Fewer R.I. high schools met requirements in 2007

PROVIDENCE – Fewer Ocean State high schools met the annual requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act in 2007 than in 2006, the R.I. Department of Education reported today.

Last year, 50 percent of Rhode Island high schools – or 29 schools – met their 2007 requirements, the department said. In 2006, 54 percent of high schools met the requirements. (For a chart showing all high schools needing improvement, click here.)

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To meet annual requirements, schools must hit 37 targets based on state assessments in mathematics and reading, as well as attendance or graduation rates. Schools not only must meet school-wide targets, but eight student groups – Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, White, English-language learners, students in poverty and students with disabilities – must meet their targets as well.

Peter McWalters, state commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said in a statement today that only 14 of the 29 deficient high schools missed more than one of the 37 potential targets. The remaining 15 missed only one apiece.

“Because of the inflexibility of the No Child Left Behind Act, many schools in Rhode Island and throughout the nation are being identified for improvement when they have missed only one target,” McWalters said. “Other schools that have missed multiple targets will require more support from the state, and that is where we will focus our efforts going forward.”

Twenty-four high schools have failed to meet the requirements for consecutive years, a list that includes Central Falls High School, Lincoln Senior High School, Toll Gate High School in Warwick and South Kingstown High School. All schools that have missed for consecutive years are listed as being “identified for school improvement.”

The department also noted that the statewide graduation rate was 89.2 percent in 2007.

At the district level, 10 school districts out of 39 have missed annual targets for consecutive years and fall under the “intervention status” category, a distinction which can carry sanctions and additional requirements with it.

“The results … show that we must remain aggressive in our school-reform efforts, particularly in regard to our urban schools and our high schools,” said Robert G. Flanders Jr., chairman of the R.I. Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education.

While high schools showed a dip in 2007, schools at all levels showed improvement statewide. According to the department, 79 percent of all schools – or 248 schools – in the state met all of the annual targets set for them. The figures represented an increase of 11 percent from 2006.

Additional information, including the full report on 2007 high school and school-district classifications, is available from the R.I. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Office of Assessment and Accountability at www.ridoe.net.