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 Programs & Services

•  High School Reform

•  Virtual High School

•  Career Discovery

•  Child Outreach

•  Regional Transition Center

•  ForwardVIEW Academy

•  Reading Recovery Center

•  Adult Workforce Development

•  Teacher Assistant Training

•  Professional Development:
ELA, Science, Literacy

•  Graduate Courses

•  Resource Library

•  Key Works of School Boards

•  Group Purchasing

•  Meeting Room Rental

 


 
Key Works of School Boards

Goverance as Leadership

The research base on effective school districts consistently demonstrates that high performing school boards/school committees make a serious and ongoing investment in leadership training.  It is a part of the basic belief system and culture of the organization.

A proposal was brought to the SORICO Collaborative Council in May 2001 to request regional training on school governance and leadership practices. A task force, comprised of three school committee members, one superintendent, and the executive director of SORICO, developed a plan around superintendent and school committee roles/responsibilities guided by two questions: 
What sustainable governance and leadership practices would lead to a better focus and commitment to improve student achievement?

What methodology would be most useful to provide timely and productive training opportunities for school committees and superintendents?

The Collaborative Council approved a commitment to training for the nine SORICO district leadership teams: 61 school committee members and 9 superintendents. The training provides regional opportunities to share and exchange ideas, strategies, experiences, and best practices.


Some outcomes of regional training include:
  • regional listserv to facilitate communications among districts
  • regional legislative committee to impact statewide issues
  • regional feasibility study to consider consolidation opportunities

Key Works of School Boards

Key Work reflects the National School Board Associations (NSBA) agenda to focus the work of school boards on student achievement through community engagement. School committees, as they are called in RI, are responsible for providing the conditions for excellence in teaching and learning. A basic premise of Key Work is that excellence in the classroom begins with excellence in the boardroom.. Key Work provides a framework for leadership and governance that promotes systems thinking around eight key actions. The challenge is to recognize the interconnections between the action areas and synthesize them into a unified view of the whole system. Key Work serves as the guding philosophy underlying SORICO governance and leadership training.


VISION Reflects the community's commitment to student achievement as the priority
STANDARDS Identifies community expectations for what students should know and be able to do
ASSESSMENT Determines how well students are meeting the standards
ACCOUNTABILITY Assumes responsibility for student results using explicit criteria and regular monitoring
ALIGNMENT Ensures support and resources for district priorities to improve student learning
CLIMATE Understanding that environment influences behavior and performance as well as community perceptions
COLLABORATION Enables networks of individuals to solve problems and achievecommon goals for student learning
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT Attitude of questioning, reflecting, monitoring, evaluating, to achieve excellence


Useful Links National and State Organizations

-          NSBA Key Work     

-          RI Association of School Committees

-          RI Board of Regents

-          RI Department of Education

-          National Capitol Hill Alert

-          RI General Assembly


 


646 Camp Avenue   North Kingstown, RI 02852   phone: (401) 295-2888   fax: (401) 295-3232
Email SORICO@ride.ri.net