R.I. educational reforms place emphasis on performance-based graduation requirements

By JOSEPH B. NADEAU
 
WOONSOCKET — The high school has secured preliminary approval from the state for its new diploma system, but its work in revamping graduation requirements is just beginning.

The school must still work for full approval of the new system in 2010 and that will require the adoption of new programs and specific policies and requirements to complete the system.
And then the school will have to contend with the state Board of Regents action last week to ramp up the use of state testing results as a component of a student’s achievement of a diploma.
The school is already weighing a student’s state testing performance as 10 percent of the work needed to achieve a diploma, but the Regents voted to increase that standard to one third of the requirements by 2012.
That will mean more attention a student’s 11th grade performance on the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) tests, and also more innovative efforts at enhancing student success, according to High School Principal Lourenco Garcia.
The fact that Woonsocket, an urban district with a wide variety of student needs, did meet the state’s first round of requirements for the diploma system could be a positive indicator of the school’s ability to meet student achievement goals, according to the principal.
“This was a huge accomplishment for Woonsocket without question,” he said. The school worked on that goal for two years, and in the end, developed a committed team of staff members to identify the changes needed to win state approval of the school’s proposal and move on to the next step in the process.
“It’s not to say we have a full proficiency based diploma system in place but we have started work on that,” he said.
The next phase will involve working with the state to refine the requirements for student portfolio and common assessment evaluations of a student’s work during high school and how that component will be weighed against other achievement evidence such as performance testing.
The reforms enacted by the Regents have not come without controversy and some education observers have warned that the use of NECAP results for achievement of a diploma is a step toward the “high stakes” testing system Massachusetts uses to determine eligibility for a diploma.
While intended to drive higher student performance, a high stakes test could also increase the number of students who never achieve a diploma, according to the critics.
Garcia said there are philosophical differences among educators as to the impact of testing assessments on a student’s access to a diploma from high school but those views should not interfere with the work a school must do to meet state education requirements.
He also believes the state has the right focus on creating multiple methods of evaluating a student’s success in learning under its diploma requirement reforms.
“I do believe that the performance-based
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graduation requirement system we have in place in Rhode Island is one of the best in the country,” he said. “Rhode Island is ahead of game.”
The system provides a more comprehensive assessment of all aspects of learning and also the child’s development,” he said.
The common task examples collected by students as they complete course work and their new student project portfolios add opportunities for them to demonstrate academic success in non-traditional ways, he explained.
For a school with a population as diverse as Woonsocket, a district serving students from varied economic opportunity and also from varied cultural and ethnic backgrounds, that change may track successes missed under the old system, according to Garcia.
The next challenge for Woonsocket, he said, is to create support systems for greater student achievement and add assistance opportunities for students not reaching performance goals the first time around.
While the change increases the weight of NECAP tests on graduation success, Garcia noted the scheduling of the tests for juniors in October will give students a second chance in their senior year to complete the test successfully.
There is also an appeal process planned under the change and a component for adding recovery options for those students not meeting the testing requirement.
But Garcia said schools will also need additional funding to carry out that work and voiced hope that such assistance will be included in the move to adopt the new system.
For now, Garcia said his school will be targeting the upcoming round of state tests with a goal of encouraging students to take them seriously and to understand the overall importance they will have in their school careers.
“We want to make sure all kids participate because when they don’t participate that hurts us as a school,” he said.
The state is still working on the exact design of the new graduation testing component approved by the Regents, according to Elliot Kreiger, a spokesman for Commissioner of Education Peter McWalters, and plans to hold meetings with individual districts as part of the work to implement it in 2012.
The regents did include options for alternative evaluations of students as part of their decision, including the use of PSAT and SAT scores, as well as a procedure for some students to retake the test if necessary.
The NECAP test offers four ranks of student performance, not proficient, partially proficient, proficient, and proficient with distinction, and students ranked as partially proficient or above would meet the new requirement, according to Kreiger.
Rather than a barrier to students, the addition of testing to graduation requirements is intended to ensure students are being taught to the standards evaluated by NECAP, according to Kreiger.
“If they are not getting instruction to the standards, they are not going to do well on the test,” he said.
Students should also be able to show success in the English Language Arts and Math skills evaluated by the tests if they are ready to graduate high school. If they can’t demonstrate such proficiency, they may need more time to accomplish that goal, he explained.
While some could argue such students might choose to leave school rather than seek the higher level of achievement, Kreiger maintained the reforms the Regents have been enacting in recent years address that concern.
“The whole system is designed to keep students engaged in their work,” he said. The changes already in place in school have created more personalized approaches to instruction and smaller communities for learning.
It is also driving districts to bring their course offerings in line with the standards students are expected to achieve.
 In the end, the state’s reforms will create systems that “give students the support they need to get the education they need,” Kreiger said.