100% Proficiency of all RI fourth graders: What will it
take?
A Statewide Analysis
Letter from the Commissioner
Dear Citizens of Rhode Island:
This fall the children of the new millennium will enter Rhode Island public schools. The report before you paints a portrait of the kinds of experiences and challenges that will accompany these children’s journey toward growth, learning, and a successful adult life in a democratic society. Unless and until we change our system of education to be more inclusive, better equipped for the challenges, and more successful at helping all children to learn and achieve at high levels, we will continue to see the same distressing patterns that this report highlights.
I am pleased to report that there are welcome signs of incremental positive change in our state. They include more focused funding targeted to results, clear standards for student and school achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics, an emerging but shaky policy consensus about what should be done, and an unprecedented level of energy and activity to promote change in schools.
This second annual report on public K-12 education in the Ocean State focuses our attention on today’s fourth graders. We use fourth graders for our focus because they represent the most vulnerable portion of our school population. They are also the children on whom we can have the most impact. Decisions we make now as a state and society will profoundly affect the future that these children will either enjoy or regret. Our state’s economy will be better or worse in the future dependent upon the choices we make now in investing our resources wisely in the next generation. A quality education is a lasting personal treasure that expands opportunities throughout life. As you read this report, with its many charts, tables, and graphs that presents a data-rich portrait of our children and our schools, ask yourself, how we can change our system in ways that will ensure that all children receive this lasting treasure – a gift beyond price – the door opening experience of a quality education? I will share you some of my thoughts at the end of this report . . . .
Sincerely,
Peter McWalters
Commissioner
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