PROVIDENCE – Four-fifths of Rhode Island’s 297 public elementary, middle and high schools met their annual targets for improving reading and math test scores in 2008-09 as required by the federal No Child Left Behind law, the R.I. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced today.
The 56 schools that missed one or more of their annual targets, which make up 19 percent of all those in the state, include 44 schools (15 percent of the total number) which have failed to achieve their targets for more than one year. They could face sanctions from the state government.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
The school classification results – which were announced this morning by Gov. Donald L. Carcieri at DelSesto Middle School in Providence – were an 11 percent improvement over last year, when 73 percent of Rhode Island schools met their annual targets. The results are based on tests students took last fall.
“Our schools are moving in the right direction,” Carcieri said, noting that 94 percent of middle schools and 85 percent of elementary schools met their targets. “I commend our educators for their great accomplishment,” he said.
The state’s high schools posted the weakest showing, with only 56 percent, or 33 schools, meeting all of their annual targets. “We have a lot of work still to do,” Carcieri said. “We know we must continue to focus strategically upon two areas – our high schools and our urban schools – to ensure the success of all students.”
Only 43 of the state’s urban schools, or 54 percent of those in Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence and Woonsocket, met all of their targets, whereas 198 of the state’s other schools, or 91 percent of them, did so.
Still, the commissioner of elementary and secondary education, Peter McWalters, noted that the percentage of urban schools that achieved their targets rose from 40 percent last year. And Robert G. Flanders Jr., chairman of the R.I. Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education, singled out the performance of urban middle schools such as DelSesto for praise.
In addition, 15 schools from seven districts and one charter school were honored as Regents’ Commended Schools for their high performance in both English and math over the past two years.
Eight school districts did not meet their annual targets and were placed on “intervention” status, meaning they will have to work with the state education department to solve their problems.
But two districts, Middletown and Newport, and eight individual schools were taken off intervention status because of their improvement.
Signed into law in 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act was one of President George W. Bush’s signature domestic accomplishments. Although its focus on testing has been controversial, the original bill passed with significant bipartisan support, including from U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
The law mandates that all public school students must achieve proficient scores in math and reading by 2014. But fully achieving that goal looks increasingly unlikely; only about a quarter of 11th-grade students in Rhode Island were proficient in math in this year’s tests.
Additional information on test results, school classifications and results for individuals schools and districts is available at RIDE.RI.gov.
