Schools from scratch

60 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l SEPTEMBER 2012

SCHOOLS

SCRATCH

FROM

BUILDING

054-059_charter schools.indd 60 8/7/12 2:15 PM

RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l SEPTEMBER 2012 61

SCHOOLS

SCRATCH

Jeremy Chiappetta’s running a new type of charter school in Rhode Island, overseen by mayors instead of school committees. The results have been impressive, but some have questioned whether mayoral academies create a two-tiered educational system.

By Jen McCa�ery I Photography By Jesse Burke

Chiappetta chats with Blackstone Valley Prep scholars.

The Schools

Issue!


© Copyright Rhode Island Monthly 2012

Schools from Scratch.indd 2 8/23/12 1:53 PM


SCHOOLS

SCRATCH

FROM

BUILDING



SCHOOLS

SCRATCH

Jeremy Chiappetta’s running a new type of charter school in Rhode Island, overseen by mayors instead of school committees. The results have been impressive, but some have questioned whether mayoral academies create a two-tiered educational system.

By Jen McCa�ery I Photography By Jesse Burke

Chiappetta chats with Blackstone Valley Prep scholars.

The Schools

Issue!




62 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l OCTOBER 201162 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l SEPTEMBER 2012

The school year is winding down and Chiappetta, the executive director of Blackstone Valley Prep, is meeting with two staffers and Steven Corrales, who grew up in Central Falls and recently earned a master’s in education policy from Brown University. He’s compiled a report on how successful Blackstone Valley Prep has been in getting the word out about its schools in the communities it serves: Central Falls, Cumberland, Lincoln and Pawtucket.

The stakes are high. Blackstone Valley Prep is Rhode Island’s first mayoral academy, a network of a new type of charter school overseen not by an elected school committee or board, but by mayors who believe by starting schools from scratch while containing costs, they can help reform Rhode Island’s public school system.

Chiappetta, a thirty-eight-year-old who spent part of his career as a consultant for IBM, cuts to the chase.

“You’re from Central Falls. You know the community well. What percentage of families entering kindergarten know about us in Central Falls, and how do we change that to 100 percent?” Chiappetta asks Corrales.

“I would say probably 30 percent of people with kids eligible for kindergarten,” Corrales replies. “…The churches are such a critical place. At least four churches get major participation.”

Chiappetta starts thinking out loud. “Engaging the churches, that’s definitely an underutilized strategy on our part. How we do that and how we do that well? I think that’s all about personal relationships with the people leading those church communi-ties….”

Blackstone Valley Prep, which is now in its fourth year, hasn’t had a problem attracting students, although applications from Lincoln have been low. Its two elementary schools and one middle school received more than 1,500 applicants for 240 seats this school year. It now serves about 760 students and the plan is to eventually open a high school and build a system of more than 2,000 students.

But some haven’t welcomed the mayoral academies. Last year in Cranston, the

district’s then-superintendent, school committee and some parents opposed Mayor Allan Fung’s plan to open a mayoral academy run by Connecticut-based charter management organization Achievement First that would have served kids from Cranston and Providence.

Under the school funding formula that the General Assembly passed in 2010, the money follows the student to whatever public school the child attends. For this school year, that comes out to $8,679 per student, plus another $3,472 per pupil based on the percentage of economically disadvantaged students.

Like others in districts in the state, Cranston had already weathered cuts in state aid. And nearly all of its public schools were still high-performing by state standards.

“The answer is not a mayoral academy that will make a big splash for politicians but won’t do a thing for the overwhelming majority of kids,” former Providence school board president Kathy Crain wrote on a website.

In February, the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education narrowly approved Providence’s application to open two elementary schools run by Achievement First, which will serve students from Providence, North Provi-dence, Cranston and Warwick when they open in 2013 and 2014.

North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi supported the application, but the town council and school committee opposed it. Superintendent Donna Ottaviano says the financial impact of sending eighteen kindergarteners to Providence to attend the mayoral academy would require North Providence to get rid of all-day kindergarten, which serves about 300 students. Her schools are performing well for an urban ring district and she doesn’t think the concept will appeal to parents in tight-knit North Providence.

“I can’t picture them putting a five-year-old on a bus to Providence to go to kinder-garten.”

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, who also supported the application, acknowl-

edged there would be a fiscal impact to city schools, but says it would be gradual.

“The money should follow the student,” Taveras says. “The answer is to improve all our schools, so that regardless of where a child goes to school they get an outstanding education.”

So far, Blackstone Valley Prep has shown some impressive results.

In July, its middle school was one of twenty-six schools in Rhode Island that made the top tier in state rankings, one of only three middle schools to earn that distinction.

In 2011, all of the 152 kindergarteners and first graders at Blackstone Valley Prep

It’s just after 11 on a rainy June morning in the basement of a former parochial

school in Cumberland, and Jeremy Chiappetta wants to hear some results.

Classrooms at Blackstone Valley Prep are named for the teachers’ college alma maters.


RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l OCTOBER 2011 63 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l SEPTEMBER 2012 63

scored proficient or better on a literacy assessment test. And in one year, sixth graders went from 48 percent proficiency or above in math to 89 percent — on par with Barrington.

Education Commissioner Deborah Gist has championed the new model, which was part of Rhode Island’s successful application for $75 million in federal Race to the Top funds. At a ribbon-cutting in 2009, Gist described the state’s first mayoral academy as “the reason that I came to the state of Rhode Island.”

For Chiappetta, setting high expectations for Blackstone Valley Prep’s students and achieving them is essential. It’s also personal:

His oldest daughter, Katie, is one of the second graders in the plaid uniforms — also known as the college class of 2027.

The path to college has always been

part of Chiappetta’s life.His ancestors came from Italy and settled

in Beaver Falls, a town about forty miles north of Pittsburgh that was once home to thriving steel mills.

“As I was growing up, that all changed,” Chiappetta says. “The mills went away and for my family, for the whole community really, it underscored the need for higher education.”

Chiappetta’s parents started college and

didn’t finish, though his father later went back. They took Chiappetta, who attended Catholic schools, on college trips from an early age.

Once Chiappetta enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, his father, a real estate appraiser, wasn’t thrilled with his decision to major in history when he thought he was studying business.

Two-and-a-half years later, Chiappetta applied to Teach for America and was assigned to teach social studies to middle schoolers in a public school in Harlem, then in Washington Heights. He looked for a way to make a connection with his students and after he couldn’t get access to a gym, started

�





The school year is winding down and Chiappetta, the executive director of Blackstone Valley Prep, is meeting with two staffers and Steven Corrales, who grew up in Central Falls and recently earned a master’s in education policy from Brown University. He’s compiled a report on how successful Blackstone Valley Prep has been in getting the word out about its schools in the communities it serves: Central Falls, Cumberland, Lincoln and Pawtucket.

The stakes are high. Blackstone Valley Prep is Rhode Island’s first mayoral academy, a network of a new type of charter school overseen not by an elected school committee or board, but by mayors who believe by starting schools from scratch while containing costs, they can help reform Rhode Island’s public school system.

Chiappetta, a thirty-eight-year-old who spent part of his career as a consultant for IBM, cuts to the chase.

“You’re from Central Falls. You know the community well. What percentage of families entering kindergarten know about us in Central Falls, and how do we change that to 100 percent?” Chiappetta asks Corrales.

“I would say probably 30 percent of people with kids eligible for kindergarten,” Corrales replies. “…The churches are such a critical place. At least four churches get major participation.”

Chiappetta starts thinking out loud. “Engaging the churches, that’s definitely an underutilized strategy on our part. How we do that and how we do that well? I think that’s all about personal relationships with the people leading those church communi-ties….”

Blackstone Valley Prep, which is now in its fourth year, hasn’t had a problem attracting students, although applications from Lincoln have been low. Its two elementary schools and one middle school received more than 1,500 applicants for 240 seats this school year. It now serves about 760 students and the plan is to eventually open a high school and build a system of more than 2,000 students.

But some haven’t welcomed the mayoral academies. Last year in Cranston, the

district’s then-superintendent, school committee and some parents opposed Mayor Allan Fung’s plan to open a mayoral academy run by Connecticut-based charter management organization Achievement First that would have served kids from Cranston and Providence.

Under the school funding formula that the General Assembly passed in 2010, the money follows the student to whatever public school the child attends. For this school year, that comes out to $8,679 per student, plus another $3,472 per pupil based on the percentage of economically disadvantaged students.

Like others in districts in the state, Cranston had already weathered cuts in state aid. And nearly all of its public schools were still high-performing by state standards.

“The answer is not a mayoral academy that will make a big splash for politicians but won’t do a thing for the overwhelming majority of kids,” former Providence school board president Kathy Crain wrote on a website.

In February, the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education narrowly approved Providence’s application to open two elementary schools run by Achievement First, which will serve students from Providence, North Provi-dence, Cranston and Warwick when they open in 2013 and 2014.

North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi supported the application, but the town council and school committee opposed it. Superintendent Donna Ottaviano says the financial impact of sending eighteen kindergarteners to Providence to attend the mayoral academy would require North Providence to get rid of all-day kindergarten, which serves about 300 students. Her schools are performing well for an urban ring district and she doesn’t think the concept will appeal to parents in tight-knit North Providence.

“I can’t picture them putting a five-year-old on a bus to Providence to go to kinder-garten.”

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, who also supported the application, acknowl-

edged there would be a fiscal impact to city schools, but says it would be gradual.

“The money should follow the student,” Taveras says. “The answer is to improve all our schools, so that regardless of where a child goes to school they get an outstanding education.”

So far, Blackstone Valley Prep has shown some impressive results.

In July, its middle school was one of twenty-six schools in Rhode Island that made the top tier in state rankings, one of only three middle schools to earn that distinction.

In 2011, all of the 152 kindergarteners and first graders at Blackstone Valley Prep

It’s just after 11 on a rainy June morning in the basement of a former parochial

school in Cumberland, and Jeremy Chiappetta wants to hear some results.

Classrooms at Blackstone Valley Prep are named for the teachers’ college alma maters.



scored proficient or better on a literacy assessment test. And in one year, sixth graders went from 48 percent proficiency or above in math to 89 percent — on par with Barrington.

Education Commissioner Deborah Gist has championed the new model, which was part of Rhode Island’s successful application for $75 million in federal Race to the Top funds. At a ribbon-cutting in 2009, Gist described the state’s first mayoral academy as “the reason that I came to the state of Rhode Island.”

For Chiappetta, setting high expectations for Blackstone Valley Prep’s students and achieving them is essential. It’s also personal:

His oldest daughter, Katie, is one of the second graders in the plaid uniforms — also known as the college class of 2027.

The path to college has always been

part of Chiappetta’s life.His ancestors came from Italy and settled

in Beaver Falls, a town about forty miles north of Pittsburgh that was once home to thriving steel mills.

“As I was growing up, that all changed,” Chiappetta says. “The mills went away and for my family, for the whole community really, it underscored the need for higher education.”

Chiappetta’s parents started college and

didn’t finish, though his father later went back. They took Chiappetta, who attended Catholic schools, on college trips from an early age.

Once Chiappetta enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, his father, a real estate appraiser, wasn’t thrilled with his decision to major in history when he thought he was studying business.

Two-and-a-half years later, Chiappetta applied to Teach for America and was assigned to teach social studies to middle schoolers in a public school in Harlem, then in Washington Heights. He looked for a way to make a connection with his students and after he couldn’t get access to a gym, started

�





an after-school chess club. “All of a sudden, I have five or six of these

young people who are much better at chess than I am.”

Carlos Capellan was one of those students. He joined the chess club to stay safe after school. As he described it at the time, “many of the kids my age in Washington Heights wind up in gangs, as drug dealers, in jail or dead.”

The team excelled and kids who had never been out of their neighborhood got to travel to Tennessee, Arizona and North Carolina to compete.

“He was always strict with us, but there was always a why,” recalls Capellan, who calls his former teacher Chia.

“It was the last round of the U.S. Amateur Team East,” he wrote in an essay that was published in The New York Times in 2000. “I was playing for a top prize and was nervous. In the middle of the game I found a winning combination and I began to slam the pieces out of happiness. Then a big hand stopped the game clock and pulled me away. It was Chia. I could tell that he was angry, but I did not realize what I had done wrong. We talked about the meaning of sportsmanship. I apologized for my rudeness to my opponent and forfeited the game.”

When Capellan went on to high school, Chiappetta recruited him as a chess coach. And when no one else was talking to Capellan about college, Chiappetta and a friend took him on a college tour that resulted in Capellan graduating from Hamilton College. He’s now dean of students at the KIPP Academy, a high-performing charter school in Harlem.

“To this day, every decision that I make goes to him first,” Capellan says.

Chiappetta’s Teach for America experience also helped in his personal life. Just after he left the program to work for an organization called Chess in the Schools in 1998, he met Christie, who taught science for the program and later became his wife.

Chiappetta loved his work with Chess in the Schools, but wanted a bigger influence in education, partly because he thought what the schools were doing wasn’t working. He enrolled in a master’s program in business at Yale to learn the skills he thought a school administrator should know: data analysis, strategizing, marketing and building a network.

After graduating in 2000, he detoured into a life lived out of airports as a consultant for IBM. But he got antsy to return to more meaningful work. One night at dinner with colleagues in Wisconsin, he had a realization.

“I’m describing…taking kids from the South Bronx to Red Square, and these guys are all looking at me, and they’re like, what the heck are you doing here? Why are you not doing that work?”

Chiappetta applied to the Broad Residen-cy, a program funded by billionaires Eli and Edythe Broad that places people with private sector experience in school districts or a charter management organization, and he was assigned to Providence.

Mayor Dan McKee first started to think

about kids and college while coaching basketball from 1996 to 2002. His teams competed nationally and one player went on to graduate from a Division 1 school. But others didn’t even qualify for college.

“You saw kids that go down different tracks,” McKee says. “And education, it’s not that it’s everything, but it is certainly a big piece of where people end up.”

After he was elected mayor in 2001, he wanted more involvement in Cumberland’s schools, but other than approving the budget, the schools were overseen by an elected school committee.

“You have to have good schools to have a healthy community, and mayors really didn’t have a role in that,” McKee says.

McKee, who graduated from Cumberland High School, also earned a master’s degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 2005. During his re-election campaign in 2006, he met Michael Magee, an English professor who taught at Rhode Island School of Design with a strong interest in education reform.

Magee’s brother runs a national educa-tional reform organization called 50-CAN, and his sister-in-law worked as senior director of curriculum and professional development for Achievement First.

As McKee and Magee scrutinized test scores, they realized low performance wasn’t limited to urban schools. McKee asked what it would look like if they created a public school from scratch. They commissioned a report by Martin West, who was then at Brown, and Bryan Hassel of Public Impact.

The 2008 report found that in 2006 to 2007, more than 25 percent of students in Rhode Island’s suburban districts fell short on state reading standards, 30 percent missed the mark in math and 40 percent in writing. It also pointed out that about 38 percent of low-income students in Rhode Island lived outside its four urban core districts.

�

| | CONTINUED ON PAGE 96



Above left: Chiappetta shushes one of the students as they walk to their classrooms. Above right: Chiappetta goes over blueprints for a construction project with operations director Michael DeMatteo. This page, below: Blackstone Valley Prep draws students from Central Falls, Cumberland, Lincoln and Pawtucket. Below left: Students are called scholars at Blackstone Valley Prep.





an after-school chess club. “All of a sudden, I have five or six of these

young people who are much better at chess than I am.”

Carlos Capellan was one of those students. He joined the chess club to stay safe after school. As he described it at the time, “many of the kids my age in Washington Heights wind up in gangs, as drug dealers, in jail or dead.”

The team excelled and kids who had never been out of their neighborhood got to travel to Tennessee, Arizona and North Carolina to compete.

“He was always strict with us, but there was always a why,” recalls Capellan, who calls his former teacher Chia.

“It was the last round of the U.S. Amateur Team East,” he wrote in an essay that was published in The New York Times in 2000. “I was playing for a top prize and was nervous. In the middle of the game I found a winning combination and I began to slam the pieces out of happiness. Then a big hand stopped the game clock and pulled me away. It was Chia. I could tell that he was angry, but I did not realize what I had done wrong. We talked about the meaning of sportsmanship. I apologized for my rudeness to my opponent and forfeited the game.”

When Capellan went on to high school, Chiappetta recruited him as a chess coach. And when no one else was talking to Capellan about college, Chiappetta and a friend took him on a college tour that resulted in Capellan graduating from Hamilton College. He’s now dean of students at the KIPP Academy, a high-performing charter school in Harlem.

“To this day, every decision that I make goes to him first,” Capellan says.

Chiappetta’s Teach for America experience also helped in his personal life. Just after he left the program to work for an organization called Chess in the Schools in 1998, he met Christie, who taught science for the program and later became his wife.

Chiappetta loved his work with Chess in the Schools, but wanted a bigger influence in education, partly because he thought what the schools were doing wasn’t working. He enrolled in a master’s program in business at Yale to learn the skills he thought a school administrator should know: data analysis, strategizing, marketing and building a network.

After graduating in 2000, he detoured into a life lived out of airports as a consultant for IBM. But he got antsy to return to more meaningful work. One night at dinner with colleagues in Wisconsin, he had a realization.

“I’m describing…taking kids from the South Bronx to Red Square, and these guys are all looking at me, and they’re like, what the heck are you doing here? Why are you not doing that work?”

Chiappetta applied to the Broad Residen-cy, a program funded by billionaires Eli and Edythe Broad that places people with private sector experience in school districts or a charter management organization, and he was assigned to Providence.

Mayor Dan McKee first started to think

about kids and college while coaching basketball from 1996 to 2002. His teams competed nationally and one player went on to graduate from a Division 1 school. But others didn’t even qualify for college.

“You saw kids that go down different tracks,” McKee says. “And education, it’s not that it’s everything, but it is certainly a big piece of where people end up.”

After he was elected mayor in 2001, he wanted more involvement in Cumberland’s schools, but other than approving the budget, the schools were overseen by an elected school committee.

“You have to have good schools to have a healthy community, and mayors really didn’t have a role in that,” McKee says.

McKee, who graduated from Cumberland High School, also earned a master’s degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 2005. During his re-election campaign in 2006, he met Michael Magee, an English professor who taught at Rhode Island School of Design with a strong interest in education reform.

Magee’s brother runs a national educa-tional reform organization called 50-CAN, and his sister-in-law worked as senior director of curriculum and professional development for Achievement First.

As McKee and Magee scrutinized test scores, they realized low performance wasn’t limited to urban schools. McKee asked what it would look like if they created a public school from scratch. They commissioned a report by Martin West, who was then at Brown, and Bryan Hassel of Public Impact.

The 2008 report found that in 2006 to 2007, more than 25 percent of students in Rhode Island’s suburban districts fell short on state reading standards, 30 percent missed the mark in math and 40 percent in writing. It also pointed out that about 38 percent of low-income students in Rhode Island lived outside its four urban core districts.

�

| | CONTINUED ON PAGE 96



Above left: Chiappetta shushes one of the students as they walk to their classrooms. Above right: Chiappetta goes over blueprints for a construction project with operations director Michael DeMatteo. This page, below: Blackstone Valley Prep draws students from Central Falls, Cumberland, Lincoln and Pawtucket. Below left: Students are called scholars at Blackstone Valley Prep.





Chiappetta greets a student on her way into school.

Charter Schools| | CONTINUED FROM PAGE 65

“This was not as it had been talked about for a very long time, as a problem isolated to a small number of districts in Rhode Island,” Magee says. “The mayors had actually been saying that in different forms for quite some time, but hadn’t necessarily gotten heard.”

The report recommended a new model called mayoral academies — public charter schools that would be autonomous, draw students from a region and be operated by charter school management organizations. The mayors would also have unprecedented autonomy over hiring and compensation in the schools.

Led by McKee, mayors in Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, North Providence, Lincoln, Cranston and Johnston supported the idea, along with some prominent busi-ness and community leaders.

They worked with House leadership in the General Assembly and in June 2008, then-House Majority Leader Gordon Fox and then-House Majority Whip Peter Kilmartin championed legislation creating the mayoral academies, and it passed with the budget.

“I don’t know of any other statewide coali-tion of mayors like this in the country,” McKee says. “It presents Rhode Island with a pretty unique opportunity to transform public education, because you’ve got coura-geous, committed politicians.”

Meanwhile, Chiappetta was working to

address some of the challenges in Providence’s public schools.

He started at Hope High School, then moved

�

©2008 Wood-Mode, Inc.

For your home. For your life.For our environment.

Reflect Your Own Personal Style

767 East Main Road • Middletown, Rhode Island 02842(401) 847-1532 • FAX (401) 846-7645 • www.ApexKitchensandBaths.com


RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l OCTOBER 2011 97

to Oliver Hazard Perry Middle School in 2006. The school was failing on every academic and social measure, says Frances Rotella, who took over as principal the same year.

Over the next three years, they worked with other administrators, teachers and students to dramatically improve the school.

Chiappetta also helped raise expectations at Perry, Rotella says. He took students on college trips to Harvard and initiated a pro-gram after school and on Saturdays to help more Perry students perform well on the exam to get into Providence’s elite Classical High School.

“He doesn’t look at what has been taught, he looks at what has been learned,” Rotella says. “If kids aren’t learning, he will try to figure out why. And he won’t stop until he figures out the answer to the question.”

From 2006 to 2009, the number of Perry students who got into Classical increased from six to twenty-one, according to The Providence Journal.

Soon, Magee came calling.“Jeremy and a group of teachers were

taking a small group of kids and getting outlier results at Perry,” Magee says. “But they were doing that in spite of the system, not because of the system. And no one was saying, ‘How do we universalize this?’ ”

Chiappetta agreed to be the founding head of the first elementary school in the mayoral academy McKee and Magee were developing. They partnered with Democ-racy Prep, a New York City-based organiza-tion run by Seth Andrew, a Brown Univer-sity graduate who had tried to open a charter school in Rhode Island before and had gone on to establish a high-performing school in Harlem. Andrew would oversee its curriculum and administration, and be governed by a board selected and chaired by McKee.

In June 2009, the Board of Regents ap-proved the application for Rhode Island’s first mayoral academy, which would be known as Democracy Prep Blackstone Val-ley. And state lawmakers included $700,000 in the budget in startup funds for the school.

The mayoral academy held its first lottery and in August 2009, doors opened for the seventy-six students selected for its first kindergarten class.

McKee and Magee also formed a non-profit called Rhode Island Mayoral Acad-emies to open more charter schools and eventually successfully lobbied to lift the state cap on charter schools from twenty to thirty-five and change the school fund-


Meet the entire StrategicPoint team and �nd the investment advisor that’s right for you.

Visit StrategicPoint.com/MeetOurTeam | Call 800-597-5974

“While my passion is �nancial planning, it’s the client relationships I �nd most satisfying. I encourage my clients to take a more active role in their �nances by engaging them in the process of building a plan to achieve their personal and �nancial goals.”

— Joseph Kolb, CFP,® Director of Financial Planning

Managing Director Richard J. Anzelone, JD

Managing Director Betsey A. Purinton, CFP®

RIMonthly_ad_Joe_final.indd 1 7/10/12 9:08 AM





Chiappetta greets a student on her way into school.

Charter Schools| | CONTINUED FROM PAGE 65

“This was not as it had been talked about for a very long time, as a problem isolated to a small number of districts in Rhode Island,” Magee says. “The mayors had actually been saying that in different forms for quite some time, but hadn’t necessarily gotten heard.”

The report recommended a new model called mayoral academies — public charter schools that would be autonomous, draw students from a region and be operated by charter school management organizations. The mayors would also have unprecedented autonomy over hiring and compensation in the schools.

Led by McKee, mayors in Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, North Providence, Lincoln, Cranston and Johnston supported the idea, along with some prominent busi-ness and community leaders.

They worked with House leadership in the General Assembly and in June 2008, then-House Majority Leader Gordon Fox and then-House Majority Whip Peter Kilmartin championed legislation creating the mayoral academies, and it passed with the budget.

“I don’t know of any other statewide coali-tion of mayors like this in the country,” McKee says. “It presents Rhode Island with a pretty unique opportunity to transform public education, because you’ve got coura-geous, committed politicians.”

Meanwhile, Chiappetta was working to

address some of the challenges in Providence’s public schools.

He started at Hope High School, then moved

�

©2008 Wood-Mode, Inc.

For your home. For your life.For our environment.

Reflect Your Own Personal Style

767 East Main Road • Middletown, Rhode Island 02842(401) 847-1532 • FAX (401) 846-7645 • www.ApexKitchensandBaths.com



to Oliver Hazard Perry Middle School in 2006. The school was failing on every academic and social measure, says Frances Rotella, who took over as principal the same year.

Over the next three years, they worked with other administrators, teachers and students to dramatically improve the school.

Chiappetta also helped raise expectations at Perry, Rotella says. He took students on college trips to Harvard and initiated a pro-gram after school and on Saturdays to help more Perry students perform well on the exam to get into Providence’s elite Classical High School.

“He doesn’t look at what has been taught, he looks at what has been learned,” Rotella says. “If kids aren’t learning, he will try to figure out why. And he won’t stop until he figures out the answer to the question.”

From 2006 to 2009, the number of Perry students who got into Classical increased from six to twenty-one, according to The Providence Journal.

Soon, Magee came calling.“Jeremy and a group of teachers were

taking a small group of kids and getting outlier results at Perry,” Magee says. “But they were doing that in spite of the system, not because of the system. And no one was saying, ‘How do we universalize this?’ ”

Chiappetta agreed to be the founding head of the first elementary school in the mayoral academy McKee and Magee were developing. They partnered with Democ-racy Prep, a New York City-based organiza-tion run by Seth Andrew, a Brown Univer-sity graduate who had tried to open a charter school in Rhode Island before and had gone on to establish a high-performing school in Harlem. Andrew would oversee its curriculum and administration, and be governed by a board selected and chaired by McKee.

In June 2009, the Board of Regents ap-proved the application for Rhode Island’s first mayoral academy, which would be known as Democracy Prep Blackstone Val-ley. And state lawmakers included $700,000 in the budget in startup funds for the school.

The mayoral academy held its first lottery and in August 2009, doors opened for the seventy-six students selected for its first kindergarten class.

McKee and Magee also formed a non-profit called Rhode Island Mayoral Acad-emies to open more charter schools and eventually successfully lobbied to lift the state cap on charter schools from twenty to thirty-five and change the school fund-


Meet the entire StrategicPoint team and �nd the investment advisor that’s right for you.

Visit StrategicPoint.com/MeetOurTeam | Call 800-597-5974

“While my passion is �nancial planning, it’s the client relationships I �nd most satisfying. I encourage my clients to take a more active role in their �nances by engaging them in the process of building a plan to achieve their personal and �nancial goals.”

— Joseph Kolb, CFP,® Director of Financial Planning

Managing Director Richard J. Anzelone, JD

Managing Director Betsey A. Purinton, CFP®

RIMonthly_ad_Joe_final.indd 1 7/10/12 9:08 AM




98 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l OCTOBER 2011

ing formula. The organization received more than $1.3

million in grants from some big names, including the Walton Family Foundation and the Hassenfeld Foundation.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also gave the mayoral academy, four other charter schools and the Central Falls school district a $100,000 grant to share best practices.

Some have been critical of corporate-affiliated foundations and their efforts in the schools, however.

Zack Mezera wrote on the Rhode Island’s Future website that when the education reform movement asserts that it is politi-cally neutral, “it allows the Gates, Waltons and Broads of education to throw their hands in the air, claim innocence in the current state of education, and bestow themselves license to privatize schools and dismantle public education’s most promis-ing aspects — democratic control, universal access, standard-setting fair and inclusive labor practices, etc.”

Another point of contention has been that the mayoral academies are not part of the state retirement system and aren’t bound to pay a prevailing wage. (Chiappetta says the mayoral academy is paying new teachers just above what a beginning teach-er in Providence would make, $37,500, with a 401(K) and the opportunity for a bonus.)

The issue of teacher certification arose in October 2010, when Andrew said during a panel in New York that not all of the teachers he had hired were certified by Rhode Island, The Providence Journal reported. The state issued five emergency certifications.

Then in December 2010, Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley’s board decided to sever its contract with Andrew because of a disagree-ment over fiscal transparency, Magee says.

“They weren’t managing the finances, but the idea was to give them more and more autonomy for outcomes,” McKee says. “But as mayors dealing with dollars that are going to public schools, you couldn’t just give that away.”

In January 2011, they announced that the mayoral academy would now be known as Blackstone Valley Prep and named Chiap-petta its executive director.

It’s just after 7:30 a.m. this June morning

and administrators and teachers are greeting students as they tumble out of minivans and buses, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez back-packs in tow.


�

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PCD_RIM_9_12_Layout 1 7/10/12 10:53 AM Page 1



welcome to the party“Good morning, how are you?” Chiappetta

says to a student as she walks up the sidewalk. The scholars, as the students are called, learn early to make eye contact and shake hands.

“Fantastic, how are you?”“I’m awesome, Bella,” Chiappetta replies.

(“What’s not allowed is good. You need to use a synonym for good,” he says.)

He notices a student with hoop earrings and points them out to Lindsay Tavares, the head of Elementary School One.

“Lindsay, one thing for us to talk about are those earrings,” Chiappetta says. “Those earrings that she’s wearing definitely as written are a handbook violation. Little hoops with something dangling on them.”

Inside, students make their way to their classrooms, where they spend more time than students in traditional public schools.

The school day runs from 7:40 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Almost four hours are devoted to reading and more than an hour to math. The schools also provide before- and after-school programs and tutoring. The school year is also about ten days longer, plus a three-week summer academy.

Teachers meet with each student’s fam-ily and parents can contact them on school-


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98 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l OCTOBER 2011

ing formula. The organization received more than $1.3

million in grants from some big names, including the Walton Family Foundation and the Hassenfeld Foundation.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also gave the mayoral academy, four other charter schools and the Central Falls school district a $100,000 grant to share best practices.

Some have been critical of corporate-affiliated foundations and their efforts in the schools, however.

Zack Mezera wrote on the Rhode Island’s Future website that when the education reform movement asserts that it is politi-cally neutral, “it allows the Gates, Waltons and Broads of education to throw their hands in the air, claim innocence in the current state of education, and bestow themselves license to privatize schools and dismantle public education’s most promis-ing aspects — democratic control, universal access, standard-setting fair and inclusive labor practices, etc.”

Another point of contention has been that the mayoral academies are not part of the state retirement system and aren’t bound to pay a prevailing wage. (Chiappetta says the mayoral academy is paying new teachers just above what a beginning teach-er in Providence would make, $37,500, with a 401(K) and the opportunity for a bonus.)

The issue of teacher certification arose in October 2010, when Andrew said during a panel in New York that not all of the teachers he had hired were certified by Rhode Island, The Providence Journal reported. The state issued five emergency certifications.

Then in December 2010, Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley’s board decided to sever its contract with Andrew because of a disagree-ment over fiscal transparency, Magee says.

“They weren’t managing the finances, but the idea was to give them more and more autonomy for outcomes,” McKee says. “But as mayors dealing with dollars that are going to public schools, you couldn’t just give that away.”

In January 2011, they announced that the mayoral academy would now be known as Blackstone Valley Prep and named Chiap-petta its executive director.

It’s just after 7:30 a.m. this June morning

and administrators and teachers are greeting students as they tumble out of minivans and buses, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez back-packs in tow.


�

ALL NEW! Memory Foam, Latex and Wool

1(800) SLEEPYS sleepys.comThe Mattress Professionals®

Posturepedic ® perfectsleeper

OPPORTUNITYe m b r a c e

y o u r s e l fCHALLENGE

college prep | arts | athletics | summer programs | grades 6-12 | co-ed660 Waterman Avenue | East Providence, RI | 401.438.5170www.providencecountryday.org

PCD_RIM_9_12_Layout 1 7/10/12 10:53 AM Page 1



welcome to the party“Good morning, how are you?” Chiappetta

says to a student as she walks up the sidewalk. The scholars, as the students are called, learn early to make eye contact and shake hands.

“Fantastic, how are you?”“I’m awesome, Bella,” Chiappetta replies.

(“What’s not allowed is good. You need to use a synonym for good,” he says.)

He notices a student with hoop earrings and points them out to Lindsay Tavares, the head of Elementary School One.

“Lindsay, one thing for us to talk about are those earrings,” Chiappetta says. “Those earrings that she’s wearing definitely as written are a handbook violation. Little hoops with something dangling on them.”

Inside, students make their way to their classrooms, where they spend more time than students in traditional public schools.

The school day runs from 7:40 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Almost four hours are devoted to reading and more than an hour to math. The schools also provide before- and after-school programs and tutoring. The school year is also about ten days longer, plus a three-week summer academy.

Teachers meet with each student’s fam-ily and parents can contact them on school-



winri.com • 401-596-3000

WINNAPAUG COTTAGES

C



WINNAPAUG COTTAGES

C


^New


Wonderful year round custom detached homes and planned luxury elevated condos built to the highest standards. We use Andersen® windows, becauseno other window compliments our work so well.

Come see the 43 completed homes and 2 under construction today. See plans for the 40 elevated condo units and pick one of the � rst eight to be built so you can have the view you want most. Spend your leisure time in the resort community of Westerly.

No Mow, No Snow, Just Go!


winri.com • 401-596-3000

WINNAPAUG COTTAGES

C



WINNAPAUG COTTAGESC


^New


Photo: Nat Rea

054-059_charter schools.indd 99 8/10/12 10:27 AM




issued Blackberries. Before they are hired, teachers are required to go through a vigor-ous interview process, teach a demo lesson, then incorporate feedback and teach it again.

“This is not the place for everybody. Not every teacher is going to feel comfortable in this environment,” says Joy Souza, an elementary school teacher.

Teachers plan their lessons and exams backwards, based on state standards, Chiapp- etta says. And not only is the school day longer, but the goal is to maximize every minute.

For example, students learn at the begin-ning of each year how to pass out papers. Chiappetta says teaching kids to pass out papers in ten seconds instead of two min-utes, multiplied by the number of times students pass out papers each school day, times the number of days and years a child is in school makes a big difference.

“It adds months to education just in that small thing,” Chiappetta says. “And if you multiply all of those examples over and over again, the goal is to dramatically increase the amount of brain time on task and focused.”

That’s not to say the students don’t have fun. In one classroom, a teacher leads second graders through a discussion of why Ruby the Copycat isn’t realistic fiction. Down the hall, more second graders clamber around a classroom, measuring each other with yardsticks and using scales for math class.

The longer school day also allows for classes in music and art. And students can earn dollars for following the schools’ values, which they can cash in for trips and even the chance to throw a pie in a teacher’s face.

By design, Blackstone Valley Prep is so-cioeconomically diverse, Chiappetta says. Some students have parents who are doctors or lawyers. About 65 percent are eligible to receive free or reduced lunch. And more than 43 percent of the students speak a different language at home.

Chiappetta rejects the notion that be-cause people have to apply to the schools that he’s getting the best students with the most motivated parents.

“The fifth grade student achievement scores, last year and this year, show that our kids come to us on average, average,” Chiap-petta says. “And so far, we’ve proven that with great teachers and more time, strong programs and a strong culture, you can have breakthrough results.”

Charter schools have also been chal-lenged nationally for enrolling a smaller percentage of special needs students than traditional public schools. Magee acknowl-

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• Professionally maintained premises• Walking trails throughout

• 4 Furnished model homes on site• Community social center coming soonAttractively priced from $279,900

170 Providence Pike, North Smithfield 401.356.1130 www.laurelwoodri.comModel Homes Now Open Most Saturdays and Sundays 10a.m. to 4p.m.



edges that Blackstone Valley Prep’s number of students designated as special needs is a little low.

But he adds that while Blackstone Valley Prep enrolls a lot of students who could have special needs, they are assessed and Black-stone Valley Prep is careful about not over-identifying students. And some students may have behavioral problems in fourth grade at other schools, for example, because they haven’t learned to read yet, Magee says.

Blackstone Valley Prep is also working with the traditional school districts to devise ways to share resources to best accommo-date high-cost special needs students.

While some districts have seen charter schools as competition, Fran Gallo, the superintendent in Central Falls, says her district isn’t struggling financially because of the charters. She doesn’t think she’s en-titled to tax dollars for students she doesn’t have, but notes that her district has im-proved since charter schools opened there.

When she arrived, students weren’t read-ing at grade level. Now 89 percent of her kindergarteners are scoring proficient or above in reading.

“So I’m still behind, but we’re catching up,” Gallo says. “And I’m thinking that when I do catch up, then maybe I won’t lose them and that money will stay in my schools.”

Other districts in communities Blackstone Valley Prep serves have also made changes since the mayoral academy opened, Magee says.

Cumberland and Lincoln have instituted full-day kindergarten. Cumberland is also doing math remediation on Saturdays, re-cently raised the passing grade from 60 to 70 percent and lengthened the school day.

Felipe and Nancy Estrada of Pawtucket feel lucky their son Nikolas got into Black-stone Valley Prep.

“His reading is incredible,” Felipe Es-trada says.

He says he sees the result every day of kids who didn’t get a good education in the gym he runs.

“I have one kid who’s nineteen years old,” Felipe Estrada says. “He graduated from high school last year. And I think my son Nikolas can read better than him.”

Behind the Scene Snap this tag for a video of Blackstone Valley students doing a homeroom cheer. Need the free app? We recommend RedLaser’s app available at the App store or the Android Marketplace.

goo.gl/16xxN

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issued Blackberries. Before they are hired, teachers are required to go through a vigor-ous interview process, teach a demo lesson, then incorporate feedback and teach it again.

“This is not the place for everybody. Not every teacher is going to feel comfortable in this environment,” says Joy Souza, an elementary school teacher.

Teachers plan their lessons and exams backwards, based on state standards, Chiapp- etta says. And not only is the school day longer, but the goal is to maximize every minute.

For example, students learn at the begin-ning of each year how to pass out papers. Chiappetta says teaching kids to pass out papers in ten seconds instead of two min-utes, multiplied by the number of times students pass out papers each school day, times the number of days and years a child is in school makes a big difference.

“It adds months to education just in that small thing,” Chiappetta says. “And if you multiply all of those examples over and over again, the goal is to dramatically increase the amount of brain time on task and focused.”

That’s not to say the students don’t have fun. In one classroom, a teacher leads second graders through a discussion of why Ruby the Copycat isn’t realistic fiction. Down the hall, more second graders clamber around a classroom, measuring each other with yardsticks and using scales for math class.

The longer school day also allows for classes in music and art. And students can earn dollars for following the schools’ values, which they can cash in for trips and even the chance to throw a pie in a teacher’s face.

By design, Blackstone Valley Prep is so-cioeconomically diverse, Chiappetta says. Some students have parents who are doctors or lawyers. About 65 percent are eligible to receive free or reduced lunch. And more than 43 percent of the students speak a different language at home.

Chiappetta rejects the notion that be-cause people have to apply to the schools that he’s getting the best students with the most motivated parents.

“The fifth grade student achievement scores, last year and this year, show that our kids come to us on average, average,” Chiap-petta says. “And so far, we’ve proven that with great teachers and more time, strong programs and a strong culture, you can have breakthrough results.”

Charter schools have also been chal-lenged nationally for enrolling a smaller percentage of special needs students than traditional public schools. Magee acknowl-

1350-A Bald Hill Rd., Warwick • walpolewoodworkers.com • facebook/WalpoleOutdoorsQuality fence since 1933

Our modern cellular PVC is so like the real thing we add signs that read “This is not wood!” to our displays nationwide. Walpole uses

time-honored methods to handcraft this advanced wood alternative materialfor classic fence, gates, pergolas, railings, arbors, lantern posts, windowand planter boxes, and more. For a catalog or to arrange a free design

consultation stop by or call our store nearest you.Ask about our popular kit pergolas.

So much like real wood it fools real professionals.

WW17148_RIMonthly.Sept.2012_WW6283CTMag 7/3/12 12:28 PM Page 1

Welcometo Laurelwood

170 Providence Pike, North Smithfi eld 401.356.1130 www.laurelwoodri.comModel Homes Now Open Fri., Sat. and Sun. 10-4pm

A master-planned, new home residential condominium community designed specifically for active adults, age fifty-five and better! Select one of four different, single-level floor plans and we will customize the interior to your liking. All units have full basements, attached garages and are built to Energy Star’s strict standards for energy efficiency.

• Professionally maintained premises• Walking trails throughout

• 4 Furnished model homes on site• Community social center coming soonAttractively priced from $279,900

170 Providence Pike, North Smithfield 401.356.1130 www.laurelwoodri.comModel Homes Now Open Most Saturdays and Sundays 10a.m. to 4p.m.



edges that Blackstone Valley Prep’s number of students designated as special needs is a little low.

But he adds that while Blackstone Valley Prep enrolls a lot of students who could have special needs, they are assessed and Black-stone Valley Prep is careful about not over-identifying students. And some students may have behavioral problems in fourth grade at other schools, for example, because they haven’t learned to read yet, Magee says.

Blackstone Valley Prep is also working with the traditional school districts to devise ways to share resources to best accommo-date high-cost special needs students.

While some districts have seen charter schools as competition, Fran Gallo, the superintendent in Central Falls, says her district isn’t struggling financially because of the charters. She doesn’t think she’s en-titled to tax dollars for students she doesn’t have, but notes that her district has im-proved since charter schools opened there.

When she arrived, students weren’t read-ing at grade level. Now 89 percent of her kindergarteners are scoring proficient or above in reading.

“So I’m still behind, but we’re catching up,” Gallo says. “And I’m thinking that when I do catch up, then maybe I won’t lose them and that money will stay in my schools.”

Other districts in communities Blackstone Valley Prep serves have also made changes since the mayoral academy opened, Magee says.

Cumberland and Lincoln have instituted full-day kindergarten. Cumberland is also doing math remediation on Saturdays, re-cently raised the passing grade from 60 to 70 percent and lengthened the school day.

Felipe and Nancy Estrada of Pawtucket feel lucky their son Nikolas got into Black-stone Valley Prep.

“His reading is incredible,” Felipe Es-trada says.

He says he sees the result every day of kids who didn’t get a good education in the gym he runs.

“I have one kid who’s nineteen years old,” Felipe Estrada says. “He graduated from high school last year. And I think my son Nikolas can read better than him.”

Behind the Scene Snap this tag for a video of Blackstone Valley students doing a homeroom cheer. Need the free app? We recommend RedLaser’s app available at the App store or the Android Marketplace.

goo.gl/16xxN

THE BIGGESTART AND FRAME STORE

IN NEW ENGLANDOFFICE | HOME CONSULTATIONS | DELIVERY | INSTALLATION

www.ProvidencePictureFrame.com401-421-6196

I-95 Exit 24 Branch Avenue (next to Benny’s) Providence, RIHours: Monday–Saturday 8:30–6:30

the official framer of Rhode Island Monthly

splashspritzo.com

For an appointment call 800.207.2713 For an appointment call 800.207.2713

Newton, MA - Saco, MENewton, MA - Saco, ME

333-339 Harris Ave Providence, RIBeauty with unmatchedperformance.

A�liated Showrooms

Exquisite bath and kitchen designs

to soothe your soul, excite your senses

and capture your style.

A Division of The Portland Group

Make a Splash.

S P R I T Z O




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