New Secondary Regulations Adopted by the Rhode Island Board of Regents For Elementary and Secondary Education
 December 2, 2008- In September 2008, The Rhode Island Board of Regents amended the High School Regulations of 2003. The amended regulations specify course requirements, provide details about the required personal literacy plans and mathematics interventions for students performing below grade level, and place greater weight on state assessments as a graduation requirement. By 2012, districts withought full approval will no longer be authorized to grant diplomas. The NECAP state assessments will count as one-third of the proficincy measure in English and mathematics, though "state assessments shallnot be the sole grounds to prohibit graduation from high school". The Regents set the minimum achievement level, or cut score, on the NECAP tests as "partially proficient." Upon entry into middle school, each student "shall have an inidividual learning plan" that will be developed over time to document the student's "interests, needs, supports, course selections... and opportunities." Students and families "have the right to appeal graduation decisions" and districts must allow for "alternate methods of measuring the student's overall proficiency." View the new regulations here. RIDE has also disseminated guidance for districts in implementing the regulations.

New Data Resource From NCES
October 28, 2008- The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) makes a wide range of survey data availible to the public. The QuickStats program availible through the Data Lab allows users to produce a table with ease. Quick Stats provides easy access to frequently used variables in many NCES studies of students, teachers, schools and postsecondary institutions. Click here to view the site.

The Critical Importance of Addressing Chronic Absence in the Early Grades
October 20, 2008 - Although students must be present and engaged to learn, thousands of this country’s youngest students are academically at risk because of extended absences in their early school years. Nationally, an estimated one in ten kindergarten and first grade students miss nearly a month or more of school over the course of a year. This report, commissioned by the Casey Foundation, raises awareness of this issue, presents data on the scope of the challenge, and shares emerging insights about how to address it. An executive summary is also available.

Closing the Achievement Gap - Getting to RESULTS
October 20, 2008 - The first publication in this series describes the Casey Foundation’s efforts to develop a flexible but rigorous results measurement system that enables the Foundation and its grantees to reflect on practice and then change course as necessary to achieve the desired result. It also presents the Foundation’s own progress in the area of education results measurement. See all publications in the Closing the Achievement Gap series.

New Education Podcast Series
October 20, 2008 - Schools That Work is a video podcast series that features interviews with people on the ground in successful public schools that beat the odds to provide high quality education to low-income students. The podcasts were developed to accompany the Annie E. Casey Foundation's publication series, Closing the Achievement Gap, which features stories, results and lessons learned from seven years of experience at the Foundation.

New Graduation Rate Resource and Maps
September 3, 2008 – The Editorial Projects in Education Research Center has launched a new feature on its EdWeek Maps Website that provides access to detailed reports on high school graduation rates for every school district in the United States. The reports contain complete portraits of all districts in the U.S., their graduation rates and trends, and comparisons with state and national figures. This powerful online mapping tool is available at maps.edweek.org.

Schott Releases New Report and Website on Black Boys in Public Education
August 6, 2008 - The Schott Foundation published the recently released, Given Half a Chance: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education for Black Males. According to the report, more than half of Black males did not receive diplomas with their cohort in 2005/2006. Veiw the website at www.blackboysreport.org.

2008 Report on Key National Indicators of Child Well-Being Available Online
July 14, 2008 - The newly released America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2008 profiles the status of the nation's children and youth, presenting up-to-date federal statistics on a variety of issues in one convenient reference. According to the report, math and reading scores of fourth and eighth graders have increased, but also shows that the teen birth rate and the proportion of infants born at low birthweight have also risen.

Brief on Costs of Dropping out Updated
July 7, 2008 - The Alliance for Excellent Education has updated its brief "The High Cost of High School Dropouts: What the Nation Pays for Inadequate High Schools" with numbers specific
                                       to the Class of 2008.

New RI High School Graduation Rate Comparable to US Rate
June 26, 2008 - RI has a 70% high school graduation rate and a 19% dropout rate based on new methodology for calculating RI graduation rates. Compare each RI school district's new graduation rate with its old rate and view detailed information about the new methodology in this supplement prepared by Rhode Island Kids Count.

Rhode Island Ranks 30th in the Nation for High School Graduation Rates
June 5, 2008 - Diplomas Count 2008 finds that with 71% of high school students graduating on time, Rhode Island ranks 30th in the nation for its high school graduation rate.  Findings in the report also show that while graduation rates have "inched up" nationwide, still only 71% of ninth graders graduate with a diploma four years later, and that rate falls to 58% for Hispanic students, 55% for African American students, and 51% for Native American students.

2008 Condition of Education Report Released
May 29, 2008-The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released "The Condition of Education 2008," a congressionally mandated report that provides an annual portrait of education in the United States. The 43 indicators included in this year's report cover all aspects of education, from early childhood through postsecondary education and from student achievement to school environment and resources.

Financial Analysis of Expanded Learning Opportunities in Rhode Island
March 2008 - This report describes municipal, public, and private sources of funding for a broad array of expanded learning opportunities, including afterschool programs, child care, and employment opportunities for youth in Rhode Island. This report  is meant to serve as a starting place for further work on sustainable public and private funding for high quality expanded learning opportunities for Rhode Island’s children and youth.

Most Parents Expect Their Children to Attend College
Nine out of every ten students in grades 6 through 12 in 2003 had parents who expected them to continue their education beyond high school, according to a new National Center for Education Statistics report co-authored by Child Trends. The report, Parent Expectations and Planning for College, also finds that about two-thirds (65%) of students had parents who expected them to finish college or higher.

U.S. Government to Require States to Use a Uniform High School Graduation Rate Calculation
On April 1, 2008, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced plans for administrative action to ensure that all states use the same formula to calculate high school graduation rates. Prior to this, each state used it's own method of calculating dropouts, a procedure that some experts say conceals serious methodological problems. The requirement would be one of the most far-reaching regulatory actions taken by any education secretary, because it would affect the official No Child Left Behind (NCLB) statistics issued by all 50 states and each of the nation's 14,000 public high schools.

Spellings said that action would be taken in the "coming weeks" and that the graduation rate data would be publicly available so that people can compare how students of every race, background, and income level are performing. After the proposed rules are published in the Federal Register in late April, Ms. Spellings expects that they will become final by the beginning of the 2008-09 school year. View the press release.

Other NCLB News: In December, Ms. Spellings said she would approve all qualifying states’ plans to determine schools’ and districts’ accountability status based on the growth in students’ test scores. In March, she said she would approve as many as 10 states’ plans to differentiate the consequences schools face under the law, depending on how far the schools are from meeting their AYP goals. For more information on these changes and their impact on Rhode Island schools, please contact Elaine Budish at Rhode Island KIDS COUNT at ebudish@rikidscount.org.

Snapshot of Rhode Island High Schools
In an effort to provide more information about how high school students fare in a particular state, the Alliance for Excellent Education has created state reference cards for all fifty states and the District of Columbia that provide statistical snapshots of high schools in each state, including data on graduation rates, college readiness, academic achievement, and teachers' salaries. Where applicable, statewide numbers are compared to the national average and include national rankings. View the snapshot of Rhode Island.

Pryor-Kennedy Amendment Passed by U.S. Senate
March 13, 2008 - The Senate agreed to an amendment to the Congressional budget resolution by Senators Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) that would create a reserve fund to improve middle and high schools and help prevent dropouts. The amendment passed by unanimous consent.

Challenging Common Myths About Young English Language Learners
February 29, 2008 - This new FCD Policy Brief by Linda Espinosa challenges six commonly held beliefs about the development of young children who are learning English as their second language. It presents research from a variety of disciplines that can shape better informed education policies for all children.

New National Resource: "National Dashboard" Maps States’ Progress in Education
This new tool is a new tool on that contains data on graduation rates, achievement gaps, student achievement in reading and math, the number of schools in a state making Adequate Yearly Progress, the percentage of a state’s teachers who are "highly qualified," and the number of students who are eligible for and are taking advantage of tutoring and choice options for the nation as a whole and state by state.

 Results of Immigrant Student Adaptation Study Released
 Recently published results from the Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Study show that how well students learn English is very 
 strongly correlated with the quality of schools they attend. A school’s percentage of students who scored as proficient or above on the 
 state’s English-language-arts test and the school’s average-daily-attendance rate were highly predictive of whether immigrant students
 learned English. The study also looks at other factors influencing the academic success of English Language Learners.

New Report on the Reading Literacy of U.S. Fourth-Grade Students in an International Context
A new report, The Reading Literacy of U.S. Fourth-Grade Students in an International Context Results From the 2001 and 2006 Progress in International Reading, summarizes the performance of U.S. fourth-grade students on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2006 assessment, comparing their scores with their peers internationally. On average, U.S. fourth-graders scored higher than their peers worldwide, with average scores higher than the PIRLS scale average (540 vs. 500), and a greater percentage of U.S. students reaching each achievement benchmark compared to the international median percentage

To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence
November 20, 2007 - According to this new report from the National Endowment for the Arts, there is a correlation between reading proficiency and time spent reading. Although reading scores among elementary school students are improving, scores are flat among middle school students and slightly declining among high school seniors. These trends are concurrent with a falloff in daily pleasure reading among yong people as they progress from elementary to high school, a drop that continues once they enter college. The also report notes that youth who read daily for fun performed better on reading assesments. Read the article, Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline in Time Spent Reading, in The New York Times, the PDFs of the full report and the executive summary.

Competitiveness’ Bill to Aid Math, Science Is Signed by President
August 9, 2007 - The President Bush signed into law a bill that seeks to bolster mathematics and science education through improved teacher recruitment and training and the promotion of successful classroom practices through federal grants for schools. The bipartisan legislation, which the House approved by a 367-57 vote and the Senate passed unanimously, had the backing of numerous business and education organizations.

New Brookings Report: Balance Federal Budget Through Investments in Children
August 6, 2007 - Spending $94 billion to deliver high-quality early childhood education for the nation's 3- and 4-year-olds and spending $39 billion on three other childhood initiatives over a 5-year period is one component of a strategy  for balancing the federal budget in Cost-Effective Investments in Children prescribed by The Brookings Institution, as part of the Brookings Budget Options Series.

Digest of Education Statistics 2006
July 26, 2007 The Digest of Education Statistics provides a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school. The Digest contains data on a variety of topics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, and federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons.

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2007
July 13, 2007 - The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics' annual report presents background data and highlights 38 key indicators of children's well-being using the latest available data, including children's family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health.

U.S. Supreme Court Rules on Race-Conscious Policies
June 28, 2007—In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against two districts' plans that used race as a factor in assigning K-12 students to schools but allowed for some consideration of race in admissions. The court said integration plans in the Seattle, WA and Jefferson County, KY districts violated the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Department of Labor Data Show that the Percentage of Teens Working During Summers is Declining
According to an article in USA Today based on data from the U.S. Department of Labor most U.S. teenagers were not working or looking for work at the beginning of the summer for the first time on record. While the percentage of teens working during the summer is declining, the percentage of teens going to summer school is increasing;.

Central Falls School District Prohibits Controversial Disciplinary Practice
May 8, 2007 - Central Falls becomes the first school district in Rhode Island prohibit the use of out-of-school suspensions for attendance-related infractions. Using out-of-school suspensions to discipline students who skip school, class or detention or who have tardiness problems is recognized by education experts as an unproductive strategy for increasing attendance and student connection to school. For more information on attendance-related suspensions in Rhode Island school districts, see the Data Sheet prepared by Rhode Island KIDS COUNT.

New Report Comparing State Dropout Rates for Public School Students
A new report released by the National Center for Education Statistics summarizes and compares event dropout rates for public high school students, by state, for 2002-03 and 2003-04. Event dropout rates included in the report measure the percent of 9th- through 12th-grade students who drop out over the course of a school year. Among reporting states in 2003-04, the rates ranged from a low of 1.8 percent in Connecticut and New Jersey to a high of 7.9 percent in Louisiana. In 2003-2004, Rhode Island had an event dropout rate of 3.4 percent. Download, view and print the publication as a PDF file.

New Study: The Costs and Benefits of an Excellent Education for All of America’s Children
U.S. taxpayers could reap $45 billion if the nation were to cut one year’s worth of high school dropouts in half, according to a new study conducted by a group of the nation’s leading researchers in education and economics. According to the study, it would take an overall investment of $82,000 per student for educational interventions and additional years of school attendance leading to graduation, but that amount would result in a public benefit of $209,000 in higher government revenues and lower government spending.

The High School Dropout Prevention Act of 2007
On May 2, 2007, the Rhode Island House of Representatives passed the High School Dropout Prevention Act of 2007. This bill includes requirements for more data collection and use, support and interventions for schools with high dropout rates, exit procedures and a dual high school and college enrollment program. With sustained support, this bill will be a useful tool in Rhode Island’s dropout-prevention toolbox.

Working towards Equity and Adequacy in
Funding Education for Rhode Island’s Children
April 2007—Elizabeth Burke Bryant, Executive Director of Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, was appointed as chair of the Rhode Island Foundation Aid Technical Advisory Group to the Joint Committee to Establish a Permanent Education Foundation Aid Formula for Rhode Island. The task of the Technical Advisory Group is to do a preliminary evaluation of the funding formula and implementation options that have been proposed to the Joint Committee. The Group will present their findings to the Joint Committee on May 15, 2007.

Children in Immigrant Families Surprisingly Rooted in America
Three Out of Four Speak English Fluently
April 2007 -  A new research brief by Child Trends and the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis of the University at Albany, State University of New York, reveals that nearly one-half of children in immigrant families speak English fluently and another language at home. At the same time, many young children in immigrant families would benefit from quality early education programs to further their integration into American society.

Funding for Children’s Services Will Continue at Current Levels
December 2006 - Congress was unable to reach consensus on FY 2007 funding for discretionary programs including child care, Head Start, child abused prevention, education, juvenile justice and housing. In order to avoid a government shutdown, Congress passed another stop gap spending measure to keep government operations running until February 15th. Incoming Appropriations Committee Chairmen, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Rep. David Obey (D-WI) announced in a press release their intentions to extend the continuing resolution until the end of FY 2007, possibly keeping children’s funding frozen for the reminder of the year.

In 2006, Rhode Island had an overall high school graduation rate of 85%
November 30, 2006 -The Issue Brief, Improving High School Graduation Rates in Rhode Island, was released at a policy roundtable. The Issue Brief highlights the critical importance of a high school diploma for individual and community success. Graduation rates and dropout rates for each of Rhode Island's school districts, charter schools and state operated schools are reported in the brief. Download the press release.

The statewide graduation rate in 2006 was 85%, meaning that 15% of Rhode Island students who should have graduated in 2006 dropped out between 9th and 12th grade. The Issue Brief also highlights critical dropout prevention strategies and offers a set of evidence-based recommendations.

New Report Finds High School Graduates Unprepared for the Working World
A recent report based on a large human resources survey finds that over 40 percent of recent high school graduates are not sufficiently prepared for jobs after high school. The report reveals frustration among employers at the lack of preparedness of all new workforce entrants—both high school graduates and two- and four-year college graduates.

New Report Highlights Strategies to Improve Young Children’s Chances for School Success
The National Center for Children in Poverty’s new report, Effective Preschool Curricula and Teaching Strategies, identifies ways to strengthen preschool in order to close the persistent achievement gap separating low-income children from their more affluent peers.

America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2006
The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics released its annual report, America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being. The report is an annual indicators report that details the status of children and families in the United States.

Reforms That Could Help Narrow the Achievement Gap 
This Policy Perspectives paper from West Ed, identifies issues which must be addressed in addition to school reforms, in order to help narrow the achievement gap between children in low income and middle/high income families. The paper focuses on the need for investments in early childhood education, health care, housing, after-school and summer programs, and other social and economic supports.

Diplomas Count: An Essential Guide to Graduation Policy and Rates
Education Week's first annual report provides detailed data on graduation rates across the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and in the nation’s 50 largest school districts.

Release of the Issue Brief, Preventing Childhood Obesity Issue Brief
1 in 5 children entering kindergarten were obese according to the Preventing Childhood Obesity in Rhode Island Issue Brief . Read the press release for more information.

School Readiness: Closing Racial and Ethnic Gaps, Policymakers and Practitioners Conference Materials Available Online
The materials from the conference at the Brown University Faculty Club entitled School Readiness: Closing Racial and Ethnic Gaps are available online.