Policy Update: Rhode Island: A Detailed Accounting

Vital Statistics
36	Public school districts
316	Public schools
152,000	K-12 enrollment
21.7%	Minority students
17%	Children in poverty
17.3%	Students with disabilities
$1.1 billion	Annual K-12 expenditures (all revenue sources)

Although the test scores didn't paint a flattering picture, they did reflect Rhode Island's recent efforts to set rigorous new standards. And by last fall, the state was boasting improvements in some areas.

The proportion of 10th graders who met the state standard on the writing assessment, for example, rose from 33 percent in 1997 to 42 percent last year.

Rhode Island's high school sophomores also showed modest improvement in many sections of the mathematics and English exams of the New Standards project, which the state began administering in 1997. The project is a collaborative effort of more than a dozen states to set high standards and design assessments to measure students' performance against them.

On the New Standards math tests, 67 percent of Rhode Island 10th graders last year met the state standard in a section that measured basic skills, up from 63 percent in 1997. Students meeting the standard in mathematics concepts also rose from 18 percent to 22 percent during the same period. On a section that tested students' problem-solving skills, however, the students who met the standard fell from 25 percent to 17 percent.

"We can see progress," McWalters said when the scores were released. "But these results also reveal that we have work to do."

The state's main lever for raising student performance goes by the name of SALT, which stands for School Accountability for Learning and Teaching. Its designers sought a balance between supporting district improvement efforts and holding schools accountable for their outcomes.

Where the original 1997 language called for state "support and intervention" for schools that didn't measure up, the legislature added a stipulation that schools that fail to improve after three years face "progressive levels of control" from the state. Those steps could include a state order that a school be "reconstituted," or completely restaffed.

The education department last fall set each school's three-year improvement goals after essentially negotiating the targets with the districts.

Rather than focus entirely on outcomes, however, the department has honed a site-visit process by "SALT field teams" to examine--and recommend changes to--school policies on curricula, teaching practice, parent involvement, and community support. The department plans to carry out about 20 site visits this school year, and expects to have reviewed all public schools in the state within five years.

When evaluating a school's progress, state officials have more than just test scores and their own observations. The education department last spring also surveyed nearly every teacher, parent, and student to get a snapshot of instructional practices at each school. State education officials plan to carry out this SALT survey for at least two more years.

Another key component of the state's accountability system is the standardized financial- reporting procedures all schools are now required to use.

"I feel like we've put in place an information system so we can see who owes what to whom," McWalters says. If schools are struggling with improvement, he adds, "we can ask, 'Is it a question of resources? Is it the culture of the school?' "

While designing new ways to hold schools accountable, Rhode Island has dealt less with the issue of student accountability. Rep. Joseph M. McNamara, a Democrat, tried last year to amend the school reform law to keep students from being promoted to the next grade if they couldn't demonstrate proficiency. His amendment was defeated.

Other legislators and state education officials argued that Rhode Island must give its new accountability system a chance to improve instruction in the schools before it holds back students who don't measure up.

"I think the student-responsibility element is something we will look at more this coming year," Rep. Paul W. Crowley, a Democrat who sits on the state school board, said as last year's legislative session drew to a close.

As part of a plan to raise the quality of instruction in Rhode Island, education department officials also spent much of last year drafting a proposal for teachers to prepare their own long-term professional-development plans, which would be linked to their schools' overall goals.

Republican Gov. Lincoln Almond last fall also proposed requiring new teachers to pass competency tests before entering the profession.

To foster the kind of innovation state leaders hope will lead to gains in student achievement, the legislature last year amended its 1995 charter school law to allow nonprofit groups to apply for charters.

Critics had complained that the state's original charter law was too restrictive. Previously, only schools, districts, or school personnel could apply for charters. As a result, only two schools--both in Providence--had won charter status in the three years after the law was passed.

In amending the statute, the lawmakers also permitted nonprofit charter schools to hire teachers who are not part of the surrounding district's union. They still must be certified, can form their own unions, and must enjoy wages and benefits similar to those of educators in other area schools.

Rhode Island lawmakers also showed greater willingness than in the past to increase school spending.

Buoyed by the state's continuing economic good fortune and an unexpectedly large budget surplus, the legislature last year added $42.2 million to the previous year's $438 million allocation for local aid. The nearly 10 percent increase was one of the biggest in a decade.

To address the continually vexing problem of funding equity, part of the appropriation included a new $8 million aid category targeted at the five poorest districts. At the same time, the state mandated that districts offer students free breakfasts in any school where more than 40 percent of the enrollment is eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.

Urban areas also are likely to be chief beneficiaries of the governor's new early-childhood initiative, Starting RIght. The governor set aside $2 million last year for the program, which raises the family-income-eligibility ceiling for state subsidies for child care, as much as doubling the number of children served by state funds. The initiative also will increase the number of Head Start programs and set up new child-care programs for children up to age 16.

When fully implemented in July 2000, Starting RIght is to be subsidized at $13 million annually.

Though the additional state dollars begin to address the inequities that prompted a school finance lawsuit--brought by urban districts that ultimately lost in 1995--a gap remains between what affluent and poor school systems are able to spend on instruction.

In Providence, for example, school officials said early last year that the capital city's 25,000-student system needed about $25 million more in state aid in 1999 to provide professional development, accommodate a rapidly increasing enrollment, and take care of long-postponed salary adjustments and infrastructure improvements. But the district's take of the increased funding fell nearly $10 million short of that.

The state's finance inequities may lessen, however, if last fall's campaign promises are fulfilled. In his successful re-election bid, Almond pledged to support increasing the state's share of total education funding from 46 percent to 50 percent. With local property taxes currently supplying the majority of education dollars in the state, low-income communities find it difficult to keep up.