Armed with ideas from a recent “Make It Happen RI” forum, a committee assembled by the Rhode Island Foundation will soon be putting the final touches on a 10-year strategic plan to transform the state’s public schools into a world-class education system.
The 26-member Long-Term Education Planning Committee is expected to review what was discussed at the daylong “Make It Happen: World Class Public Education for RI” gathering on Dec. 7, which was attended by more than 350 community leaders, educators and activists. Then the committee will unveil its plan in January.
The plan’s release will be the culmination of a yearlong effort to create a framework to reinvigorate an underperforming statewide education system that’s been plagued by low standardized test scores, crumbling infrastructure and funding woes.
Rhode Island Foundation CEO and President Neil D. Steinberg said he believes the committee’s plan will be the first to examine education on both a statewide and long-term basis, a shift from what Steinberg framed as a series of “flavor of the moment” decisions and policies in years past.
“The challenge is in staying the course,” Steinberg said. “Down the road, when there are changes in administration and legislators, you want to have this guidepost.”
The committee’s strategy will fall into four major pillars: investment and funding priorities; high standards for a statewide curriculum and assessment program; recruitment and training for the next generation of educators; and clear governance standards that promote transparency and accountability.
But one of the biggest immediate tasks is getting the support of state leaders.
Steinberg is hoping for endorsements from Gov. Gina M. Raimondo and the General Assembly, an outcome he framed optimistically, given the comments by Raimondo, Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio and Rep. Joseph M. McNamara, D-Warwick, who collectively expressed the importance of education in a panel at a forum.
It appears R.I. Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green is already on board.
Infante-Green is serving on the Long-Term Education Planning Committee, and it’s hoped the strategies released in January will be implemented in conjunction with the R.I. Department of Education’s own plans, which include the state’s takeover of the troubled Providence school system.
“We’ll keep adding the specifics under each pillar, of what does that look like,” she said. “We’ll keep tying it back to the document so it’s not this piece of paper that sits in a drawer.”
Just as important is support from the members of the education planning committee, which Steinberg envisions acting as an advisory group that ensures the plan stays top-of-mind over the course of the next 10 years.
Christopher Graham, an attorney and member of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce board of directors, also serves on the education planning committee. He emphasized the role of business leaders in “vigorously supporting” both the new plan and Infante-Green.
“If we want to grow the economy in this state, we need an educated workforce and we need the potential for good education to attract business growth,” Graham said.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.
