PARCC as a high stakes test will spell disaster
It is heartening to see a robust discussion on the imminent use of the PARCC test in Rhode Island’s public schools, but the state Department of Education seems to have made up its mind before the test has even gotten off the ground. It is already actively encouraging school districts to use the PARCC to penalize […]
Groups call for reversal of Dept. of Education high-stakes testing plans
A number of community and advocacy organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, are calling on the Council of Elementary and Secondary Education to promptly overturn guidance issued by Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist that advises school districts they can use the PARCC exam as a high-stakes test graduation requirement as early as 2017, […]
Best wishes Tom Sgouros, new adviser to Seth Magaziner
It’s always gratifying when one of the best and most deserving folk actually get a position in government where they can make a powerful difference. We recently learned that RI Future contributor Tom Sgouros has been appointed as senior policy adviser to Seth Magaziner, the new treasurer of Rhode Island. Tom was himself a candidate for […]
Mancuso remarks draw ire on anti-NECAP groups
A high stakes test graduation requirement is outlawed until 2017, but it’s still pitting Board of Education Chairwoman Eva Mancuso against the activists who fought to ban it. The Providence Journal reports that using the NECAP test as a graduation requirement would have only deprived one student of a diploma, and in that article Mancuso […]
Red Bandana Fund recognizes Henry Shelton and Providence Student Union
This weekend look for the gathering of friends, Rhode Island College educators, progressives, folkies and family members of the late Richard J. Walton, who come to the Red Bandana Award to pay homage and remember him. With his prominent long white beard and red bandana, decked out in blue jean overalls and wearing a baseball […]
Teacher group says no to NECAP as grad requirement
The Rhode Island Teachers Advisory Council has recommended to the Board of Education that it halt its high stakes test graduation requirement policy. “Assessments, such as NECAP, should not be used as a graduation requirement because such assessments have not been proven valid and reliable for high stakes purposes such as promotion and graduation decisions,” […]
Wingmen: NECAP, high-stakes tests, adequacy and accountability
With so many students bombing the NECAP test, the state Senate moving forward with a bill that would put a moratorium on using the high stakes test as a graduation requirement and the Board of Education being chided by a court for having a discussion about all this in private, Justin Katz and I debate […]
Judge says Board of Education should discuss NECAP policy in public
With high school graduation imminently approaching, legislators, mayoral candidates, students, teachers, parents and community organizations have been discussing with frequency the Board of Education’s high stakes testing requirement for seniors. Remarkably, about the only entity that hasn’t publicly discussed the merits of the requirement is the Board itself. Thanks to a court decision on Friday, […]
The NECAP standards aren’t that different than the Common Core standards
Elisabeth Harrison’s generally good story on the Common Core in Rhode Island contains this passage: Marilyn Adams, an expert on early reading and a professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences at Brown University helped write the standards for early reading. She says the result is far from perfect, but she does believe it is better […]
Why it’s harder to get a better score on NECAP math retest
Now that we are in the period of NECAP retesting for seniors who failed the test as juniors, it would be good to take a look at how the math test is constructed. Because that, after all, is the test most juniors failed in the first place. In the chart below you can see how […]
Eva Mancuso stifles debate, wonders why debate went elsewhere
Susan Lusi, the superintendent of the Providence school department, has come out against the NECAP graduation requirement, and Eva Marie Mancuso, the chair of the Board of Education, has accused her of “grandstanding” by presenting her concerns to the legislature rather than to her board. Ha ha. This is funny because over the past year, […]
National experts testify in support of halting NECAP graduation requirement
National education experts are now joining students, parents, education and advocacy groups and the RI ACLU in urging the Department of Education to end its mandate requiring students to pass the NECAP test in order to graduate. Three national education experts are submitting written testimony to the House Health, Education and Welfare Committee today in support […]
Common Core, high stakes tests are under attack locally and nationally
As a General Assembly committee considers today a bill that would suspend high stakes test graduation requirements and reevaluate Rhode Island’s commitment to Common Core, there is a debate raging both here and across the nation about whether such accountability measures account for more harm than good. “The Common Core State Standards were hailed as […]
Four years later: Student achivement and Central Falls’ transformation
As we approach the four year anniversary of the tumultuous firing of the the teachers at Central Falls High School (CFHS), regarded nationally as a watershed event in the Obama administration’s school reform efforts, we must once again consider the success or failure of what followed (and preceded). Progressives and ed reform skeptics are somewhat […]
The NECAP math test is wrong
Recent remarks in the Journal by the Commissioner of Education point a finger away from the NECAP and toward math education in this state, “Gist said that math is the problem, not the NECAP. ‘This is not about testing,’ she said. ‘It’s about math. It’s about reading.” (Jan. 31, 2014). A statement like this puts […]
Nobody knows how to increase 11th grade NECAP math scores
The most prominent and persuasive argument for using the 11th grade NECAP math test as a graduation requirement in RI high schools has been the relative success of Massuchusetts’ use of their MCAS exam for that purpose. Last year I prepared a graph showing how Massachusetts student’s math MCAS scores increased over time compared to […]
Did the NECAP requirement make a positive difference?
What’s likely to happen to the number of students receiving diplomas in Rhode Island at the end of this year? Even after RIDE’s release of the latest NECAP results, it’s hard to accurately predict the impact of the standardized test requirement for graduation. Historically, we know that over the past four years the percentage has […]
Providence Student Union says the state is using kids as lab rats for testing policy
Mining a tradition that stretches back to Athenian democracy and probably much earlier, members of the Providence Student Union (PSU) engaged in political theater to protest the “the ill-conceived experiment” of “Rhode Island’s new high-stakes testing graduation requirement” yesterday in the State House rotunda. The event was timed to occur two days before the release […]
ACLU’s Steve Brown on the NECAP graduation requirement waiver
RI ACLU Executive Director Steven Brown has been a huge critic of the state’s high stake test high school graduation requirement and the exemptions to the policy prove it hasn’t been properly implemented. Brown said several school districts from around the state still don’t have policies in place, and others left important areas blank. Listen […]
RIF Radio: ACLU’s Steve Brown on NECAP waivers, Tiverton’s Rep Canario on GMO labeling
Good morning, Ocean State Futurists. This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Later on in the show, we’ll be checking in with we’ll be checking in with Steve Brown of the ACLU on Waivergate, the latest fiasco with the NECAP graduation requirement. We’ll also here from Rep. Dennis Canario, a legislator who represents Sakonnet and parts of Portsmouth, on why he is pushing a bill this session to label genetically modified foods.
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