I. Fast Forwarding to the Future - The Power of Article 31 The history of education policy in Rhode Island, until recently, was succinctly summarized in Education Week’s 1997 Quality Counts report, "Strong Headwinds," as a wealth of ideas that had little effect on student performance.¹ There was no shortage of energy and ideas in our state, but there was a shortage of common agreement on appropriate goals for students, how progress toward those goals should be assessed, and who should be held accountable for their realization. Consequently, student achievement improved only modestly, if at all, for a decade. These achievement results are unacceptable. In an increasingly global economy, flat achievement signifies losing ground and modest growth is simply not enough. Being competitive and prepared requires increasingly higher levels of knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge to ever more complex tasks. In Rhode Island, we must present potential employers with a highly educated work-force to retain and attract the businesses and jobs our state needs. We also need an educated citizenry for our democracy to function well at all levels. If the relatively flat achievement of the past continues, it will prevent the sustained economic growth and healthy community-building we seek. In response, Governor Lincoln Almond and the Board of Regents put forth a coherent plan for educational reform in the form of the Comprehensive Education Strategy (CES) in 1996. The CES, developed by the Rhode Island Goals 2000 Panel, established a clear agenda of high standards, meaningful assessments and account-ability for school improvement, yet political momentum was lacking. The sense of urgency required to bring about more than incremental change was missing. In June 1997, Rhode Island’s General Assembly changed all that with the passage of Article 31.Article 31demanded dramatic improvement in student achievement; targeted resources to that end; shortened implementation timelines and communicated urgency. The passage of Article 31 made the CES the state-wide education agenda, rather than one of a number of recommended actions for educators to consider taking. Article 31 demands that student performance grow ever stronger in our state. To meet this test, all of us – educators, parents, policymakers, business leaders and members of the larger community – must maintain a relentless focus on results, buttressed by the leadership, resources, information and capacity required to improve them. The General Assembly has begun to provide the necessary leadership and resources through Article 31. The Assembly also squarely charged the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE), in concert with local schools, districts and their communities, with building the information base required to plan thoughtfully for the changes that will improve student performance, and with building the capacity – knowledge, skills and abilities – required to make those plans bear fruit. Article 31 has given us the opportunity to put all of the necessary pieces in place. It builds on the good work of the past and boldly accelerates it to the future.
Realizing the Promise Our challenge now is to stay the course. Rhode Islanders need to use this opportunity of historic policy agreement to create a culture of responsibility. Such a culture includes: the responsibility to generate and examine useful information about the quality of education students receive and their resulting achievement, the responsibility to act on that information, and above all, the responsibility to "do right" by all kids. Student test scores in Rhode Island today are all too easy to predict based on a community’s income. Students from poor communities tend to achieve poorer educational results which can lead to a downward spiral of little job opportunity and other unfortunate life outcomes. Students from wealthier communities tend to achieve better educational results which often spiral upward to multiple job and other opportunities that define "the good life" in our state and in our nation. Working together, our job is to reduce, if not eliminate, this relationship between income and achievement by ensuring that all children receive the resources, inspiration and support they need to reach high standards. A culture of responsibility means that if one party is unable, for whatever reason, to provide for the needs of an individual child, another party stands ready and willing to step in. Education and educators cannot meet the needs of all children by themselves. We all must work together.
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