In January of 2007, Governor Donald L. Carcieri’s State of the State address highlighted the need for improvement in public education. The governor requested the assistance of the state’s eleven higher education institutions in this endeavor.
In response, a small group of leaders made a full presentation to the Governor’s PK-16 Council outlining some of the existing partnerships between colleges and public schools in April, 2007. The presentation was led by then president of Rhode Island School of Design, Dr. Roger Mandle, in his role as the chairman of Rhode Island Campus Compact and as a member of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities Rhode Island (formerly known as Rhode Island Independent Higher Education Association).
What emerged from this initial work was a proposal to the Rhode Island Foundation and the Rhode Island Commodores to fund the systematic documentation of the collaborative relationships between higher education and PK-12 public school districts and to discover and develop partnership models that could be shared and replicated across the state.
A Working Group was established to develop and oversee the work of the project, including a Management Team made up of Rhode Island Campus Compact, the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (AICU) Rhode Island, and the Rhode Island Office of Higher Education, as well as individual members from the Department of Labor and Training, the Governor’s Office, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Providence Plan, the Providence After School Alliance, and the Rhode Island College Crusade.
Today, with continued support from key partners and additional funding from the Rhode Island Foundation, RI Partnerships for Success is actively engaged in efforts to support, promote and expand PK-16 Partnerships across the state.
Learn more about the Policy Summit and PK-16 Mini-grant recipients.
Read the Final Report from the systemic Inventory Project, released at a special meeting convened by the Governor’s PK-16 Council in March 2008.
