R.I. test results highlight skills gap

Kathie Shields was caught off guard when she learned how poorly the state’s 11th graders had performed on the statewide standardized math test, but it wasn’t a total surprise.
As the executive director of the Tech Collective, a nonprofit alliance of local industry groups, she has a vested interest in ensuring the state’s future work force is properly educated.
“I wouldn’t say the results shocked me, but I was disappointed,” Shields said last week of the recent news that only about one-fifth of the test-takers were deemed proficient in math. (READ MORE) “I thought we were going to see more progress at this point.”
Shields and others in the business community say the results back up what they have heard anecdotally for a while: There’s a gap between the level the education that students are leaving school with and the level that is needed in today’s work force.
With the state attempting to develop a so-called “innovation economy,” the effort to address that gap is taking on even more urgency.
“I think we need a pretty quick turnaround,” said J. Michael Koback, director of the Governor’s Workforce Board, which is charged with improving the skills of Rhode Island workers. “It’s amazing how low those scores were.”
Efforts to make changes were already under way before the test results came out. Shields said the Tech Collective has commissioned a “skills gap” study of the information-technology industry and is in the midst of another one looking at the life-sciences fields.
Then there’s the state’s PK-16 Council, which is bringing together education and business leaders to the address the issue.
“The good news is we are now getting a good baseline established so that we can direct our efforts toward strategies and programs that will improve the results,” said Saul Kaplan, executive director of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation and a member of the PK-16 Council.
That baseline was established last month when state officials made public how 11th graders had fared on the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP), a standardized test taken by about 11,600 students in October.
It wasn’t all bad news.
The results showed that 61 percent of the 11th graders who took the test were considered proficient in reading, but they didn’t perform nearly as well in other areas.
According to R.I. Department of Education officials, only 37 percent of the students reached proficiency in writing, while 22 percent reached proficiency in math. By way of comparison, New Hampshire, which also administered the NECAP test, reported 67-percent proficiency in reading, 33 percent in writing and 28 percent in math.
In Rhode Island, the math results were the lowest in urban districts such as Pawtucket (12-percent proficiency), Woonsocket (11 percent), Providence (10 percent) and Central Falls (3 percent).
In the previous year’s test, 43 percent of Rhode Island 11th graders had achieved proficiency, but state education officials note that those scores were on the less-stringent New Standards Reference Exam. This was the first year when 11th graders in Rhode Island took the NECAP, which officials said is a better measure of students’ abilities.
Peter McWalters, the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said he will now review the results with the business community and the R.I. Department of Labor and Training to determine, if not proficency, what level of scoring would be adequate for students to graduate and be considered work-ready.
“I’m glad we’re getting good objective numbers because you can’t make improvements unless you’re able to point out opportunities where we need to do better,” Kaplan said.
And there are a lot of improvements to be made in order for the state’s future workers to have enough know-how to compete in a technology-laden world.
“The knowledge economy is here, like it or not, and we have to adapt to it,” Koback said. “If we don’t have the work force with the right skills, the businesses aren’t going to come here or stay here.”
Indeed, economic development officials say two of the top attributes companies look for when relocating: a favorable tax climate and a well-educated supply of potential employees.
Shields, whose Tech Collective is an industry partner with the Workforce Board, said she’s heard from technology companies that youngsters display poor “soft skills” – teamwork, critical thinking and communication.
She said the group is working with educators and industry groups to develop some fixes.
For instance, the Tech Collective has suggested that the Department of Education integrate more of those soft skills into the new Rhode Island high school diploma system in which all students are required to meet similar educational standards in order to graduate. Next year, the NECAP exam is expected to be part of the new graduation requirements.
Koback said there should be more internships and mentorships for students, noting that such experiences would show students the real-world uses for what they are learning in the classroom.
“It could spur an interest in learning with an earlier awareness of why it’s important,” Koback said.
Kaplan said the PK-16 Council was scheduled to meet last Friday, and he expected the NECAP results to be a topic of conversation. The collaborative effort of the council is what is needed to ensure youngsters leave school better prepared for the future.
“I’m glad we’re working across state agencies – economic development, work force development and education – to bring focus to this,” he said. “It’s really important that we get it right.” •