News & Commentary

A coalition of 17 organizations representing youth, parents, the disability community, civil rights activists, college access organizations and other constituencies have filed a formal petition with the state Board of Education to initiate a public rule-making process over a proposal to rescind Rhode Island’s controversial new high-stakes testing graduation requirement.

The ACLU of Rhode Island issued a report today, analyzing eight years of data, showing that in all school districts across Rhode Island, black and Hispanic students are suspended at rates substantially higher than their representation in the student population, while white students are suspended much less often than their representation predicts. Worse, the disproportionate suspensions are often for minor behavioral infractions and begin in elementary school. The ACLU’s examination of school discipline data collected by the Rhode Island Department of Education between 2004 and 2012 also concluded that suspensions are routinely overused as punishment against students statewide.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has joined two dozen community organizations in asking the Rhode Island Board of Education to rescind the regulation that conditions the receipt of a high school diploma on passing a "high stakes test."  Although the groups have diverse reasons for opposing the measure, they all agree that the mandate is poor policy and will likely have devastating effects for thousands of students who deserve a diploma.

The ACLU is troubled by the actions taken by Warwick school officials against students for tweets they sent to RIDE Commissioner Deborah Gist in response to the controversy surrounding RIDE’s high stakes testing requirement. Without in any way condoning the immature nature of some of the tweets, we believe Warwick school officials have intervened in this controversy in a manner much greater than is appropriate.

The websites of PBS Kids and National Stop Bullying Day, a video clip of the Nutcracker ballet, a website on global warming, and a popular book reading recommendation site are among the many online sites that students and teachers have been unable to access at public schools in Rhode Island due to the use of so-called Internet filtering software.

The ACLU today joined with other education and civil rights advocates, parents and a former employee of Rhode Island Department of Education’s (RIDE) testing office to call attention to the dangerously low NECAP scores released by the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) earlier this month. The statewide scores for the NECAP, a test that this year will become the determining factor for high school graduation for the class of 2014 and those to follow, showed 4,200, or two in five, Rhode Island 11th graders, are in jeopardy of not graduating from high school next year. These numbers include almost two in five students in the middle-class community of Warwick, providing evidence of the detrimental impact this poor public policy will have on all Rhode Island communities whether upper, middle or lower income.

The RI ACLU testified yesterday before the House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare in opposition to a bill allowing school districts to charge students for participating in extracurricular activities.  The ACLU agrees with the the R.I. Commissioner of Education, who has consistently found "pay-to-play" to infringe upon the guarentee of a free public education, even when fee waivers are made available.  Read our written testimony for more information.

The R.I. Supreme Court today dismissed as moot a lawsuit the ACLU filed in 2010, challenging various Truancy Court practices. In doing so, the Court acknowledged many of the constitutional claims the ACLU had raised, but ruled they were obviated when Family Court Chief Haiganush Bedrosian, after the suit was filed, issued an administrative order establishing various new rules for truancy court proceedings.

Dozens of parents, students, educators and community groups, including the ACLU, attended a meeting of the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education yesterday to call for an end to the Board’s “high stakes testing” graduation requirement, scheduled to first affect the Class of 2014. Speakers pointed out the devastating impact the requirement would have on disadvantaged populations – including students with disabilities, racial minorities, the poor, and English Language Learners – by denying them diplomas on the basis of a standardized test that was never designed for that purpose. In addition, groups pointed out that neither the standardized test being used now, nor the one scheduled to be used beginning in 2015, is an appropriate test to determine a student’s qualifications for a diploma.