Groups Call for RIDE to Reverse Policies on PARCC Scores
GoLocalProv News Team
Groups Call for RIDE to Reverse Policies on PARCC Scores
Read a Copy of the Letter sent to Commissioner Wagner HERE
The following statement was issued by the Coalition to Defend Public Education, NAACP Providence Branch, RI Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, ACLU of Rhode Island, Young Voices, RI Disability Law Center, Providence Student Union, Providence Youth Student Movement, Parents Across Rhode Island, RI Teachers of English Language Learners, Youth Pride Inc. and the George Wiley Center.
The statement in its entirety is below.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"Though not surprising, the test results released this week show that using PARCC as a graduation requirement would have barred the vast majority of Rhode Island students from receiving a diploma. Worse, and just like the NECAP, it would have disproportionately affected students of color, students with disabilities, and ESL students in a devastating manner.
Commissioner Ken Wagner has acknowledged a need to reexamine the use of high stakes testing and to consider alternative measures. We agree, and we appreciate the fact that he has started an important dialogue on the issue.
Unfortunately, something important has been left unsaid: RIDE policies initiated by former Commissioner Deborah Gist give school districts the power to incorporate PARCC scores into students’ grades as early as next year, and to also use the test as a high stakes graduation requirement for the Class of 2017 even though RIDE often talks about test results not having such an impact until 2020. As long as the imminent use of PARCC scores to punish students remains on the table, the anxiety and controversy that this testing and its predecessor, the NECAP, have generated will not fade away. These policies serve as an ongoing barrier to focusing on other approaches and to encouraging a more constructive dialogue in our shared goal of promoting equal educational opportunities.
Earlier this month, we sent a letter to Commissioner Wagner expressing our concerns about the Gist policies and urging their swift rescission. We do so again, as we believe it is a necessary step to promote a meaningful discussion of alternative graduation standards in the months ahead.
Finally, we note that our long-standing concerns about high stakes testing echo a growing consensus at the federal level that there has been too great a focus on testing. Questions also remain about the PARCC’s validity in measuring student learning, particularly for certain student groups that consistently underperform on standardized measures, and the number of states using the PARCC test has dropped considerably in the past two years.
We look forward to participating with the Department in the conversation it has initiated on high stakes testing, but we hope to do so without the current specter of punitive test usage looming over Rhode Island’s students.”
RI Experts on the Biggest Issues Facing Public Education
Sasse
"Provide a state constitutional guarantee that all children will have access to an education that will prepare them to meet high performance standards and be successful adults.
Bridge the gap between the educational achievement of majority and minority students. This will require the implementation of a comprehensive agenda for quality education in Rhode Island’s inner cities."
Sasse
"Revisit school governance and clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the state, school districts , neighborhood schools, and school teachers and school administrators. Develop and implement a system to hold schools responsible for student outcomes."
Sasse
"Build a consensus and buy in of all stakeholders around the education reform initiatives being advanced by the Board of Education."
Metcalfe
"Set high expectations and raise our standards across the state for anyone that contributes to the success of our students. From adopting the Common Core to discussing rigorous teacher evaluations, conversations around creating a culture of high expectations have to be at the center of the work."
Metcalfe
"Expand opportunities and start earlier - we must ensure that all kids have access to a high performing public school of their choice, which includes full-day kindergarten."
Metcalfe
"School facilities - with an aging infrastructure, underutilized buildings and the need to provide fair funding for school facilities for all public school students regardless of the public school they attend, this needs to be a top issue tackled by the RI General Assembly in 2014."
Cano-Morales
"Meet the academic potential of all students but especially with regards to urban schools students -- 3 out of 4 are Latinos in Providence, Central Falls, and Pawtucket."
Cano-Morales
"Connect through specific best practices the academic successes of our students to careers jobs. Investing in schools is economic development as a whole for Rhode Island. "
Cano-Morales
"Increase the access to -- and completion of -- higher education and post- secondary opportunities. Poverty? Struggling families? Education and access to careers and competitive wages is the best antidote."
Duffy
"Providing adequate funding is critical -- and there are going to be pressures on the state budget, which mean stresses to meet the education funding formula. With the predictions of the state's projected loss of revenue with the casinos in MA, education funding could be on the cutting board, and we need to ensure that it's not. Do we need to look at strengthening the language of the constitution to guarantee funding?"
Duffy
"Implementing the common core standards will provide continuity -- and comparison -- between states now. With over 40 states involved, we're embarking a new set of standards here."
Duffy
"Accountability and assessing student performance -- how that it's driven by the common core, we'll be able to compare the best districts in RI against the best districts in say MA. That's the intent of the Common Core is a standardization of how we hold the system accountable."
Cylke
"Issue one is quality. Your quality of education should not be dependent on your zip code. And the reality is, certain cities are distressed, or whose property values are not as high, I know each town has a different capacity to fund education. There's an absolute, clear relationship between the quality of public schools, and economic development of states. There's irrefutable evidence that quality public schools can make states more competitive."
Cylke
"Issue two is equality. In West Warwick and Providence, the per pupil spending is around $16K. In Pawtucket it's $12.9. What's wrong with that picture? If I'm in charge of overseeing that my students are college ready, they need to be adequate funding. A difference of $3000 per pupil? We're talking in the tens of millions of dollars -- more like $25 million in this case. An exemplary school district is Montgomery County, MD -- they have roughly the same number of students, around 145,000 -- there's one funding figure per pupil. There's equitable funding for all kids."
Cylke
"Issue three is Infrastructure. A critical issue is whether the state is going to lift its moratorium in 2014 for renovations for older schools, ore new construction. If that moratorium is not lifted, and those funds are not available, it is critical to us here in Pawtucket. The average of my schools is 66 years, I've got 3 that celebrate 100 years this year. These old schools have good bones, but they need to be maintained. These are assets -- and this is all interrelated with the funding formula."
