RI Should Move Towards Massachusetts Education Model, According to New RIPEC Report
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RI Should Move Towards Massachusetts Education Model, According to New RIPEC Report
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"Rhode Island and Massachusetts devote similar amounts of financial resources to education and have similar student demographics, yet, despite this, Massachusetts' students consistently outperform most other states on national tests and its schools are widely regarded as being among the best in the United States. This comparison provides one way to understand this performance gap," said RIPEC Executive Director John Simmons.
RI vs. MA
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn a review of the 2015 PARCC assessment, the analysis found that 60 percent of Massachusetts students in grades 3 through 8 met or exceeded expectations on the English language arts/literacy part of the test, and 52% met or exceeded expectations on the mathematics portion of the test.
By comparison, 37% of Rhode Island students in the same grades met or exceeded expectations on the English language arts/literacy portion of the test and 28 % met or exceeded expectations on the mathematics portion of the test.
RIPEC Finds 2 Key Differences
In their analysis, RIPEC finds two key structural differences between the two public education systems.
In Massachusetts there is a greater degree of state influence over the governance and provision of education.
In Rhode Island, local communities exercise a greater autonomy in the governance and provision of education as the entire care, control and management of public schools is handled in the district level school committee.
The second difference that RIPEC found is that Massachusetts' school based management model is different from Rhode Islands, which puts much more emphasis on school committees.
In Massachusetts, school committees hire superintendents, superintendents hire principals, and principals hire teachers and other staff.
In Rhode Island, school committees hire superintendents, but also must provide their consent to the hiring of principals, teachers and other school personnel.
RIPEC Recommendations
The analysis recommends that Rhode Island move towards the Massachusetts education model by promoting system wide alignment and increasing the degree of state influence, guidance, and or control over certain key education functions.
RIPEC gives examples of those functions which include curriculum development, teacher evaluation, and professional development.
RIPEC recommends supporting any reform effort within Rhode Island that will empower local school based officials to make school level decisions and move the state closer to the school base management model, and urges policymakers to consider implications that any future reforms may have on alignment throughout the education system.
RIPEC
RIPEC is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan public policy research and education organization that is dedicated to the advancement of effective, efficient and equitable government in RI.
Click here for more information.