The Year's Highlights
The Riverside County Office of Education trains teachers, helps districts meet tough new state academic improvement goals, and processes literally thousands of payroll checks and purchase orders for school employees in districts countywide.
RCOE’s 2,000 employees, including teachers, counselors, administrators, and school safety experts, respond each day to the needs of Riverside County’s 23 school districts.
Mission of RCOE
We are here to help children become better
students; to help school personnel become
better teachers and administrators; and to help
communities become better places in which to
live and work. We are here to shape our future.
We offer special education, vocational education, and alternative education classes for about 60,000 of our own students. Some of our programs can only be obtained through RCOE. Many would be too costly for smaller school districts to offer.
We are the largest child care referral agency (outside of Los Angeles County) in the state, and we operate our own Head Start/State Preschool centers.
I would like to give you some information about our programs and Riverside County in this 2006 Report to the Community. I will highlight a few of them here:
- I am very proud of our response to the Hurricane Katrina evacuees who were displaced to Riverside County. County leaders met and quickly assembled a one-stop service center in Riverside. RCOE supplied a team of educators to help arriving families quickly find new schools for their children. School district superintendents paved the way for the new arrivals to continue their education with the least amount of disruption. It was a system which was initiated quickly, but one that was tremendously effective.
- In another large task, settlement of the Williams Lawsuit meant that RCOE would visit schools across the county that fell under the settlement guidelines and make an extensive report back to the state on their progress. RCOE’s teams visited 114 schools in record time. Their performance among the 58 counties in the state was unmatched.
- Test scores were up again for the seventh straight year. Riverside County API scores have risen 95 points since 1999, while the state has risen 61. Local school districts, administrators, teachers, and parents came together to help students excel.
- RCOE contributed to that progress through the Riverside County Achievement Teams, initiated seven years ago. It is now the state model for helping districts improve test scores.
- We held our Third Annual Education Summit with Jack O’Connell, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, as our keynote speaker. The summit drew more than 300 educators, legislators, and community leaders together to address key issues facing our schools.
- Riverside County’s 23 school districts put together budgets worth more than $3.5 billion. All met state guidelines and reported positive financial conditions.
There is much more to learn about RCOE. I am proud of the work RCOE has done in the last year. Please enjoy the 2006 Report to the Community. Visit our web site at www.rcoe.us for more information about our programs and services.
David Long, Ph.D.
Riverside County
Superintendent of Schools