Education Stimulus Dollars at Work

Ever since President Obama announced his plans to devote $100 billion to education, I’ve been following the trail of stimulus dollars, as best I could, from a distance. For instance, I’ve read (and posted) about:  millions of education dollars being misused by several state governors for other purposes;  a $5 billion federal school turnaround initiative; and the $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund. But when I try to zoom in further, moving from a national and state level down to the level of specific districts and schools, the money trail becomes more difficult to follow. I often wonder: What are some of the concrete ways these dollars are being used to help particular students in particular schools?

Thanks to an article in today’s Providence Journal,  I’ve been able to find out.

The Segue Institute for Learning, a charter middle school in Central Falls, Rhode Island, opened its doors for the first time yesterday to 60 sixth graders. The mission of the school is simple: to help its community close the achievement gap. And funding for the school, to the tune of $800k, came directly from the General Assembly courtesy of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

As is typical of many charter schools, Segue adopted an expanded learning time model (more on that here) with students in school from 7:00am to 4:30pm daily, and a longer than normal academic year. It is a “full-service community school” employing a community outreach officer to help engage parents, and to connect them to social service agencies and adult education courses as needed. Parents are also invited to attend classes with their children twice each month.

The middle school plans to expand by one grade level each year until it has 240 students in sixth through eighth grade.

Finally! A concrete example of stimulus dollars at work! The Providence Journal article shows a picture of one little girl beaming proudly after receiving her name tag on the first day of school. And in a related televised news story, one student’s mother said she was in tears this morning because she is so happy to be sending her child to Segue.

Of course, the excitement of opening a new school aside, whether Segue Institute for Learning succeeds in its mission remains to be seen. So far, the teachers (several of whom were born and raised in Central Falls) seem committed to their mission. Hopefully that commitment will sustain them through nine and a half hour work days, and an eleven month school year, with a salary in the $40k range. (For more on the problem of teachers burning out and leaving the profession prematurely, see here.)  In the meantime, I’m sure I join many readers in wishing the students and teachers at Segue much success.

(Photo: Tracy O’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons)