Bill delays graduation assessment to 2017

PROVIDENCE – In a 29-5 vote, the Senate has approved a bill that would amend the method by which the state assessment program would be implemented in public schools, requiring that no state assessment be used to determine a student’s ability to graduate from high school prior to the Class of 2017.
The New England Common Assessment Program, or NECAP, was tied to graduation requirements for this year’s graduating class as part of the R.I. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s efforts to boost college preparedness and raise education standards, according to bill sponsor Sen. Adam J. Satchell, D-West Warwick.
Next year, the state’s public schools are set to introduce a new high-stakes exam called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, a computer-based standardized test. According to Satchell, there are currently a number of districts that do not have the technology or infrastructure to properly implement the assessment.
Satchell said he submitted the legislation after a wave of concerns flowed from parents, educators, administrators and students regarding the new hurdle to high school diplomas. Those worries included a question of whether teachers had enough time to match curricula and common-core standards in order to fairly penalize students who did not garner a passing grade on the NECAP. Others criticized the move to allow this extra requirement without placing more support in the classroom for students grappling with learning disabilities, poverty and other factors that may impede a child’s ability to learn. •

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