2011 NECAP results + bill to bar high stakes tests from determining graduation

Last Friday, RIDE released the 2011 NECAP results, available in full here: https://reporting.measuredprogress.org/NECAPpublicRI/select.aspx.

I am grateful to Tom Hoffman for taking the time to share his thoughts on some of the results. I recommend you take a look, particularly for his analysis of the ways that the population shifting that 2011's school closures in Providence produced may have affected some schools' NECAP outcomes.

In other standardized testing news, available here, the Urban League of RI, Mental Health Association of RI, RI Disability Law Center, Parent Support Network of RI, Young Voices, RI ACLU, RI Legal Services, RI Teachers of English Language Learners, Children's Policy Coalition, LEP/ELL Advisory Council, Autism Project of RI, and Tides Family Services have gotten behind proposed legislation from RI Representative Eileen Naughton and RI Senator Harold Metts that would prevent the use of statewide standardized tests as a barrier to graduation. Currently, high stakes standardized tests such as the NECAP are slated to be part of the criteria for graduation beginning in 2014. 

Add me to the list of supporters - plenty of reasons why, many eloquently captured in "Future of Rhode Island Students," a video clip that made the rounds last year and is worth reconsideration. Check it out:

no progress on 2011's schools in need of intervention

Something to keep an eye on as PPSD pushes forward toward the upcoming school year: on July 4, Go Local Prov reported that the Providence Public Schools are at an impasse with the Rhode Island Department of Education in regard to the four district schools identified as requiring intervention due to insufficient progress toward academic goals. The four schools, which RIDE identified on March 29 (PDF link to RIDE press release), are Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School, Hope Information Technology School, Mount Pleasant High School and Mary E. Fogarty Elementary School.

PPSD spokesperson Christina O'Reilly's statement in the Go Local Prov story indicates concern on the district's part about the way RIDE used federal guidelines to identify the schools. The district didn't submit the schools' plans within the 45 days required by RIDE, and there's been no subsequent progress, which raises huge questions for students and teachers returning to those schools next month.

For background, here's RIDE's statement on "persistently low-achieving schools," which identifies all of the schools that it designated in need of intervention last year and this. Those that the department identified last year have received $12.5 million (PDF link to RIDE press release) in federal School Improvement Grant funds for four Providence schools and Central Falls High School.

And for national perspective, look at Atlanta's test score cheating debacle and remember that standardized test scores--which are the mechanism that RIDE uses to choose which schools it designates as persistently low-achieving--are a highly imperfect way to make decisions that have such high stakes for students and their schools.