Official State of Rhode Island website

State of Rhode Island Department of Education

The Launch Years Initiative

In the 2022-2023 school year, Rhode Island was one of 22 states accepted to join the Launch Years initiative. Led by the Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin, this initiative supports the scaling of mathematics pathways from high school through postsecondary education and into the workplace, aligned to students’ goals and aspirations. The Rhode Island Launch Years Working Group was created at that time to form an intentional and collaborative group of critical education stakeholders, invited by the Commissioner of K-12 Education and the Commissioner of Postsecondary Education. Their initial work leveraged data, policies, and educator experience, to develop recommendations to improve alignment of mathematics content, courses, and related policies across Rhode Island.

The Rhode Island Launch Years Working Group continued this work during the 2023-2024 school year, focusing on developing structures to support all our students through a standardized course sequence of Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2, ensuring open doors for access to both college and career after high school. This group developed three recommendations for Rhode Island’s future work in the mathematics space, from K-12 to higher education, to our local workforce.

Recommendations

  • The adjustment of Algebra 2 model course content, in conjunction with higher education entry-level, credit-bearing expectations, to increase depth and decrease breadth of content in order to minimize the need for remediation.
  • Establishing rigorous high school to higher ed math pathways and options by strengthening the Rhode Island Department of Education’s (RIDE’s) Math Graduation Requirement Guidance and Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) admissions guidance to ensure that advanced high school math credit offerings and alternatives to Algebra 2 are connected to students’ college and career plans.
  • The development of an ongoing collaborative structure to facilitate the coordination of OPC, RIDE, K-12, and Rhode Island’s IHEs to continue the development and implementation of modern math pathways across K-12, postsecondary, and the workforce. This Collaborative will exist to ensure equitable access to rigorous and relevant opportunities in math for all students, bringing together stakeholders to build consensus and to incubate, debate, and communicate ideas.

Read the full Rhode Island Launch Years report and recommendations here. 

With guidance from a State Leadership Team, support from RIDE staff, and technical assistance provided by external partners, the RI Launch Years Working Group was an intentional and collaborative group of critical education stakeholders, invited by the Commissioner of K-12 Education and the Commissioner of Postsecondary Education to help provide equitable access to mathematics education in our state.  

Working Group Members

  • James Baglama, URI
  • Maddie Burke, CCRI
  • Amy Burns, North Smithfield
  • Mark Camilli, Providence
  • Ruth Corley, Providence
  • Stephanie Downey Toledo, Central Falls
  • Lisa Garcia, North Kingstown
  • Christine Grele, OPC
  • Anna Herbert, Johnston
  • Nicole Hersey-Bertram, URI
  • Lisa Humphreys, RIC
  • Nancy Koczera, Woonsocket
  • Abigail Larose, Student, URI
  • Coral Maack, RIC
  • Stacy Mayne, Exeter-West Greenwich
  • Sara Monaco, Smithfield
  • Becky Mulholland, URI
  • Connor O'Brien, Student, URI
  • Renee Palazzo, Ponaganset
  • Rebecca Sparks, RIC
  • Irma Stevens, URI
  • Jason Stockford, CCRI
  • Christopher Texeira, RIC
  • Soudabeh Valicenti, CCRI

State Leadership Team

  • Lisa Foehr, RIDE
  • Dean Libutti, URI
  • Patrice Mettauer, RIC
  • Lisa Odom-Villella, RIDE
  • Steve Osborn, RIDE

Supporting RIDE Team:

  • Maureen Dizon
  • Ben Hall
  • Erin Healey
  • Josh Lach
  • Phyllis Lynch
  • Nicole Lyons
  • Olivia Smith

Supporting Launch Years Initiative Team:

  • Ted Coe, Cohort Advisor
  • Joleigh Honey, Cohort Advisor
  • Joan Zoellner, Dana Center
timeline of launch years engagement
Meeting Date
Meeting Time
Meeting Topic
April 4, 2023 3:30-5:30pm Kick-Off: Establishing the Charge, Reviewing the National and Rhode Island Landscape, Identifying Areas of Focus 
June 5, 2023 3:30-5:30pm Building a Shared Understanding of Data, Exploring and Analyzing Issues around Math Pathways in Rhode Island 
October 11, 2023 3:30-5:30pm Exploring Postsecondary Data, Developing Observations about Postsecondary Admissions Requirements and Math Course Taking Experiences 
November 2, 2023 3:30-5:00pm Virtual, Reflection on Postsecondary Math Data 
December 11, 2023 3:30-5:00pm Virtual, Establishing Sub-Committees to Develop Targeted Recommendations
January 24-25, 2024 3:30-5:30pm Sub-Committee Meetings: Identifying Secondary Math Topics for Postsecondary Success; Mapping High School Math Course Sequencing Options to Postsecondary College and Career Plans
February 5-6, 2024   Launch Years Initiative State Math Pathways Learning Exchange (Anaheim, California)
April 3-4, 2024 3:30-5:30pm Sub-Committee Meetings: Identifying Challenges and Opportunities with Various Math Pathway Options
June 3, 2024 3:30-6:00pm Sharing Detailed Work of Sub-Committees to Finalize Working Group Recommendations