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Literacy for ALL Students: The Rhode Island English Language Arts Framework

The Rhode Island English Language Arts Frameworks

Introduction:

Educational Expectations in a Democratic Society
The National Education Reform Initiative
Education Reform in Rhode Island

Educational Expectations in a Democratic Society  

As we move into the 21st century, the well-being of the people of Rhode Island depends more than ever on their level of educational attainment. The challenges of living in a technologically advanced and democratic society demand that all of us possess the knowledge and skills needed to support ourselves, our families, our communities and our state. Indeed, as the nations of our world become increasingly interdependent, the knowledge and skills with which we once managed our affairs will no longer suffice. It is not enough for only a portion of our populace to excel academically. Meeting the challenges of the next century will mean mobilizing the talents and energy of all Rhode Islanders.

Not only does our future prosperity require a universally well-educated populace, but our democratic values demand that all citizens be given the same chance to realize their full potential. The time has come to reaffirm our nation's promise of equal educational opportunity. We must commit ourselves fully to the principle that all children can learn and have something meaningful to contribute to society.

A crucial step in making this ideal a reality is the establishment of high expectations for all students. As John Dewey once wrote, "What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children." With appropriate support, every child can achieve at high levels.

High levels of achievement imply a commitment to excellence in education for all students. We must be aware that students with severely challenging conditions should have opportunities to achieve success at their personally highest levels possible. We should not lower standards in advance for those students, but rather provide them with access, support, and encouragement.

We must never lose faith in our democratic vision or dismiss any child or group of children because they have not yet lived up to our aspirations for them. To do so would be to betray the very democratic ideals that we declare ourselves to hold. By setting high expectations for all students, we affirm our commitment to democracy.

The present document is but one piece of a larger, national education reform movement, the origins of which can be traced to the publication in 1983 of "A Nation At Risk," a federal report calling for renewed national commitment to educational excellence. Commissioned by the Reagan administration, it called on families, teachers, and schools to set higher standards for student achievement.

"A Nation At Risk" focused national attention on the need for reform, but progress was slow. Disappointed with the rate of change, the National Governors Association and the Bush administration collaborated in 1991 to formulate a set of six national education goals to be achieved by the year 2000. Among these goals were that American students achieve "demonstrated competency in challenging subject matter" and that "all students learn to use their minds."

The national education goals culminated in the passage of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act in 1994, a bipartisan effort led by the Clinton administration. In addition to increasing the number of national education goals from six to eight, it calls on states to construct broad-based teams to formulate and adopt "world-class" standards and performance assessments for all students. The new legislation guarantees that 95% of Goals 2000 funding to states will go directly to schools and local districts, on a competitive basis, to help them achieve the new standards.

As did many other states, Rhode Island already had its own education reform initiative underway when Goals 2000 became law. Formed by Governor Sundlun in 1991 to draft a plan for Rhode Island's educational renewal, the 21st Century Commission published "Educating ALL Our Children" in 1992. Among its many recommendations was that educators, families, business leaders, and community members should collaboratively develop challenging student performance standards appropriate to the 21st century.

Acting on both this recommendation and Goals 2000, the Rhode Island Department of Education distributed an education survey to the people of Rhode Island in June of 1994. It asked the following question: "What should all young adults in Rhode Island know and be able to do to meet the responsibilities and challenges of the 21st century?" People's responses fell into four broad categories -- communication, problem solving, a common body of knowledge, and responsibility -- which form the basis of Rhode Island's Common Core of Learning. These categories reflect the basic competencies all students should achieve at all grade levels and in all subject areas. (A copy of this report is included in the appendix of this framework.)

The content area frameworks, of which the present document is one, describe how the competencies outlined in the Common Core manifest themselves in particular areas of the curriculum. They offer a map of how subject matter and instruction can be organized to achieve these competencies across the content areas and at various performance levels.

A key concept is that the four categories of the Common Core permeate every facet of the curriculum from kindergarten through high school. Students' communication skills, for example, are the concern of the mathematics, science and health teacher, not just the teacher of English language arts. Art and physical education teach problem solving to kindergartners as well as high school seniors. The common body of knowledge shared by all literate Americans is transmitted in first grade music as well as the advanced placement history class. And the whole range of educational influences that children and young adults encounter in their formative years should teach responsibility.

The Common Core of Learning, the frameworks, and the larger reform initiative of which they are a part constitute a significant departure from past reform efforts in Rhode Island. In the early 1980s the Basic Education Program (BEP) established certain baseline input standards (such as health and safety requirements) deemed necessary for all children to achieve minimally acceptable levels of academic competence. The Common Core and frameworks endorse these standards as minimum requirements but aim much higher in establishing challenging performance standards for all students. All students will be expected not only to acquire knowledge but also to demonstrate their ability to access, evaluate, and use it responsibly in a variety of contexts. Along with these new standards comes the recognition that high expectations require state-of-the-art curriculum, instruction and assessment, combining established practice with recent innovations, as well as a commitment to helping all students achieve their full potential.