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III. The Response – Shared Responsibility for Improving Student Performance
Retool and Support the Education Profession

The Rhode Island Professional Development and Certification Policy Consortium was convened by the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education in the spring of 1993. Members include the Deans of Education at Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island, the Presidents of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals (RIAFT) and National Education Association Rhode Island (NEARI), the Presidents of the Rhode Island Associations of School Administrators and School Principals, and the Commissioner. The group is developing an outcome-based system of professional preparation, certification, and life-long professional development which focuses on enabling educators to ensure the achievement of learning outcomes for all children.

The Consortium has provided leadership for: creating the Rhode Island Beginning Teacher Standards; piloting new performance assessments for pre-service teachers; redesigning the teacher preparation program approval process; and developing the template for individual professional development plans. In the future, the Consortium will provide leadership in the creation of mentoring programs for teachers in the first years of practice, and the redesign of renewable teacher certification.

The recently created Center for School Leadership (CSL) is a partnership between the Rhode Island Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development, RIDE, Rhode Island Middle Level Educators, the LAB at Brown, Breaking Ranks, the Rhode Island Associations of School Administrators and School Principals, and Rhode Island College. The CSL will provide high quality professional development to school leaders in the areas of leadership, technology, management, school change, student achievement and issues of diversity.

The Rhode Island Network for Educational Technology (RINET) is a statewide partnership of RIDE, the Office of Library and Information Services, Brown University, the University of Rhode Island, and districts, as represented by their regional educational collaboratives and the Providence School Department. RINET provides a statewide telecommunications infrastructure for K-12 education and public libraries, internet use, e-mail accounts for educators, and technical support services, including E-rate reimbursements.

 

"Most young people progress from school to work following the expected pattern. However, probing more deeply into the quality of the process raises difficult questions. Roughly a third of all high school graduates, and somewhat more high school dropouts, fail to find stable employment by the time they are thirty. Even if some of this group do better in the next few years, a substantial fraction of the cohort is still in trouble. For this group, the rather casual American system does not work well."

Paul Osterman. (1995). "The youth labor market: Skill deficiencies and public policy," in The Changing Nature of Work, Ed. Ann Howard. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, p. 225.

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