Ten years ago, teachers, parents, community agencies, administrators and policy makers came together to design a plan for the future of Rhode Island k-12 Education. Out of these many meetings, surveys and focus groups emerged the Comprehensive Education Strategy (CES), a blueprint for educating all of Rhode Island's students. The structures of the CES: setting high standards and clear expectations; developing information systems that measure progress towards those standards; and ensuring effective implementation of proven strategies to improve learning and accountability for result, were translated one year later into the Student Success Initiative, commonly known as Article 31. Article 31 converted the theory of the CES into reality by way of the School Accountability for Learning and Teaching SALT system, adoption of the New Standards Reference Exam battery of testing for grades 4, 8 and 10, and fiscal oversight through In$ite. In the legislation Progressive Support and Intervention was introduced as a continuum of support to schools and districts where SALT and NSRE results showed lack of, or limited student success.*1

Though the legislation portrays Progressive Support and Intervention as a state effort aimed only at under-performing schools and districts, RIDE takes a more literal meaning of progressive. The American Heritage dictionary defines progressive as:

1. Moving forward; advancing.

2. Proceeding in steps; continuing steadily by increments: progressive change.

3. Promoting or favoring progress toward better conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods.*2

Given this definition, progressive support and intervention is not a punitive structure; it is a comprehensive framework for continuous improvement. As such, rather than labeling low performing schools as in need of Progressive Support and Intervention, RIDE has established the Office of Progressive Support and Intervention as a mechanism for supporting ALL schools and districts in their efforts to improve student performance.

This program now integrates many of the RIDE structures that have typically been associated with support: SALT, School Improvement and Title I. By doing so, RIDE can better match its resources with targeted district needs. For some districts, this may merely be a matter of providing support by linking them with peer districts; for others it may be much more on the side of intervention, whereby a school is appointed a special master and staff is replaced. The level of support and intervention is, quite simply, dependent upon what support and intervention is needed.


FOOTNOTES
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*1 16-7.1-5 Intervention and support for failing schools. The Board of Regents shall adopt a series of progressive support and intervention strategies consistent with the Comprehensive Education Strategy and the principles of the "School Accountability for Learning and Teaching" (SALT) of the Board of Regents for those schools and school districts that continue to fall short of performance goals outlined in the district strategic plans.

*2 The American Heritage¨ Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.