One of the most disturbing things I heard at a Westerly School Committee meeting was the way the Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System results were presented and essentially brushed aside. “We’re about the state average,” was the comment before moving on to other topics.
The state’s RICAS average is awful. To put the data in context, in 2023, 65% of Rhode Island students were not proficient in reading and writing. 68.8% were not proficient in math. That’s essentially TWO-THIRDS of our students who cannot read, write, or do math at their grade level. And as I told the school board, if your students are not proficient in reading and writing, are they really passing history, social studies, and other subjects that are based on reading and writing? On the other hand, if they are not proficient in math, are they passing their science courses, most of which are math-based?
So meeting the national average is not “good enough,” it’s appalling. It’s not. That’s why, aside from its terrible RICAS scores, Rhode Island ranks in the lower middle third of states in K-12 education. For reference, here are New England’s ranks for K-12 education, which includes New York:
- Massachusetts: 1
- Connecticut: 3
- New Hampshire: 4
- New York: 5
- Vermont: 11
- Rhode Island: 31
- Maine: 39
I believe this is the biggest problem we face as a district and as a state. That’s not to say that other issues aren’t important – special education is important to me as a father of two girls with special needs – but as the saying goes, “a rising tide lifts all ships.” Fixing the fundamentals will improve everything throughout the district. It won’t eliminate the other issues, but it will make them easier to address when our kids all “win” educationally as a whole and are properly prepared for life in the workforce.
When you look at the data, there is no doubt that this is not a Westerly problem, but a leadership problem that originates at the very top, at the Rhode Island Department of Education. Considering that the Rhode Island Department of Education sets the curriculum and administers the tests, the RICAS results are a report card not only for the districts, but also for the Rhode Island Department of Education. And it is a failure. A big one.
I believe this can be corrected by focusing on what is essential and giving our teachers the ability to adapt and supplement the curriculum to improve our district at the grassroots level. This will improve quality across the board, and if it doesn’t alleviate some of the other problems, it will make it easier to target those problems.
This is one of the main things I want to change if I am elected to the Westerly School Committee, and I know the other parents running for the committee have the same desire to help our children succeed. Let’s make Westerly a model for the state instead of just another “average” score on the scorecard.
Joe Jackson
Bradford
The author is a candidate for the Westerly School Committee.
