Elementary and High School Education

Latest Articles

An education funding formula, hailed as a breakthrough, faces its critics

For years, Rhode Island was one of just two states in the union without a funding formula for its public schools. And then, for a time, it was the only state with that dubious dis-tinction.
Fuzzy math
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 25, 2010

Shaking up the school system

Rhode Island education commissioner Deborah Gist’s take-charge style could make a winner of a state that often seems destined to fail. But critics say her free-market approach won’t work.
The Reformer
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | April 23, 2010

Will Beacon Hill be bullied into enacting a politically correct law?

A case of high-school bullying in South Hadley ended in tragedy this past January when the alleged victim, a freshman girl, committed suicide. Now, ramped up by the outrage over the case, Massachusetts legislators are in danger of enacting a politically
Freedom watch
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | April 09, 2010

You're a nice kid, but who likes goats?

I find most people quite boring.
Dr. Lovemonkey answers your questions
By DR. LOVEMONKEY | March 19, 2010

Nasty fun

In his books Venus Drive , The Subject Steve , and Home Land , novelist and short-story writer Sam Lipsyte revels in rage.
Sam Lipsyte asks and tells
By ALEX BLUM | March 12, 2010

Review: Prodigal Sons

Adopted four weeks after he was born and brought up in Helena, Montana, Marc McKerrow suffered through the stress of being compared with his brother, Paul, his high school's valedictorian and star quarterback.
An engrossing, unpredictable, often heartbreaking family-drama documentary
By GERALD PEARY | March 12, 2010

Call for health-care reform

The November 7 passage of health-care reform, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, in the House of Representatives was a very important and exciting moment for everyone who is dedicated to the idea that all Americans need and deserve access to hig
Letters to the Portland Editor, December 25, 2009
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | December 25, 2009

Let's Get Raw

Couldn't score a seat at the Climate Change Conference underway in Copenhagen, but still want to reduce your carbon footprint? Perhaps you need to eat it raw.
Do It Clean Dept.
By TOM MEEK | December 18, 2009

The human condition

Kevin Broccoli, the writer and directorial ringmaster, announced before the performance that we were going to see not a play, but rather an experiment.
Who’s to say what’s Crazy ?
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | November 27, 2009

The battle for our city schools

In your recent story “ Boston Public-School Apartheid? ”, charter public schools are faulted for taking disadvantaged Boston students and sending them on to excellent high schools and, eventually, college. Why shouldn’t low-income students of color have
Boston Phoenix letters, October 23, 2009
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | October 23, 2009

Boston public-school apartheid?

At the Edward W. Brooke School in Roslindale — a kindergarten-to-eighth-grade public charter school — the push to advance graduates to elite secondary programs begins in fifth grade.
Think busing was a problem in this town? Some are labeling charter schools as Boston's newest educational battleground
By CHRIS FARAONE | October 09, 2009

Crossword: ''Tune in, drop out''

Who needs high school?
Who needs high school?
By MATT JONES | September 11, 2009

Health-Care-Reform Town Hall All-Stars

Shamelessly successful political-smear campaigns yield exalted martyrs.
Plumb and Dumber Dept.
By CHRIS FARAONE | August 21, 2009

Dead like me

"Perception vs. reality. In high school, they are pretty much the same thing." So writes Tonya Hurley, author of ghostgirl and ghostgirl: Homecoming (Little Brown), two books ostensibly written for young adults but with elements that are just as appeali
Tonya Hurley's high-school afterlife
By DEIRDRE FULTON | August 07, 2009

After a half-century, a theatre crumbles

The spotlight has dimmed, sadly, on Providence's Looking Glass Theatre. The company, a small crew of three to four actors and a musician, entertained elementary school students across the state for nearly 50 years, at one time performing hundreds of in
Looking Glass Theatre closes
By CHRISTOPHER COLLINS | June 26, 2009

The Big Hurt: Wascally wappers

Lame as Marilyn Manson may be, I wouldn't wish his fans on him if he were my worst enemy.
Plus failed massacres and reverse piracy
By DAVID THORPE | May 29, 2009

Love and friendship (Rhode Island-style)

Cort is whispering something to me but she's trying to be all respectful or whatever so I can't make out what she's saying.
An excerpt from Sarah Rainone's new novel, Love Will Tear Us Apart , in which six friends let the music do the talking
By SARAH RAINONE | May 22, 2009

Review: The Country Teacher

Czech writer/director Bohdan Sláma's histrionic drama finds dour teacher Petr (Pavel Liska) fleeing from a private Prague academy to a rural elementary school.
Risible
By ALICIA POTTER | May 22, 2009

Dueling morals

A battle of pedagogies is raging at an English grammar school for teenage boys.
Mad Horse's masterful The History Boys
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | May 01, 2009

Censorship for Me, Penelope

Lisa Jahn-Clough's young-adult novel Me, Penelope is the subject of a recent dispute at Tavares Middle School in Orlando, Florida.
Girl, Interrupted
By ALEX IRVINE | March 04, 2009

Making a musical connection

In 1998, world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma envisioned connecting artists and audiences around the world by focusing on the cultures along the historic 4000-mile Silk Road trade route.
Commingling cultures
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | March 04, 2009

The kult of Al Kaprielian

It's the coldest day of the winter so far and Al Kaprielian is excited.
HIGH PRESHA!
By MIKE MILIARD | February 04, 2009

Redskin redux

A couple months ago, when I wrote about the fact that the Sanford and Wiscasset high schools are the last remaining Maine schools using the mascot nickname “redskins,” Sanford principal Allan Young told me that if “redskin” critics called his students r
Balls, Pucks, and Monster Trucks
By RICK WORMWOOD | January 26, 2009

One tough lady

Roberta Hawkins
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | December 18, 2008

Adam Bock is a good listener

When Adam Bock first came to Providence in the late '80s, after a friend told him there was this great playwriting teacher at Brown, he was busting with unstoppable aspiration
Talking the talk
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | December 16, 2008

Last of the Redskins

The Scarborough School Board changed from “Redskins” to the “Red Storm” eight years ago, at a time when high school and college teams around the country were trending away from using Native American mascots.
What can sports mascots teach us about Native American relations today?
By RICK WORMWOOD | November 26, 2008

Popular