After just two years of PARCC, there is little longitudinal data to help us understand how students and their schools are doing. But one of the promises of PARCC was that it would allow state-by-state comparisons of achievement, so let’s see what we can learn by comparing scores from Rhode Island with our high-achieving neighbor to the north: Massachusetts.
Massachusetts has said it plans to implement a modified version of PARCC next year, but we can at least compare scores from 2016. And we can hone in on communities that are similar in terms of population, median income and demographic makeup.
I’ve have chosen to focus on 3rd grade and 7th grade scores, in part because 3rd grade reading skills are seen as a critical factor in future school performance. I chose 7th grade because many Massachusetts districts do not administer PARCC to high school students, and Rhode Island gives some 8th grade students a subject-specific Algebra test, making it difficult to compare 8th grade math scores. 7th grade, therefore, provides the most accurate snapshot of an older student.
I’ll start with Springfield, a city of about 154,000 people, with approximately 39% Latino residents and a median income of $34,700, according to the U.S. census. The demographics are similar to Providence, a city of about 179,000 people, with 38% Latino residents, and a median income of $37,500. Both cities have a poverty rate of roughly 30%. (Note: Census population/demographic data may differ from school district data, but the goal here is to compare similar communities.)
Springfield students consistently score better than their peers in Providence on PARCC, especially in Math. So do students in Worcester, another city of similar size with slightly higher median income.
Percent of Students Meeting/Exceeding Expectations
Providence 3rd Grade Springfield Worcester
ELA 22% 38 % 36%
MATH 25 % 45 % 34%
Providence 7th Grade Springfield Worcester
ELA 17% 29% 46%
MATH 10% 22% 30%
Looking at specific subgroups yields an interesting result. Latino and low-income students in both 3rd and 7th grade achieve significantly higher proficiency rates in Springfield than they do in Providence. But for Latino 3rd graders, Springfield has a wider achievement gap. The gap is wider in Providence for low-income 3rd graders, at least in English Language Arts. Achievement gaps are similar in both districts at the 7th grade level, but Springfield students continue to show higher proficiency rates.
Latino Students Meeting/Exceeding Expectations
Providence 3rd Grade Springfield 3rd Grade
ELA 21% 34%
MATH 22% 41 %
Gap between Latino and White Students in terms of Percentage Points
Providence 3rd Grade Springfield 3rd Grade
ELA 11 points 17 points
MATH 10 points 16 points
Low-Income Students Meeting/Exceeding
Providence 3rd Grade Springfield 3rd Grade
ELA 20% 35%
MATH 23% 41%
Gap between Low-Income/ Non Low-Income Students
Providence 3rd Grade Springfield 3rd Grade
ELA 25 points 16 points
MATH 17 points 18 points
I also looked briefly at scores from Pawtucket, a smaller urban district, compared with New Bedford, MA, a similar city. As with Providence, Pawtucket students were less likely to score at grade level than their peers in New Bedford, and that trend held true for Latino students in addition to all students. But the achievement gap between white and Latino students was wider in New Bedford’s 3rd grade. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether a student is better off in a district with higher proficiency rates or lower achievement gaps.
Let’s look next at two high achieving, wealthy communities: Barrington, RI and Marblehead, MA.
Marblehead has a population of 20,500, mostly white residents, and a median income of nearly $101,000. Barrington, consistently one of Rhode Island’s highest scoring districts, is slightly smaller with a little more than 16,000 people. Like Marblehead, the vast majority of Barrington residents are white, and the median income is nearly $104,000. Let’s look at the scores.
Students Meeting/Exceeding Expectations
Barrington 3rd Grade Marblehead 3rd Grade
ELA 61% 85%
MATH 73% 78%
Barrington 7th Grade Marblehead 7th Grade
ELA 87% 88%
MATH 73% 71%
Barrington 3rd graders scored lower than their peers in Marblehead, particularly in English Language Arts. But by 7th grade Barrington students were catching up, and, at least in Math, slightly outscoring their Marblehead counterparts.
Cranston and Warwick, Rhode Island’s second and third largest districts, tend to score close to the state average on PARCC. Both cities are close in size: Cranston has about 81,000 residents, Warwick a little less than 82,000. Cranston is slightly more diverse, at 82% white and 11% Latino. Warwick is 93% white. Median income is a little higher in Warwick at nearly $63,000, compared with nearly $59,000 in Cranston.
The closest comparison I could find in Massachusetts is Framingham, with a population of about 71,000 people. At 72% white and 13% Latino, the city may look more like Cranston than Warwick. But Framingham’s median income is nearly $69,000, closer to Warwick than Cranston. Framingham has a poverty rate of 11%, the same as Cranston and slightly higher than Warwick. (As noted above, census data on populations and demographics may differ from school district data)
Here’s how the three cities stack up when it comes to test scores. At the 3rd grade level, Framingham and Warwick have similar results. Cranston comes close in English but falls behind in Math. In 7th grade, however, Framingham students outperform their peers in both Cranston and Warwick, with an especially large gap in Math.
Students Meeting/Exceeding Expectations
Cranston 3rd Grade Warwick 3rd Grade Framingham 3rd Grade
ELA 41% 42% 44%
MATH 39% 46% 45%
Cranston 7th Grade Warwick 7th Grade Framingham 7th Grade
ELA 38% 38% 47%
MATH 27% 29% 40%
Since Cranston and Framingham have similar poverty rates and similar percentages of Latino students, it may be instructive to compare subgroups.
Interestingly, Cranston and Framingham have similar achievement rates for low-income 3rd graders and similar achievement gaps. Warwick’s low-income 3rd graders out-performed both Framingham and Cranston, and the city has a smaller achievement gap. We should note, however, that Warwick has a considerably lower poverty rate than either Cranston or Framingham.
Low-Income Students Meeting/Exceeding Expectations
Cranston 3rd Grade Warwick 3rd Grade Framingham 3rd Grade
ELA 25% 34% 27%
MATH 25% 35% 29%
Low-Income/Non Low-Income Gap in terms of Percentage Points
Cranston 3rd Grade Warwick 3rd Grade Framingham 3rd Grade
ELA 30 points 13 points 27 points
MATH 25 points 18 points 25 points
In 7th grade, the trend reverses on test scores but not achievement gaps. Framingham’s low-income 7th graders scored slightly higher than their peers in both Cranston and Warwick. Warwick, however, continues to have a smaller achievement gap.
Low-Income Students Meeting/Exceeding Expectations
Cranston 7th Grade Warwick 7th Grade Framingham 7th Grade
ELA 23% 23% 30%
MATH 15% 17% 21%
Low-Income/Non Low-Income Gap in terms of Percentage Points
Cranston 7th Grade Warwick 7th Grade Framingham 7th Grade
ELA 29 points 22 points 26 points
MATH 21 points 18 points 29 points
Latino students in both Cranston and Warwick 3rd grade classrooms outperformed their peers in Framingham, which also had the largest achievement gap. Warwick had the smallest gap, but the city also has a considerably smaller Latino population.
Latino Students Achieving/Exceeding Expectations
Cranston 3rd Grade Warwick 3rd Grade Framingham 3rd Grade
ELA 26% 37% 23%
MATH 25% 33% 21%
Latino/White Gap in terms of Percentage Points
Cranston 3rd Grade Warwick 3rd Grade Framingham 3rd Grade
ELA 22 points 5 points 28 points
Math 20 points 15 points 31 points
But by 7th grade, Framingham Latino students, like low-income students, outperform both Rhode Island districts. Framingham still had higher achievement gaps, particularly in Math.
Latino Students Achieving/Exceeding Expectations
Cranston 7th Grade Warwick 7th Grade Framingham 7th Grade
ELA 25% 20% 32%
MATH 17% 13% 23%
Latino/White Gap in terms of Percentage Points
Cranston 7th Grade Warwick 7th Grade Framingham 7th Grade
ELA 20 points 20 points 22 points
MATH 13 points 17 points 25 points
Since we have yet to consider any districts in the South County, let’s take North Kingstown, population 26,200. The town is 95% white and the median income is $80,500 (not too shabby). Without moving too far beyond the Massachusetts border, we find Stoughton, MA, population 28,400, 80% white (11% black) and a median income of $74,700. Both towns have similar poverty rates, 8% and 7%.
In this example, similar to Barrington, the Rhode Island district fares worse than its Massachusetts counterpart at the 3rd grade level, but outperforms Stoughton in 7th grade.
Percent of Students Meeting/Exceeding Expectations
N. Kingstown 3rd Grade Stoughton 3rd Grade
ELA 50% 59%
MATH 57% 61%
N. Kingstown 7th Grade Stoughton 7th Grade
ELA 70% 65%
MATH 55% 40%
For one final look at a pair of districts that are geographically close together and demographically similar, I chose East Providence, RI and Taunton, MA. Taunton, with nearly 57,000 people, is slightly larger than East Providence, population 47,400. Median incomes are similar, $52,000 in Taunton and $51,000 in East Providence. Both cities are more than 80% white.
Unlike the two wealthier districts considered earlier, East Providence performed worse than its Massachusetts counterpart in both subjects and at both grade levels. The disparity is particularly stark in 7th grade.
Percent of Students Meeting/Exceeding Expectations
East Providence 3rd Grade Taunton 3rd Grade
ELA 35% 44%
MATH 41% 48%
East Providence 7th Grade Taunton 7th Grade
ELA 26% 51%
MATH 17% 32%
Here are the biggest takeaways from these comparisons: Rhode Island’s urban and middle-income communities may want to visit Massachusetts to find out why more of their students are scoring at a level that meets or exceeds expectations. But no one has solved the problem of achievement gaps, and wealthier districts in Rhode Island compare well to similar districts in Massachusetts.
It’s unfortunate that future comparisons with Massachusetts may prove impossible, since it would be nice to track trend lines. Next year I’ll have to pick another PARCC state for a similar analysis.
