Math, Science, and Technology in RI Schools

Overview of Rhode Island Student Performance

The 156,454 students in RI public schools (fall 1999 enrollment) are grouped into 36 school districts and several state-operated entities comprising 328 buildings (SY 1999-2000). An additional 100 nonpublic schools educate another 29,522 of the state’s students. It is important to note that the state only assesses public school students through its statewide assessment program. There is no comparable data on achievement among the state’s private and parochial schools.

Rhode Island has established state content standards in mathematics, English language arts, science, health, family and consumer sciences, and the arts. These content standards delineate what students are expected to know and be able to do in the respective subject areas. The content standards are advisory in nature for local school districts as RI is a local control state. The mandatory state tests, however, are based on student performance standards aligned with these content standards. This means that for practical purposes, most districts take account of the state’s standards when planning their local curriculum. The earliest state content standards (mathematics and science) were introduced in 1995. Experience across the United States suggests that it takes a decade or more for these content standards to thoroughly permeate teaching and learning within a school.

Rhode Island’s state tests seek to determine what percentage of the state’s students at particular grades meet or exceed the state’s standards. The Regents have defined five levels of student achievement. They are: Achieved the Standard with Honors, Achieved the Standard, Nearly Achieved the Standard, Below the Standard, and Little Evidence of Achievement. These tests are rigorous and more difficult than tests administered in many other states. Individual student performance is compared to benchmarked performance using set criteria rather than compared against a national control group. The assessments themselves consist of a range of different types of measures including multiple choice, open-ended response, and performance-based tasks. The state tests operate in the following grades:

Districts are required to assess all students except for those who are on a Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that specifically exempts them from state tests (special needs students) or students who only speak English as a second language in a rudimentary manner. To ensure consistency, all students are assessed using standard procedures within a set window of time.