Amid efforts to define its contributions to public education in Providence, the University is working to channel its resources toward developing a new partnership program with designated Providence public schools, said President Christina Paxson P’19.
“Brown has done a lot in education but it hasn’t been as well-directed and as coordinated as it could have been,” Paxson said in an Oct. 2 interview with The Herald, when she expanded on her vision for the University’s involvement with Providence Public School District.
The University is also working to redesign its Masters of Arts in Teaching program to include a year-long residency in a local school for teachers-in-training. More broadly, Brown plans to coordinate with other Rhode Island colleges and universities to establish new programs for students in the state — such as a pathway for transfers between Community College of Rhode Island and Brown.
The University has not selected the schools for the new partnership program. Paxson and other University administrators are still in “active discussion” with both the R.I. Department of Education and the Providence Public School District to determine what kind of intervention can best fit the district’s needs. Once Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green “nails down” her plan for the state’s takeover of PPSD, which will be released in the next couple of weeks, the University will move forward with its plans to aid the district, Paxson said.
Members of the Urban Innovation Partnership, an association of higher education and healthcare executives of which the University is a member, will each conduct an assessment of their own involvement in the school district and then will coordinate their resulting responses to support PPSD.