Changing the rules in the middle of the game

Some of you may have read recently about the changes the Board of Regents are considering to graduation requirements for all high school students beginning with this year’s juniors, the Class of 2012. The state has always considered that students were required to pass their classes, demonstrate proficiency through two processes to be determined by each local high school (for SKHS, it is a portfolio and comprehensive course assessments), and complete the NECAP, our state-wide assessment which all juniors take in the fall of their junior year in reading, writing and math as well as science in the spring. In the past, students were required to take the NECAP but it was not considered a high stakes test in the sense that one could perform poorly on the NECAP but still demonstrate proficiency through other measures. That has changed in the past four weeks. The Board of Regents and the RI Department of Education (RIDE) is now proposing that kids who earn a 1 (NECAP scores on a 1-4 scale) on the reading or math portions of the test cannot graduate unless they take the test again and earn a 2 or demonstrate improvement from their previous test. If this becomes a requirement, students in South Kingstown will be required to pass a high stakes test and demonstrate proficiency through the portfolio and comprehensive course assessments (CCAs).

We already understood – and communicated to students and parents – that a poor score on the NECAP could impact graduation. We expected that those students who did not perform well would have to demonstrate that they were worthy of a diploma in other ways . They might have had to complete additional portfolio requirements, or earn a passing grade in an Algebra II class or take a class in the summer, but now the NECAP is a separate graduation indicator which students must pass in order to graduate. As this information comes out, we’ll be informing parents about the ramifications of this decision. For example, in Providence, 71% of the students received a “1” on the math NECAP last year, meaning that it is likely that well over half of Providence students will not earn a diploma. In SK, approximately 50 of this year’s seniors received a 1 on the math NECAP and less than a dozen received a 1 on the reading NECAP. We receive the scores for this year’s junior NECAP performance towards the end of January. The Board of Regents will be considering this change over the next few months. They are holding public hearings to get feedback from educators and families but we’ve been told by RIDE that this is pretty much a done deal.

This decision is frustrating to many of us. We have been working for the past six years to create a local assessment system that provides students opportunities to demonstrate proficiency in ways that are not confined to a single test. Unlike other high stakes test states such as Massachusetts and New York, students cannot take the NECAP multiple times. If they receive a 1 during their junior year, they will have only one more opportunity to improve their score. The NECAP was not designed to be a high stakes test since a student can only take it twice. It is also disconcerting that while a student can demonstrate growth and improvement on the NECAP (meaning some kids will earn a low score on the NECAP and will be able to graduate while others who earn a higher score but don’t show as much improvement will not), they are unable to demonstrate that growth through any mechanism except taking the test. Simply put, the rules have changed in the middle of the game.


Presently, I am meeting with teachers, counselors and district administrators to discuss the “growth plan” we will develop for each student who is at risk of not graduating because of their NECAP performance (those supports are already in place for students who are short on credits or lagging on completing their proficiency-based requirements). Our focus will be to a) provide additional supports for students who will need to re-take the NECAP next fall, b) provide those same students additional opportunities to demonstrate growth so if they do choose to appeal to the state, they will have some examples they can utilize to prove that they have demonstrated growth in ways not evidenced by a sit-down test and c) examine ways we can further support students who in the past have struggled in state testing so that they have a better chance for success when they take the NECAP for the first time during their junior year. In other words, we will need to add a component where we literally teach to the test. We have worked hard over the past six years to create an equitable proficiency-based system that is fair and credible. With the Board of Regents impending decision to add a high-stakes test to the mix, we will have to augment that system to support students who now have one more hurdle they must clear before earning a diploma.