For years, Rhode Island political, business, and education leaders have lamented that the state is so far behind Massachusetts in student achievement, as measured by test scores. Until recently, it was hard to precisely compare the two states because different tests were used by the Bay State and the Ocean State.
Last year Rhode Island adopted the same test Massachusetts has used to measure students for the last two decades–the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, known by its acronym MCAS.
On average, Rhode Island students scored 17 percentage points lower than Massachusetts in English and 20 points lower in Math.
Everyone who seriously studies education policy knows that it’s tough to break the iron link between the wealth and education of parents and the educational success of their children. What was so sad about the Rhode Island scores was that even when districts with similar populations were compared, Massachusetts did much better.
Take Springfield, a Massachusetts city with poverty, ethnic, and income demographics similar to Providence. Springfield’s students do better than those in Rhode Island’s capital by 16 points in English Language Arts. Students in the faded textile city of Lawrence, near the New Hampshire border, did 22 points better on the English test than kids in struggling Central Falls, the seen-better-days Rhode Island factory city.
The scores were so embarrassing that Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo refused to make them public until she was safely reelected. When they finally came out around Thanksgiving, there was the usual round of hand-wringing and crisis rhetoric.
“This is our truth-telling moment,” said Ken Wagner, state education commissioner. “There’s no surprise we have tons of work to do.”
Providence’s first Latina city council president, Sabina Matos, doesn’t send her children to the city’s public schools. Instead, they attend charter schools. She says Providence schools are a “management disaster.”
The politicians have done what they too often do: point fingers of blame to score partisan points. Republican State Chairman Brandon Bell slammed Wagner, saying he should resign. Bell also skewered Raimondo and the Democrats who control the General Assembly.
Many in the business community and some Republicans have longed blamed Rhode Island’s lagging public school scores in the state’s influential teacher unions. The issue is that the unions use their clout on Smith Hill to thwart such changes as tougher teacher evaluations and high-stakes testing. Yet, Massachusetts teachers are members of the same unions.
House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, say they will push measures to figure out what Rhode Island is doing wrong.
Both states contribute roughly the same amount to education when considered on a per student basis, with Massachusetts a few hundred dollars per capita higher than Rhode Island.
One stiletto-sharp contrast is that Massachusetts has been testing students, evaluating teachers and imposing graduation standards for high school kids. This campaign started back in 1993, after a legal challenge to the way the state financed elementary and secondary education. The state adopted a plan and stuck to it.
Another difference between the states came after the 2008 recession. Then-Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri declined to raise taxes, instead balancing the budget by cutting state education aid. Then-Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick got the legislature to raise the sales tax by one-percent to keep education money flowing.
While Massachusetts has the nation’s best scores, the state’s political leaders aren’t resting on their laurels. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has decided to make education a bipartisan 2019 priority. The idea is to better finance poorer school districts to narrow the gap between the leafy suburbs and gritty cities.
Rhode Island pols need to stop the blame game and tackle this problem with a sense of urgency. Rhode Islanders will be watching Raimondo Tuesday night to see what she says about education in her State of the State address. What good is it to have low unemployment and a forest of cranes hovering over Providence if the kids can’t read and write.
Scott MacKay’s commentary can be heard every Monday morning at 6:45 and 8:45 and at 5:44 in the afternoon. You can also follow his political analysis online at thepublicsradio.org.
