NEWS

Educators see hope, challenges in test scores

By RORY SCHULER
Posted 11/9/22

The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) released the final results of the 2022 Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System (RICAS) tests Friday.

Following the pandemic, school …

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NEWS

Educators see hope, challenges in test scores

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The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) released the final results of the 2022 Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System (RICAS) tests Friday.

Following the pandemic, school administrators, politicians and parents have been eager to parse the data.

What is the current status of the Ocean State’s public education system? Have students bounced back following nearly two years in altered learning? Have they adjusted to the classroom following long stretches of at-home remote learning?

“The 2022 RICAS results show that while a lot of work remains ahead to get our students back up to speed, Rhode Island is on its way to recovery,” said Rhode Island’s Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green in a release Friday. “We’re encouraged that some districts have returned to their pre-pandemic levels or exceeded them, and that our statewide focus on math instruction and support led to a significant jump in math performance across the state.”

Third through eighth grade students took the RICAS assessments in March through May of last school year.

“Statewide figures show that in 2022 compared to 2021, there was a 10% increase in participation in both content areas rising to 98%, a significant increase in math proficiency of approximately 7%, and a slight decline in ELA of approximately 2%,” according to a statement released by RIDE  last week.

In short, statewide, year-over-year (pre-pandemic) students improved in the math assessment and many struggled with English Language Arts/Literacy. Overall ELA scores however, were slightly more optimistic than math tallies.

Math

Across Rhode Island (including all grades, schools and student population groups) RIDE says 59,741 public school students took the math RICAS exam (97.8%).

The results indicate 25.8 percent are “Not Meeting Expectations” in mathematics.

The rest: 47.3% scored “Partially Meeting Expectations,” 24.4% “Meeting Expectations,” and only 2.6% are “Exceeding Expectations.”

According to RIDE, the RICAS 2022 results “show that student performance in ELA and math varied across Rhode Island, but there was a considerable increase in math proficiency with a nearly 7% rise compared to 2021, from 20.1% to 26.9%.”

“This increase was seen regardless of students’ grade level, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and multilingualism,” according to RIDE. “All grade levels demonstrated higher performance in math in comparison to performance in 2021 but are still generally below their 2019 pre-pandemic performance.”

The RIDE data portal (available on the agency’s website) provides statistics for every school district in the state. The cities of Warwick, Cranston and Johnston all had similar results; with some districts performing better than others in specific areas.

In Warwick, (including all grades, schools and student population groups), 3,625 students took the math exam (99.2%). Across the district, 21.1% of students scored Not Meeting Expectations, 50% Partially Meeting Expectations, 27% Meeting Expectations, and only 1.8% Exceeding Expectations.

“Even though we are not at the proficiency levels that the Warwick School District is striving for, many schools made significant progress,” said Warwick Schools Superintendent Lynn Dambruch. “Overall the district maintained the ELA scores from last year and increased the math scores by 8%.”

RIDE notes that the “largest increases in math proficiency were seen in grades 3, 4, and 6 with increases ranging from approximately 2.3% points in grade 7 to 9.9% points in grade 3.”

“This upswing in Rhode Island is counter to the historic decline in math scores seen in the national data released by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in late October,” according to a statement from RIDE. “When comparing Rhode Island to Massachusetts, both states saw similar increases in math. Overall, while there were gains in Rhode Island, about one fourth of students are proficient in math in grades 3 through 8.”

ELA

Across Rhode Island, on average, students performed worse in the ELA portion of the exams (English Language Arts/Literacy). Statewide (including all grades, schools and student population groups), 59,399 students took the exam (98.4%).

The results indicate that 24.6% are Not Meeting Expectations in ELA.

The rest of the state’s students: 44.3% scored Partially Meeting Expectations, 27.1% Meeting Expectations, and 4% Exceeding Expectations.

In Warwick (including all grades, schools and student population groups) 3,625 students took the exam (99.2%). The results indicate that 21.1% of students are Not Meeting Expectations, 50% Partially Meeting Expectations, 27% Meeting Expectations, and 1.8% Exceeding Expectations.

 “We acknowledge that there is more work that needs to be done,” Dambruch said. “School-level data is being analyzed by School Improvement Teams and action steps to improve ELA and Math proficiency will be incorporated into School Improvement Plans and the District Strategic Plan.”

The state education agency notes Rhode Island’s 2022 ELA results “show that proficiency declined across the state by approximately 2% compared to 2021, from 33.2% to 31.1%.”

“As expected, Rhode Island saw lower performance in early grades where there were approximate drops of 3.9% points in grade 3 and 6.4% in grade 4,” according to a statement from RIDE. “For these younger students, the pandemic was particularly disruptive to reading and comprehension with the transition to remote learning and quarantining during critical years for learning and development.”

RIDE compared the Ocean State’s results with the Bay State’s.

“Rhode Island saw less of a drop in ELA at 2% than Massachusetts which saw a 5% decrease,” according to RIDE. “Overall, one third of students are proficient in ELA in grades 3 through 8. Further, performance across all grades is still lower than it was pre-pandemic. This decline in ELA is similar to what was seen in national trends.”

The Gameplan

Schools are still making sense of the data, comparing it to past years and looking at breakdowns of student sub-categories.

“The extended day program at the elementary schools will continue this year to accelerate learning,” Dambruch explained. “Rigorous new curricula are being implemented at every level. The district also increased the number of math and reading interventionists.”

Student By Student

The state’s trying to better communicate RICAS data by providing new services to parents.

“Recognizing the importance of students and families better understanding RICAS scores and how they may be factored in education decision-making, this year RIDE announced that for the first time it will launch informational videos for families specifically tailored for their student,” according to RIDE. “Personalized Individual Student Reports that are expected to be received by districts on Nov. 10 will include a new feature that will allow easy access to individualized, multilingual videos through a QR code. The videos will be available in 10 languages and will provide families greater insight on their child’s performance and allow comparisons to school, district, and state performance.”

State officials urged taxpayers to pay attention to the dark cloud’s silver lining.

“With our collective focus on continued learning acceleration across Rhode Island and the guidance of the Learning, Equity & Accelerated Pathways (LEAP) Task Force’s report, we are optimistic that our students will continue to make up ground,” Infante-Green said.  “Rhode Island schools worked diligently to fully return to in-person learning last year, but we know it was not a typical year because COVID-19 still impacted most aspects of education here and across the nation. RIDE will continue to support school leaders to better serve the needs of students and meet the priorities of their communities to help all students recover.”

Editor’s Note: School administrators are still interpreting this year’s data. As they get a clearer picture of achievement, failure and the path forward, we’ll provide future stories. Look for more detailed local breakdowns and RICAS analysis in upcoming editions.

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