News & Commentary

A number of community and advocacy organizations are calling on the Council of Elementary and Secondary Education to promptly overturn guidance issued by Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist that advises school districts they can use the PARCC exam as a high-stakes test graduation requirement as early as 2017, three years before the 2020 starting date the Council had originally proposed.

The ACLU of Rhode Island and the RI Disability Law Center today issued the following statements in response to a settlement agreement issuing a diploma to Barrington resident Molly Coffey: "The ACLU is very pleased that Molly has finally been given the diploma she rightfully earned. We commend the Coffey family for refusing to take 'no' for an answer. Thanks to their fight, thousands of students will be spared the stress, anxiety and unfairness of a high stakes testing regime," Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island said. Anne Mulready, supervising attorney at the RI Disability Law Center, said: "Students with disabilities face many obstacles in getting the public education that they deserve and that the law entitles them to. Molly's perseverance in seeking fair treatment from the school department and the state is an inspiring lesson for us all."

Saying that the situation created “a troubling impression of retaliatory motivation,” the ACLU of Rhode Island and the R.I. Disability Law Center have called on the Barrington School Committee to issue a high school diploma to Molly Coffey, the Barrington High School senior whose plight led to the General Assembly’s passage of a law establishing a moratorium on the state’s “high stakes testing” requirement for graduation.

As the result of a ruling issued earlier this year by Commissioner Deborah Gist, the R.I. Department of Education is on the verge next week of undermining 150 years of precedent that guarantee the availability of a free public education in the state. That is the essence of an alert that the ACLU of Rhode Island and Mental Health Association of Rhode Island sent out to groups that advocate for the rights of students and their families.

Six organizations that have fought to end the use of high stakes testing in Rhode Island today commended lawmakers on the significant impact of a new law imposing a three-year delay on the use of such testing as a graduation requirement. The organizations’ response was prompted by recent comments from some Rhode Island Board of Education officials who suggested the moratorium was unnecessary.

Nine organizations that pushed for the new law imposing a three-year moratorium on “high stakes testing” as a condition of high school graduation have sent an “urgent request” to state Department of Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, calling on her to ensure that the law is being implemented by school departments.

ACLU of Rhode Island executive director Steven Brown has issued the following statement in response to the Senate’s passage of legislation imposing a three-year moratorium on the use of high stakes testing requirements as a condition of high school graduation: “The ACLU is grateful for the Senate’s action today. Legislative intervention has become necessary because the state Board of Education has repeatedly refused to grapple with the valid criticisms that have been raised about its increasingly untenable high stakes test requirement. In fact, only two days ago, the Board once again rejected calls for public discussion of the issue. “The futures of too many high school seniors are hanging in the balance on the basis of a completely arbitrary high stakes testing requirement and a just as arbitrary waiver process. We are hopeful that the House will now follow the Senate’s lead and take prompt action so that the anxiety and uncertainty plaguing all these students are put to rest.” According to statistics released Monday by the Department of Education, with only a month to go before graduation, more than a quarter of all students with disabilities, more than a quarter of all English Language Learners, and almost one-sixth of all black and Hispanic seniors are at risk of not graduating as a result of the new diploma policy.

The ACLU of Rhode Island applauded the Senate Education Committee’s vote today to approve a bill imposing a three-year moratorium on the use of high stakes testing for high school students.