Accelerating School Improvement

In an era when federal and state education mandates have gone up while federal and state funding has gone down, David Cicilline has worked tirelessly to strike the balance between the demands of over-burdened property tax payers and the critical economic and moral need to invest in children.

Mayor Cicilline has rolled up his sleeves and gone about the hard work of partnering with school and union officials to reform central administration, teacher contracts, and academic programming. The result has been a steady increase in academic performance in every subject at every level, as well as in economic efficiency. Now with strong momentum, there is a comprehensive plan in place to speed-up the process of school improvement.

• Mayor Cicilline identified a nationally-respected school administrator, Dr. Donnie Evans, as the new Superintendent of Providence Schools.
  • In Tampa, Florida, Dr. Evans improved the number of "A" rated (high performing) Schools from 7 to 87.
  • Dr. Evans is the innovator of "Whole School Effectiveness," an academic reform effort he is implementing in Providence.
• Mayor Cicilline launched the first, comprehensive after-school initiative in the City of Providence: the Providence After-School Alliance (PASA).
  • Three of five PASA AfterZones are already up and running, these are "campuses" of neighborhood after-school activity that bring together resources from libraries, schools, recreation centers, and more.
• Mayor Cicilline has forged a progressive partnership with the Providence Teachers Union and signed historic contracts that included first-ever co-pays for health care.
• Mayor Cicilline is tackling the long-neglected issue of decaying school buildings. For the first time in the history of the city, he is creating a district-wide master plan to transform school facilities into 21st-Century learning environments.
  • Mayor Cicilline has begun the process of reorganizing the district for a return to K-8 neighborhood schooling, so children are more at home in their schools and have better access to AfterZones, and parents can be more easily engaged.
• Mayor Cicilline has led the ongoing statewide fight for property tax relief in the form of a fair, adequate, and predictable school funding formula, sponsoring legislation to adopt a Constitutional Amendment to guarantee it.