Rhode Island
The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) has tapped the New England Comprehensive Center (NECC) for assistance in developing its capacity to meet the needs of its English language learners (ELLs) by creating a statewide framework focusing on revising the state regulations and accompanying guidance.
The Center has facilitated a stakeholders' meeting, including parents, community-based organizations, institutes of higher learning, and district-level personnel, which set the agenda for the statewide framework. With RIDE staff, NECC staff co-facilitated workgroups that reviewed the current regulations and then made recommendations.
As part of this agenda, the Rhode Island Department of Education, in collaboration with NECC, initiated a Promising Practices Initiative (PPI) to identify practices that are showing positive results in the education of ELL students and to initiate action research projects on new practices. The end goal of the PPI is to help build a culture of reflective practice among ELL practitioners and to promote the development of a professional learning community.
Contact
Fran Collignon is the NECC liaison for Rhode Island:
Fran_Collignon
brown.edu