Whitney Tilson's School Reform Blog: R.I.’s education leader takes dead aim at reform

Deborah Gist continues to ROCK Rhode Island:

Despite the threat of cuts to funding for public schools, Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist says the state's schools need wholesale transformation and she has issued an aggressive agenda to make that happen.

Among her goals, she says the state must aggressively recruit and train effective teachers and principals, link teacher certification to student achievement and toughen academic standards.

Her plan also calls for intensive intervention in the state's chronically underperforming urban schools.

At the same time, she is asking local school districts if they want to participate in a fast-track agenda and dangling the possibility of millions of dollars in federal aid if they do.

The money would come from her ambitious bid to secure at least $100 million in federal "Race to the Top" funds. In the urban districts, she wants to invite charter management corporations like KIPP and Achievement First to run schools ranked among the bottom 5 percent.

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