Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. _Offer quality prekindergarten programs to students in five urban districts. Expand the time that students spend learning. Develop alternative high and middle schools for struggling students. Create zones of innovation that encourage urban districts to create different kinds of schools.

These are among the seven primary recommendations announced Tuesday by Governor Carcieri's Urban Education Task Force. More than 18 months in the making, Building Our Future: An Agenda for Quality Urban Education in Rhode Island represents the combined wisdom of more than three dozen people from the public schools, colleges, business community, faith community, teachers' unions and charter schools.

The governor formed the task force in 2008 and charged it with developing specific recommendations to strengthen and transform education in the five urban districts: Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Newport and Woonsocket.

"This is the issue of our time," Carcieri said at a news conference at Central Falls High School. "I don't want a report that's going to sit on the shelf. I want an action plan."

What gives this report staying power, he said, is the deep field of participants, who represent literally every segment of the urban community. Deborah A. Gist, the state's new education commissioner, stressed that the task force's recommendations were in sync with the reforms embraced by the Rhode Island Board of Regents of Elementary and Secondary Education.

"I've seen task force reports come and go," said Rep. Peter F. Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket. "What makes this one different is that it's not looking at what's wrong with the urban districts but what's right."

Missing from the 100-page report is any mention of a school funding formula, a highly divisive issue that is supposed to be heard by the General Assembly next year.

"We needed public support for an agenda first," said Warren Simmons, executive director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and chairman of the task force. "We needed to have that support before having a conversation about a funding formula."

"These are good recommendations, said Tim Duffy, executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees. "My first question is, what can we do in terms of coordinating the urban school boards."

 Tags  Carcieri Deborah Gist education

Comments

Reality Check said:

Great recommendations without funding will not be accomplished.

Link | October 27, 2009 5:41 PM
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