PrepareRI Readiness Project
The PrepareRI Readiness Project is a statewide initiative to help streamline the transition between high school and college for students.
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation bets on 8th grade readiness
RIDE, DelSesto Middle School, and the 8th Grade Math Readiness class were recently featured in this GatesNotes blog video.
RIDE was recently awarded a $1 million Balancing the Equation grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to bolster current efforts to expand math supports for multilingual learner (MLL) students in Providence Public Schools (PPSD).
RIDE’s partners - WestEd, the English Learners Success Forum (ELSF), Parents Leading for Educational Equity (PLEE), and Young Voices - are taking the existing High School Math Readiness class and revising the curriculum, providing teachers with meaningful professional development, and incorporating community feedback to make the course more supportive and culturally empowering for all students, especially MLLs.
The American Institutes for Research (AIR), the Gates Foundation’s evaluation partner, will conduct a randomized control trial in PPSD’s seven participating middle schools during the 2022-2023 academic year to evaluate course efficacy by comparing key outcomes of students who take Readiness and students who do not take Readiness. RIDE to share results from AIR’s study in Spring 2024.
Readiness courses in SY22-23
The Readiness Project was established in 2018 to ensure that every Rhode Island student graduates high school ready to enroll in credit-bearing postsecondary coursework. Since then, RIDE has partnered with WestEd’s Carnegie Math Pathways and Reading Apprenticeship teams to develop four courses: 8th Grade Math Readiness, 8th Grade Reading Readiness, 12th Grade Math Readiness, and 12th Grade Reading Readiness. All courses use student-centered pedagogy to strengthen foundational skills, reinforce content from previous grades, and address learning loss to prepare students for their next academic step. Click the buttons below to learn about each course.
options for taking Readiness courses
Option 1 - In School:
Students can take Readiness as a semester-long elective course in addition to their core math or ELA class at middle and high schools across Rhode Island. Students can use performance in the College Math Readiness course to help them place out of remedial courses at RIC, CCRI and URI. To find out if your school offers Readiness courses, please email allison.peters@ride.ri.gov.
Option 2 - On The ACN:
Students can also sign up to take a Readiness Course on RIDE’s All Course Network. The Readiness courses are an opportunity for you to strengthen your skills and prepare for college or high school. All four courses will be offered virtually in Spring 2023, with synchronous Zoom sessions as well as asynchronous homework.
If you are a school leader interested in learning more about how your school can participate in teacher professional development and offer one or more Readiness course, please reach out to allison.peters@ride.ri.gov.
Evaluating Readiness Courses
RIDE has partnered with Harvard’s Center for Educational Policy Research, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and American Institutes for Research (AIR) to evaluate the Readiness courses. To learn more and to see preliminary outcomes, please click the button below.
Why is a readiness project necessary?
The following diagrams are a ten-year look at the postsecondary outcomes of Rhode Island’s Class of 2008. Our data is showing that large numbers of Rhode Island students are not prepared to take credit-bearing coursework when they get to college. Each Sankey diagram below is disaggregated by different characteristics.