Education Commissioner Seeks Delay in Graduation Requirements (RI)

February 4, 2011

Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist wants to push back the deadline for more rigorous high school graduation requirements, and is backing off her proposal that Rhode Island establish a th ree-tier diploma system.

Gist now says the date on the requirements to get a high school diploma should be pushed back two years, to 2014, to give schools and students more time to prepare. The tougher standards require students to be at least “partially proficient” on state math and English tests or retake the tests and show improvement, among other requirements.

Had the current regulations moved forward, as many as half of the students statewide in the Class of 2012 — 6,000 students — could be at risk for not graduating next year if their test results are as low as classes for the previous two years. The most recent test scores are scheduled to be released later this month.

Gist also sought to reassure advocates for special-education students and students learning English, saying testing accommodations would be made for those students.

If approved by the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education, Gist’s recommendations would come as a relief to anxious families and to advocates who worried the tougher requirements would penalize low-income, minority and special-education students who often score poorly on standardized tests.

But, she says, she wants to keep the pressure on school systems to do more to support students and make sure every student has access to high-quality courses.

“The urgency of ensuring that our students are ready when we hand them a diploma remains as high as it will ever be,” Gist said Thursday.

Thousands of Rhode Island students, many of them disadvantaged youth who are stuck in struggling schools, graduate each year unable to read, write or compute at a high school level. Continuing to dole out diplomas that do not ensure students are prepared for college and careers is itself an injustice, she says.

Gist still wants students who score in the lowest category on the current testing system, the New England Common Assessment Program, as juniors to receive extra help from their school and to retake the test in their senior year.

In response to concerns that NECAP was not designed to serve as a “high-stakes” graduation test, Gist said she is confident the test could be used for that purpose. However, she says she wants education officials to develop a “broader range of testing options for our students,” and more opportunities for students to retake the NECAP.

She also is abandoning the plan for a three-tiered diploma tied to standardized tests scores that she had proposed for 2013.

Instead, Gist says she supports a return to a single diploma, as outlined in the secondary school regulations approved by the regents in 2003 and amended in 2008. However, Gist said she likes the idea of local districts being able to add “endorsements” to the diploma to indicate higher levels of proficiency and honors.

Gist’s recommendations illuminate a difficult balancing act.

Education officials have clung to an aggressive timeline set in 2008 as a way to push school systems to embrace dramatic improvements.

But they quickly found they had to weigh that against the potentially devastating implications for thousands of students who were not prepared for the tougher standards.Gist said she was influenced by “excellent, thoughtful and informed” testimony gathered at three well-attended public hearings in January and by letters and e-mails.

“That’s the purpose of the public hearings,” Gist said. “To listen, gather feedback and make the regulations better and stronger than they would have been.”

Gist shared her recommendations with the regents Thursday at a meeting held at Cranston High School West.

The Board of Regents has scheduled a three-hour work session at 9 a.m. Feb. 10 at the state Department of Education to discuss the feedback and hash out revisions.

The regents had planned to vote on a final draft of the regulations as early as their March 3 meeting.

Governor Chafee announced earlier this week that he was changing the makeup of the regents, selecting four new members and installing former House Majority Leader George D. Caruolo as chairman.

Chafee spokesman Mike Trainor said he hoped the Senate would confirm the new regents this month, paving the way for them to be in place by March.

But Caruolo has already indicated that he would not be inclined to approve any new high school regulations — one of the most important decisions before education officials this year — without careful study.

KEY POINTSWhat it takes to graduate

2008 regulations

•At least 20 credits of coursework

•Senior project, portfolio or end-of-course exams

•Score at least “partially proficient” on statewide standardized tests starting in 2012

•If test scores

aren’t high enough, show proficiency in other ways, such as SAT scores, a special test or extra work samples

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PROPOSED

FOR 2014

•At least 20 credits of coursework

•Senior project, portfolio or end-of-course exams

•Score at least “partially proficient” on statewide tests

•Starting with the Class of 2012, if test scores aren’t high enough, get extra help, retake the tests senior year and “sufficiently improve” the score