Economic, racial gap persists in state

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island’s four-year high school graduation rates improved slightly over last year’s figures but substantial gaps remain between white students and students of color as well as between poor students and their middle-class peers.

The R.I. Department of Education reported that, overall, 84.1 percent of the Class of 2017 graduated, a 1.3-point increase over last year.

While rates increased incrementally for black students, students learning English saw a drop in graduation rates, down by 1.4 points.

Rhode Island also lags behind its closest neighbors. Connecticut posted a graduate rate of 87.9 percent while Massachusetts had a rate of 88.3 percent.

Rhode Island’s deputy education commissioner, Mary Ann Snider, said the increase overall represents “a positive trend upward.”

“The important part for us is that it’s trending in the right direction,” she said, noting that Rhode Island has seen an eight-point rise in rates since 2010. “We want to make sure that when kids walk the stage, they are prepared for whatever they want to do next.”

However, urban districts — Providence, Central Falls, Woonsocket and Pawtucket — are graduating students at much lower rates than their suburban peers — with a 15-point gap. Ninety percent of suburban students graduated last year.

More students graduate in five years in urban districts compared with suburban ones, but Snider said that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

She acknowledges that there is a body of research that says students who are held back are at higher risk for dropping out and not attending college.

But, Snider said, Rhode Island is re-imagining the notion of retention. Today, all high school students are supposed to have individual learning goals, including candid conversations about what they need to graduate.

“The fifth year is proving to be beneficial,” she said. “It helps ensure that kids don’t go to the Community College of Rhode Island needing lots of remediation.”

More high school students, Snider said, are also taking Advanced Placement courses and college-level classes at the same time that career and technical opportunities are expanding.

Several educators, led by the superintendents of Providence and Central Falls, have pushed to include funding for English language learners, many of whom are Latino, to be included in the school funding formula, which is currently based on families living in poverty plus a community’s tax capacity. Poorer cities get a larger share of state school dollars than their more affluent peers.

Snider said the state now sets aside $2.5 million in state funds for English language learners but that money is dependent on the General Assembly for support. She also said that her department is offering more support for this population by awarding seals of bi-literacy, which recognize a student’s fluency in two languages by including it on his or her diploma.

“We’re not going to see improvements overnight,” she said.

But Gabriela Domenzain, director of the Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams University, said there should be a real sense of urgency around these numbers.

“Latino students in Rhode have the worst chances of succeeding in the nation, so it comes as no surprise that the achievement gaps are substantial and troubling,” she said. “In order for Rhode Island to succeed, Latino students must succeed, and a concerted effort to close their achievement gaps is necessary and urgent.”A surprising finding is the eight-point gap between the sexes — with girls graduating at 88.2 percent while boys graduate at only 80.3 percent.

“We don’t want to see that,” Snider said. “It’s concerning. It’s consistent with the gaps in academic achievement” between the sexes.

Snider said the gap may be because traditional classrooms are designed to accommodate girls more than boys, who perhaps would do better with more hands-on learning.

“On the flip side,” she said, “when we look at career and technical programs, we see females accessing them less than male students.”

Classical, East Greenwich and Scituate high schools have the highest graduation rates at roughly 97 percent.

The lowest rates are in the urban districts, with a couple of notable exceptions: Providence Career and Technical Academy posted a 88.9 percent rate, a tribute to hands-on learning and real-life skills.

Woonsocket High School was among the lowest, with a graduation rate of 67.5 percent.

Central Falls High showed improvement, moving up nine points to 78.3 percent.

“We know that we have more work left to do to get more students across the stage, but each year we are making the climb and keeping a steady pace upward,” said Central Falls Superintendent Victor Capellan. “I congratulate the high school leadership, the teachers, the students and the parents for stepping up and demonstrating that students in Central Falls are resilient and they have what it takes to succeed.”

Several charter public schools also displayed rates above 90 percent, including Paul Cuffee School in Providence, Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts in Providence, Beacon Charter School and the Met School in Providence.

But a couple of charters, Skip Nowell Leadership Academy in Providence, which is for pregnant and parenting teens, and Rhode Island Nurses Academy, also in Providence, had rates of 20 percent and below. Nowell just had its charter license renewed.