Massachusetts scores remain well above Rhode Island, but they lag far behind pre-pandemic levels, and math scores in Massachusetts are recovering at a slower pace.
Rhode Island leaders have been talking about reaching Massachusetts educational levels for years; Governor Dan McKee has set a goal to do so by 2030, and his predecessor, Gina Raimondo, switched Rhode Island to the same test as Massachusetts so the states could be compared apples-to-apples each year.
If Rhode Island was a school district in Massachusetts, a presentation from the Rhode Island Department of Education touted, it would now outscore 30 percent of districts.
“We have work to do, and that’s why we’re comparing ourselves to Massachusetts,” Infante-Green said. “Because they’re the highest-performing, they’re our neighbors.”
In English language arts, the shrinking gap between the states can be attributed in part to declines in Massachusetts, where scores are still 9 percentage points below 2019 levels, at 42 percent of students in grades 3 to 8 meeting or exceeding expectations on the test.
“They’re still one of the top states in the nation,” Infante-Green said. “So even though they’re dropping, what we’re doing is moving up.”
Despite some encouraging trends, nearly 7 in 10 Rhode Island elementary and middle school students are not doing math at grade level, according to the results, and only a third are reading at grade level.
English language arts scores have been particularly stubborn. This year’s proficiency rate, at 33.7 percent of students, is just half a percentage point higher than 2021, the year after the initial pandemic closures. English scores dipped back down to 30.8 percent last year before rising again.
Prior to the pandemic, 38 percent of students were reading at grade level.
Math scores are recovering faster after dropping to an alarming 20 percent meeting or exceeding expectations in 2021. They have now rebounded to 31.4 percent, higher than scores from before the pandemic. Massachusetts math scores went from 33 percent meeting or exceeding expectations in 2021 to 41 percent this year, still below pre-pandemic levels.
Pedro Martinez, the new education commissioner in Massachusetts, called the results “sobering, but not insurmountable” earlier this week.
The two commissioners plan to meet next month, Infante-Green said.
Providence, the largest district which has been under a state takeover since 2019, remains below statewide levels but has now exceeded pre-pandemic levels in both subjects, according to the scores. Nearly 18 percent of Providence students who took the RICAS are reading at grade level and 16 percent are doing math at grade level.
Nearly 59,000 public school students in grades 3 to 8 took the RICAS test in the spring. Rhode Island’s scores typically come out weeks after the Massachusetts scores, but were released in quick succession this week after RIDE hired another staff person to compile the numbers, spokesperson Victor Morente said.
The later release date was frequent fodder for political attacks, particularly if the scores were held past election day.
Unlike Massachusetts, Rhode Island students don’t take the RICAS in high school. Instead, Rhode Island uses the PSAT in 10th grade and SAT in 11th grade to measure high school proficiency.
Neither state requires a test to graduate, after Massachusetts voters opted last fall to abolish the MCAS as a high school graduation requirement.
Math scores on the SAT in Rhode Island remain below pre-pandemic levels, at just 23 percent of juniors achieving proficiency. In English, 51.6 percent of juniors are proficient, slightly above pre-pandemic levels of 50 percent.
Double-digit gaps in math and English language arts skills remain between students who are chronically absent and those who attend school more than 90 percent of the time, the scores showed.
More than one-fifth of Rhode Island students were chronically absent last school year.
“That is painful to see,” Infante-Green said of the difference in scores. “If parents are hearing me, this is why it matters.”