Woonsocket Radio News Room

Education Committee OKs McNamara bill to include SurveyWorks indicators in evaluation of schools

 

STATE HOUSE — The House Education Committee Wednesday passed legislation introduced by Rep. Joseph M. McNamara (D-Dist. 19, Warwick, Cranston) that would include input from parents when evaluating school performance. The measure now moves to the floor of the House of Representatives for consideration.

The bill (2025-H 5162) would incorporate the SurveyWorks school climate indicators for evaluating the performance of school districts and individual public schools.

SurveyWorks is Rhode Island’s Department of Education survey suite. The Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education conducts these annual surveys of students, parents, teachers/staff, and administrators as part of a coordinated effort to improve schools.

“SurveyWorks is an important tool that lets the Department of Education know how parents, students and educators feel about the school by commenting on their personal experiences,” said Representative McNamara, who chairs the committee. “Last year, nearly 125,000 participated in the survey, giving feedback and making important suggestions about how to improve Rhode Island schools. Utilizing this information when evaluating local educational agencies affords the Department of Education a broad range of information beyond testing and other measurements of student performance.”

Students, educators and families are currently in the process of filling out this year’s surveys. The deadline to complete it is March 31. The survey can be found at ride.ri.gov.                                     

 

A federal judge is blocking parts of President Trump's executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the federal government. On Friday, the judge halted Trump's orders to cancel federal contracts concerning DEI, and his order to make government contractors prove they don't use DEI practices. The judge's injunction does not block the Department of Justice from making lists of companies and universities to investigate.        Hamas is releasing another set of human remains after Israel demanded they hand over the body of a mother taken hostage. Hamas released four bodies on Thursday, but Israel was outraged when the remains of Shiri Bibas were not among them. On Friday, the leader of Hamas said Bibas' remains have now been given to Israel.        The Supreme Court says it will prevent President Trump from firing the head of a top watchdog agency for now. Trump has been trying to fire Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of Special Counsel, but so far has been blocked by lower courts. On Friday, the Supreme Court neither granted nor denied Trump's request to fire Dellinger, instead saying they're choosing not to act because lower court proceedings are moving quickly.        The Trump administration is reversing its decision to make major cuts to the World Trade Center Health Program. The program provides medical treatment to over a-hundred-thousand first responders and survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Officials say they're reinstating research grants that had been cut, and employees who were fired will be allowed to return to their jobs.        White House officials say federal aid for the Los Angeles wildfires will come with strings attached. In an interview with Politico, Trump envoy Richard Grenell said "The federal response is mostly money and so we are going to have strings on the money that we give to California." Grenell didn't specify what the conditions would be, but did say the California Coastal Commisison, which protects the state's coastlines, should be "defunded."        Hackers have made away with one-point-five-billion-dollars in the largest crypto heist in history. Bybit, a major cryptocurrency exchange, announced the news Friday. The hackers compromised an offline storage system, and the stolen funds were quickly transferred and liquidated through various platforms.       

Old News Archives