Welcome!

Parents Across Rhode Island is a non-profit organization dedicated to informing parents on issues affecting their children in the state, with a strong emphasis on public education.

The goal for this site is to give parents a resource to understand the issues facing our state.  Our group has been working primarily to organize the community around fair testing and developmentally appropriate curriculum.  Across the country, parents, students, teachers and communities are recognizing the negative consequences that stem from an over reliance on standardized testing.  For many years, Parents Across Rhode Island has been advocating for children and working to educate parents around the state.

Some History:

In 2014, the RI Legislature passed a three year moratorium on the use of the NECAP as a graduation requirement.   This was the result off nearly three years of hard work (six years for some people) consisting of testifying, lobbying, writing, speaking, phone calls and advocating.  The policy of using the NECAP as a requirement for graduation was deeply flawed.  Thankfully, in what turned out to be a great civics lesson, the people prevailed and stopped it before it could hurt any more students. Since the passage of this legislation, the state has signed on with the multi-state PARCC Consortium, a standardized test aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

The 2014-2015 school year was the first year that PARCC was administered to students in our state.  Results from the test will be back in the Fall of 2015.

Parents Across Rhode Island has a firm stance on this issue: performance on standardized tests should not be a graduation requirement; the moratorium needs to be extended indefinitely as the state uses a deeply flawed test to determine proficiency for our students.  This is relevant today, as students entering Junior Year of high school will be expected to take PARCC as a graduation requirement for graduating in 2017, when the moratorium expires.

We have been organizing and redeveloping our mission and strategy to increase parent and community member involvement.  No doubt about it: we need your help.

2 thoughts on “ Welcome!

  1. Hello! I am the former director of Providence Children’s Museum, an avid advocate for progressive education and free play for all children, and part of a coalition of educators, child advocates, pediatricians, mental health professionals, etc formed to promote children’s right to free play opportunities. See http://www.recessri.org/2014/04/position-statement
    Sounds like we’re on the same team. Get in touch. Let’s combine our efforts!

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Nan Heroux says:

    Are there parent members in Parents Across RI who would like to get involved in changing the law to keep concealed guns out of K-12 RI schools? Current law allows concealed carry permit holders to bring their firearms into school without informing anyone! We want our schools to be treated as true gun-free zones as they are designated and as the Statehouse, courthouses and airports are! My email is: [email protected] …please contact me! Nan Heroux of the RI Coalition Against Gun Violence,

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