Chart 2 portrays the standards gap in tenth grade mathematics in the areas of skills, concepts and problem solving. This chart shows that Rhode Island students performed better in the area on which we have historically focused – basic skills – with 63% of all students meeting or exceeding the standard. Student performance in the areas needed to excel in the 21st century, however, is worrisome. Only 18% of all students met or exceeded the standard in math concepts, and 25% met or exceeded the standard in problem solving.

These graphs demonstrate the following:

• Rhode Island's students perform better in the area of math skills than they do in either math problem solving or writing.
• There is a substantial range in student performance by district that again roughly mirrors wealth and family background:

90 percent of all students in East Greenwich, our wealthiest community, met or exceeded the standard in math skills, compared to 38 percent of all students in our poorest community – Central Falls.

Student performance in math problem solving ranged from a high of 49 percent of students at or above standard, to a low of 6 percent.

In writing, the percentage of students at or above standard ranged from 70 to 21 percent.

• There are large standards gaps in even our most highly performing communities:

In math problem solving, more than half the students failed to meet the standard in our three highest performing communities – East Greenwich, South Kingstown and Foster-Glocester.