100% Proficiency of all RI fourth graders: What will
it take?
A Statewide Analysis
Introduction
Why Focus on the 4th Grade?
Nationally, more and more states are requiring 12th graders to pass exit exams in order to receive a diploma. Nineteen states mandate such tests currently and seven more have laws that will go into effect in the near future. The press and the public appear to be concerned about the poor quality of the education of the students coming out of the nation’s high schools. But if the schools have not been providing the students with adequate "opportunities to learn" that have prepared them to meet the standards of these tests, the consequences of high-stakes exit exams are overly punitive to the students.
Rhode Island Looks Upstream
While recognizing the critical importance of secondary education, this year’s Information Works! analysis focuses on the young children who will become high school students themselves one day. If fourth graders do not demonstrate proficiency in literacy and numeracy, schools have many opportunities to help them to meet standards. As the percentage of proficient 4th graders increases, so will the secondary schools find it easier to increase their levels of proficiency when those students pass through the system. Only when all students have had adequate opportunity to meet high standards throughout their education, then, perhaps, exit exams might make sense. For now they do not.
This is not to say that secondary schools in the state of RI do not have challenges equal to or greater than the challenges to elementary education. Many of our secondary schools are overly impersonal in their structure; some are committed to using and defending teaching strategies that produce limited success among a broad range of students.
The 4th grade is no more important than any other grade or age group. But to extract meaningful information from our ever-growing "mountain" of data specific to RI, we must formulate specific, answerable questions that help us mine the rich information ore, one vein at a time.
Return to the Statewide Analysis || Return to the Information Works Home Page