Rhode Island Department of Education Releases 2024 Assessment Results

Published on Friday, October 18, 2024

PROVIDENCE, RI -- The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) today released the final results of the 2024 state assessments including the Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System (RICAS). RICAS was first conducted in 2018 and is administered to students from grades 3 through 8 in March through May. RICAS statewide data shows that in 2024 compared to 2023, there was an increase in participation in both content areas; a gain of .5 percentage points in math, now surpassing pre-pandemic levels; and a decline in English Language Arts (ELA) by approximately 2 percentage points. A presentation of the full results is available on RIDE’s website. 

The latest results show that performance aligns with trends in New England, where scores have declined or remained largely flat in both math and ELA. On the 2024 ELA MCAS, the Commonwealth declined 3 percentage points; in math, Massachusetts remained stagnant. While Rhode Island’s steady growth in RICAS math reflects the positive impact of targeted strategies, the drop in ELA highlights the need for stronger literacy interventions. The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment released an analysis in 2022 that indicated that recovering to pre-pandemic levels of student achievement in Rhode Island would require three to five years of accelerated learning strategies. Improving school attendance and addressing student mental health are critical priorities for the state, as both directly influence academic outcomes. Rhode Island is also making strategic statewide investments in both math and literacy, focusing on the implementation of high-quality curriculum, student-centered instruction, and professional development for educators. With these efforts, RIDE aims to address these challenges, ensuring that every student has the support they need to thrive. 

Rhode Island is continuing to shrink the performance gap with Massachusetts, with the gap in ELA closing by more than 50% between 2018 and 2024. To close the gap with Massachusetts by 2030, Rhode Island is continuing to focus on galvanizing statewide collective efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism; implementing high-quality curriculum and the Right to Read Act; closing equity gaps, especially for multilingual learners and differently-abled students; and establishing partnerships with municipal leaders for out-of-school learning opportunities and social-emotional learning. 

“My administration is committed to closing the performance gap between Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and despite the pandemic, we have been able to narrow the gap over the past three years,” said Governor Dan McKee. “One of the ways we are addressing this issue is by working to reduce excessive absenteeism in our schools, through our nationally recognized Attendance Matters RI campaign. In reviewing the RICAS score analysis, the profound achievement differences between students who attend school regularly and those who are chronically absent is abundantly clear. Better attendance means more learning time, and that will continue to result in better student outcomes.” 

In addition to RICAS, 2024 PSAT and SAT, Rhode Island Next Generation Science Assessment (NGSA), Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM), and the Rhode Island Assessing Comprehension and Communications in English State-to-State for English Language Learners (ACCESS) assessment results can be viewed online on RIDE’s Assessment Data Portal. 

 

Attendance 

The impact of chronic absenteeism on student performance is undeniable and remains consistent across various assessments. As part of its ongoing efforts, RIDE continues to lead the #AttendanceMattersRI campaign to raise awareness about the importance of regular attendance. In Rhode Island, a student is considered chronically absent when missing 10% or more of the school year (or 18 days, which is equivalent to 2 days per month). Chronically absent students, on average, performed lower than their not chronically absent peers by the following percentage points:  

  • RICAS ELA: 18.0%   
  • RICAS Math: 21.2%  
  • PSAT ELA: 21.3%   
  • PSAT Math: 16.4%  
  • SAT ELA: 24.8%  
  • SAT Math: 20.8%  

These performance gaps are predominantly consistent with previous chronic absenteeism performance gaps reported for the first time in 2023. This year, RIDE has provided an analysis of student chronic absenteeism and achievement trends that reveal long-term chronic absenteeism has a compounding, negative impact on student performance and widens performance gaps. For example, in RICAS ELA, the performance gap between students who were chronically absent that year and students who were not was 18 percentage points. For students chronically absent 3 years versus students who were not within that same time period, the achievement gap increased to 25.4 percentage points. However, data shows students who were once chronically absent are able to get back on track academically. View the comparisons on pages 23-32 in RIDE’s 2024 Assessment Presentation and explore new achievement gap data visualizations by school district, school, assessment, year, and subgroup using RIDE’s newly-updated and interactive Achievement and Chronic Absenteeism Dashboard. 

"The data from this year’s RICAS results tell a clear story: if students aren’t in school and if they need support with their mental health, they can’t learn well. Chronically absent students show a significant learning gap compared to their peers who attend regularly and we are working proactively to address it,” said Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green. “The good news is that students can catch up. With the right academic and social-emotional support, resources, and a focus on consistent attendance, we can close these gaps and ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed. Our commitment to student achievement means addressing both academic and social-emotional needs, so that all Rhode Island students can thrive.” 

Looking at urbanicity, performance gaps for chronically absent students are greatest in Rhode Island’s suburban schools accounting for 18.1 percentage points in RICAS ELA and 24.3 percentage points in RICAS math. These large performance gaps in suburban districts continue at the high school level, with chronically absent students in the suburbs performing on average 25 percentage points lower than their not-chronically absent peers on the SAT.  

 

Mental Health 

Addressing mental health plays a vital role in student performance and overall well-being. According to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly one in three Rhode Island middle and high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless over a two-week period that they stopped doing their usual activities. Nearly one in six Rhode Island middle and high school students reported seriously considering attempting suicide over the past 12 months. Similar concerns surfaced in the 2024 administration of SurveyWorks, RIDE’s annual survey. 

On Thursday, RIDE announced a new partnership with Hazel Health to provide comprehensive, virtual mental health services to students across the state. Rhode Island has begun engaging school leaders on this initiative with the goal of becoming the first state on the East Coast to launch a free statewide telehealth initiative of this kind.  

 

RICAS Math 

The 2024 RICAS results show that student performance in math slightly improved across Rhode Island, increasing .5 compared to 2023, from 29.6% to 30.1%. 2024 math results surpassed pre-pandemic levels of achievement and indicate a 10 percentage point increase from 20.1% in 2021. While most grade levels made strides, grade 3, which consists of students who began their education during the pandemic years, saw a significant increase of 4.6 percentage points. Overall, this year marked a third consecutive year of gains. 

 

RICAS ELA 

For ELA, the results show that proficiency decreased across the state by approximately 2.3 percentage points compared to 2023, from 33.1% to 30.8%. These results remain below the pre-pandemic level of 38.5% in 2019 and writing remains the biggest challenge. Historically, lower grades have performed higher, and it is likely the third graders tested in 2024 are still showing the effects of the pandemic and gaps in foundational skills. 

This summer, RIDE announced it has received a historic $40 million federal grant to improve literacy over the next five years. This followed the announcement of $5 million in funding for instructional coaching. 

While overall performance gaps for MLLs still exist, students who recently exited MLL status are now outperforming students who were never identified as MLLs on RICAS ELA. Recently-exited MLLs are also now outperforming state averages for RICAS Math, and demonstrated gains across all state assessments in both ELA and Math. 

 

PSAT/SAT 

The SAT is administered in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics to all 11th-grade students, and the PSAT is administered in the same content areas to all 10th-grade students. The 2024 results show that compared to 2023, PSAT and SAT participation increased across the state. PSAT statewide results show proficiency increased in 2024 in ELA by approximately 3.4 percentage points and decreased 2.7 percentage points in math compared to 2023. With PSAT, overall, half of Rhode Island students meet expectations for high school ELA, however only 25% meet expectations in math. 

As of March 2024, the College Board fully transitioned to the digital SAT Suite of Assessments, featuring adaptive tests that provide each student with a unique experience. While the digital SAT continues to assess reading, writing, and mathematics, it now uses a more precise scoring methodology, already employed by other national assessments like NAEP, PARCC, PSAT, and most state exams. These changes may have impacted student experiences and results for spring 2024. As this marks a new baseline, caution is needed when comparing digital SAT scores to previous results, considering the new test format, item types, and scoring method. 

The percentage of students who met or exceeded expectations on the College and Career Readiness Benchmark in 2024 stayed relatively the same with a slight decrease of 1.3 percentage points; however, a significant decrease of 3.6 percentage points is seen in math. Almost half of Rhode Island students meet expectations for high school ELA, but only just over 20% meet expectations in math. Ten states use SAT for accountability reporting. 

To support student learning in Rhode Island high schools, RIDE and the College Board will provide all local education agencies (LEAs) access to Khan Academy for Districts during the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years. Khan Academy Districts complements Khan Academy’s free resources by providing LEAs school-level implementation plans to support schools in monitoring student progress, growth, and academic strengths and weaknesses to support targeted improvement. Khanmigo will be available during the 2025-2026 school year for all high school students at no cost to the school or district. LEAs with less than 250 high school students will receive access to Khanmigo during the 2024-25 school year.   

 

NGSA 

The Next Generation Science Assessments (NGSA) is administered in grades 5, 8 and 11. NGSA proficiency scores indicate no significant change from 2023 with a 0.8 percentage point increase in students meeting or exceeding expectations, from 30.4% to 31.2%.  

 

DLM 

The DLM assessments are designed for students with significant special education needs and are administered in grades 3 through 8 and 11 in ELA, math, and science. 2024 results show that achievement levels remain relatively unchanged. In ELA, there was an increase of 1.5 percentage points in the number of students “At Target or Advanced;” in math there was a decrease of 0.5 percentage points in students “At Target or Advanced;” and in science, the number of students “At Target or Advanced” increased by nearly 2 percentage points. Nearly 1 in 5 students, or 19%, are differently-abled, representing a nearly 20% increase over the last five years and the 10th highest percentage of differently-abled students among the 50 states and Washington, D.C. 

 

ACCESS 

The ACCESS assessment is administered to multilingual learners (MLLs) to examine their English-language proficiency (ELP) on a scale of 1 to 6, with 6 being the highest, in four language domains: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Students with a composite score of 4.8 or higher are considered ready to exit MLL services. ACCESS is developed by the WIDA Consortium, which provides standardized MLL assessments to 41 states and territories. Overall, ACCESS participation increased by 9.1 percentage points from 2023. In the last six years, the number of MLLs tested increased by 38%, accounting for an increase of 5,394 students, and demographics have shifted in Rhode Island’s MLL population over time. There has been a statewide decrease of Developing MLLs (3-6 years of service) for the first time in 5 years, whereas Newcomers (0-2 years of service) and Long-Term MLLs (7+ years) have increased for 3 consecutive years. 30% of long-term MLLs have an Individualized Education Program (IEP). There was a 1.5 percentage point increase in student scoring at the “Expanding” and “Bridging” levels.  

Rhode Island has had the top growth in the nation in terms of MLL enrollment between 2010 and 2020, and currently has the fifth highest percentage of multilingual learners in the nation and most in New England. The entire state has experienced MLL growth; many urban ring and suburban school districts have experienced 100 to 400% increases over the last ten years. 

###