Rhode Island Students SAIL Into Summer Learning

Published on Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Students Can Register for a Range of Options Now! 

PROVIDENCE, RI – The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) is offering a broad array of learning opportunities for students across the state through its free Summer Academy for Interactive Learning (SAIL), part of RIDE’s PrepareRI initiative.



SAIL with PrepareRI offers free, virtual courses to Rhode Island public school students in grades K-12, including “Readiness Courses” to help students in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics in the transition to high school and the transition to college. More than 2,000 students have already signed up to participate in these Readiness Courses.



Students who participate will receive world-class, virtual instruction via master WestEd instructors, and local educators have been hired to support small classes of students. Courses are designed to help rising 9th graders prepare to meet the demands of high school mathematics and reading, and to support rising 12th graders and recently-graduated seniors (Class of 2020) prepare to take credit-bearing, college-level coursework.



“The RIDE team is working to deliver on our commitment to provide world-class programs for Rhode Island students this summer,” said Angélica Infante-Green, Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education. “This is a critical time for our students, who need a boost after months of distance learning and must be ready to step up to the next level in their education. Our SAIL with PrepareRI offerings will put these young people in a position to navigate high school and college successfully.”



For Students: SAIL with PrepareRI offers Rhode Island public school students dozens of free, virtual courses. In addition to the paid mathematics and ELA Readiness Courses, SAIL with PrepareRI offers more than 50 dual-enrollment college courses that will allow high school students to earn college credit this summer from the Community College of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College, and the University of Rhode Island. Courses are available to students at all grade levels and from a wide wage of providers. The currently-approved course providers are:

• 1812ada, Inc.
• ASTRO
• Blackstone Valley Prep
• Boys and Girls Club
• Community College of Rhode Island
• College Crusade
• Diversity Talks
• Fab Newport
• FirstWorks
• FLY Initiative
• Girls Rock Rhode Island!
• Harvard Kennedy School Student Support Lab
• Johnson & Wales University
• Mass Insight Education & Research
• New England Institute of Technology
• Newport Art Museum
• Nowell Academy
• Providence After School Alliance
• Providence Children’s Museum
• Rhode Island College
• Rhode Island School of Design
• Rhode Island Nurses Institute Middle College
• RIDE
• Roger Williams University
• University of Rhode Island

New courses are being added each week. To find the most up-to-date information and links to the enrollment platform, families and students should visit www.ride.ri.gov/summer.



For Providers: Providers can still apply to be a part of SAIL through a competitive, rolling grant process. Programming priorities include academic achievement, work-based learning, enrichment, physical fitness, supporting students transitioning into elementary school, middle school, high school, and post-secondary, and supporting multilingual learners and differently-abled students across the state.



RIDE is working with the Rhode Island Department of Human Services to provide supplemental funding grants for in-person summer camps to offset the costs of COVID-19 regulations on in-person summer programming. Providers can find the applications for SAIL offerings and supplemental funding at www.ride.ri.gov/summer. The offerings have been made available in part due to $9 million of federal CARES Funding dedicated by the state for summer learning.



More About the PrepareRI College Readiness Project: This innovative partnership between PrepareRI and WestEd began as an in-person pilot in January 2020 at seven high schools, serving more than 230 11th and 12th grade students. That course was designed to ensure that students planning to attend Rhode Island’s public colleges would place into credit-bearing college-level coursework, avoiding the trap of remediation. After the state moved to distance learning, the Readiness Project pivoted to online learning through the SAIL with PrepareRI program. Shortly after this pivot, RIDE and WestEd developed plans to expand the reach of the program to students across the state.



For students participating in the Readiness Project, learning is not only their priority, it is a summer job. Students will be eligible to receive up to $750 ($250 for rising 9th graders and $750 for rising and recently graduated seniors) for attending classes, submitting classwork, and completing the eight-week course. Expanding upon infrastructure already created through the Rhode2College program, RIDE partnered with RIPL (Research Improving People’s Lives) to facilitate the student incentives.



PrepareRI is a statewide initiative to prepare all students for success in college and career. Learn more at www.Prepare-RI.org.