This is the book authored by Richard DeLorenzo and other founders of the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition (RISC) and details the beginning of the movement and its' success with education in extremely remote, impoverished Alaskan towns.
A recent article in the Kennebec Journal (September 30, 2010) states "DeLorenzo is now working with a handful of Maine school districts as they transition to standards-based education in his capacity as co-founder of the Wasilla, Alaska-based Re-Inventing Schools Coalition. The Maine Department of Education has retained the group as a consultant, paying the coalition more than $190,000 during the 2009 fiscal year, according to www.maineopengov.org." according to staff writer Matthew Stone. (Full article is already linked to existing post on this blog.)
Page 30 of the book "Delivering on the Promise: The Education Revolution", they tout the following:
"The state [Alaska] has an extremely high incidence -- if not the highest incidence -- of fetal alcohol syndrome in the United States.... ...Alaska Department of Health and Social Services showed that over 80% of 755 individuals tested were diagnosed with some level of organic brain damage resulting from prenatal exposure to alcohol (Information Insights, Inc. 2005)."
1. Should what works well with an extremely challenged population be extrapolated to the average Maine town?
2. If so, why are town like Cape Elizabeth, Yarmouth and Falmouth exempted from the RISC model when the balance of Maine towns are expected, and indeed working toward its implementation?
3. If our top performing schools are exceeding the results gleened from the RISC model, why aren't all Maine towns following those models (all variations on traditional learning) instead? Especially when these TOP PERFORMING TOWNS ARE SPENDING SIGNIFICANTLY LESS PER PUPIL THAN RSU1 and would not cost Maine taxpayers $190,000 in consulting fees plus travel, lodging, etc. as applicable.
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