Dr. David Long celebrates the holidays with Head Start/State Preschool children in Corona.

Welcome to the “best kept secret” in Riverside County – the Riverside County Office of Education. The 2,000 teachers, counselors, administrators, and employees of RCOE work hard to provide critical services needed by Riverside County’s 23 school districts, special education, and vocational education students.

We help districts meet tough state academic goals, train educators on best practices, provide special programs for students who need them, and on the business side, process millions of dollars in payroll and approve local budgets worth billions of dollars.

We want the best education and best facilities possible for the 380,000 students of Riverside County. We have 60,000 students in our own RCOE programs, including preschool Head Start, special Education, and Regional Occupational Programs.

You may read about some of those programs in this 2005 Report to the Community. Here are some highlights of the last year.

"You clearly have unique challenges in Riverside County, but I have never, never, heard an educator in this county use any of these challenges as an excuse for not meeting this state’s high, world class standards. You have been successful here in outpacing the state in achievement growth."

– Jack O’Connell, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction at the Second Annual Riverside County Education Summit.

First and foremost, our county test scores have improved again, for the sixth year. I credit our local school districts, administrators, teachers, and parents for the increase. Our improvement has been faster than the state average. For schools that need extra help, we created Riverside County Achievement Teams (RCAT) six years ago. Starting with a dozen schools and 2,000 students, RCAT is now in 85 schools and benefits 90,000 students. In the last year, we have added two major components to this program. First, we expanded RCAT to include programs for special education students. Second, we have taken RCAT on the road to a series of nationwide seminars on improving academic achievement. RCOE played a major role in the Teacher-to-Teacher program to help educators meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.

We held our Second 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.

Students learn when they feel safe. Our Safe Schools Summit and Crisis Response Teams have helped school districts deal with pressing problems and preventative measures. Their work has been noted as a model statewide and nationally.

There is much more to learn about RCOE. I am proud of the work RCOE has done in the last year. Please enjoy the 2005 Report to the Community and visit our web site at www.rcoe.k12.ca.us for more information.

Dr. David Long
Riverside County
Superintendent of Schools