogers High School students are being given the opportunity to explore the natural beauty of Ballard Park. Thanks to the expertise of Friends of Ballard Park members and a local geologist, freshman science classes at Rogers High School are receiving a thorough lesson in the geological history of Ballard Park. This trip helps prepare the students for the unit they are beginning about Earth's geological history, while giving them a strong background of the changes that have shaped the land right in our neighborhood. Rogers’s science teacher, Beth Copeley, coordinated the trips with the Friends of Ballard Park thanks to a grant from the Newport Education Foundation. The trip is a way to …

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Do High School Rankings Mean Anything?

Newsweek, GoLocalProv.com, and RI-CAN recently offered their rankings of Rhode Island high schools — how do you look at this information?

  Over the past couple of weeks, several sources — both local and national — have issued their rankings of high schools in Rhode Island. And while it may be an accomplishment to be named the state's top high school by one group, parents and students may be left scratching their heads when they read other results. Take Rogers High School, for example. GoLocalProv.com named the home of the home of the Vikings number 20 out of 49 high schools in Rhode Island and at $18,727 per year, claims that Rogers High School has the highest per pupil cost of any other high school in the state. The Daily Beast didn't include them at all in its national rankings and the advocacy group RI-CAN listed Newport 28th out of 39 school districts in school …

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nptresident

3:57 am on Thursday, May 16, 2013

Do you just make stuff up?   more ›

ASA World Champions on the Rhode Show

The All Saints Academy Robotics Team, Mindstorms Mayhem, appeared on WPRI's the Rhode Show to give Rhode Island a glimpse of their award-winning research project.

Community Volunteers Wanted to Assist With Superintendent Search

Members of the community are encouraged to provide input into the search for a new superintendent

The Newport School Committee is calling on the community to participate in the search process for a new superintendent to succeed Newport Superintendent Jack Ambrogi, who will be retiring in January 2014. The committee has hired New England School Development Council to assist in the hiring process. Ken DeBenedictis, a retired school administrator and superintendent, is the Newport consultant. Several focus groups that are scheduled in May and June are open to the public. Input gathered from the focus groups will provide the framework for the profile of the new superintendent. Focus Groups Schedule With the exception of the school committee focus group, no members of the school committee will participate in the focus groups. Monday, May 13…

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Report: Newport Schools Show Improvement, Still Struggle

A report released by the research and advocacy group RI-CAN gave the Newport School District an overall grade of "C" for student proficiency advocacy

Almost half of Newport high school students struggle to demonstrate proficiency in math and reading, according to a new report released by the Rhode Island research and advocacy group RI-CAN. The analysis used New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) data for third through eighth and 11th grade, and four-year graduation rates for high schools. Data was provided by the Rhode Island Department of Education. Newport students are not alone. By eighth grade, 42 percent of Rhode Island students do not test proficient in math and 22 percent are not proficient readers, according to RI-CAN.  A greater 60 percent of black and Latino eighth-graders are not proficient in math and about 40 percent are not proficient readers. Newport Schools …

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nptresident

9:29 pm on Tuesday, May 7, 2013

By the way, my widget comment was about expectation by the state and the testing involved. Not the instruction in the classroom. It's my prerogative to use whatever name I want....   more ›

OMGPD: Repeat Offenders

Take a look at some of the more compelling police reports from around the state. An arrest does not indicate a conviction.

Man Hits Milestone 28th Arrest A man from South Kingstown has probably experienced more arrests than some first-year police officers after he was nabbed for his 28th — yes, 28th — arrest this week. For his 28th, the 47-year-old man went all out with a felony charge of possession of crack cocaine. As for his other 27 arrests, the man seems to like diversity. He’s been charged with drug crimes, receiving stolen goods, disorderly conduct, assault and property destruction, to name a few. In 1999, he even had a charge of attempting to escape from a correctional facility. For now, he’s been ordered to serve an 18-month suspended sentence and 18 months of probation, as well as substance abuse counseling. …Not To Be Upstaged Speaking of repeat …

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City Manager Tells Superintendent There is a ‘Crisis in Confidence’

An email exchange this week between the city manager and the superintendent of schools raised concerns about transparency in the budget process.

Email communications between Newport City Manager Jane Howington and Superintendent Dr. John Ambrogi highlighted growing tensions between the city and the school department, relating to the budget process and what Howington described as the School Committee's “lack of commitment” to work toward shared services.  Howington sent a letter Monday stating she felt it was necessary to provide a more detailed analysis of how she made budgetary decisions for the proposed fiscal 2014 budget. “The inability of the school department to develop and maintain well planned budgets is a factor that has created a crisis in confidence for city leadership,” wrote Howington. “In both of the last two years the submitted school budget request came forward with…

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