RI’s New Ed. Commissioner pitches plan
by: ABC6 News Staff
news@abc6.com
RI Education Commissioner Ken Wagner outlined a plan to strengthen neighborhood schools to give every student a chance to succeed. “Education is an investment in our future” Wagner said. What’s good for our children is also good for our economy and our state”
During his speech, Commissioner Wagner highlighted progress made over the past 16 months including:
- Enacting a plan to triple the number of prekindergarten classrooms in RI by 2016.
- Making all-day kindergarten universal across RI.
- Launching Prepare RI, which enables all eligible high-school students to take college classes for free.
- Creating the P-Tech program, where local businesses adopt a school to help students get the skills and education to prepare them for jobs that exist in RI.
- Creating a School Building Authority to modernize our schools that, in its first year, has already invested $20 Million for projects at 86 schools benefiting more than 30,000 students.
In addition, the Commissioner highlighted three strategies to support RI students and schools.
-providing access to advanced classes to help kids build the skills that matter for future success.
-re-imagining how we do schooling for the 21st century-with rigor, relevance, and student engagement.
-empowering principals, teachers, and families.
The School Empowerment Initiative will give neighborhood schools, teachers, and principals more authority to make decisions that directly affect their students. It will also give the schools flexibility to help their teachers and students by:
-Getting rid of red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy so that teachers can spend more time teaching.
-Eliminating regulations that are slowing progress.
-Providing principals and teacher leaders with autonomy.
(C) WLNE-TV 2016
