The Rhode Island Board of Regents is currently reviewing changes to the Rhode Island High School Regulations proposed by the Rhode Island Department of Education. Under the proposed regulations, the Rhode Island diploma system would change from our current system which assesses students in multiple ways to one that prioritizes a standardized test.  In our current compensatory diploma system course grades,  projects, and test scores combine to show student performance; high grades and performances on projects can compensate for low scores on the New England Common Assessments Program (NECAP). In the proposed conjunctive system, low scores on the NECAP and an inability to show adequate growth over a seven month period would result in the denial of a diploma. The proposed changes, if implemented, would impact the class of 2012. Additionally, the proposed changes would, in 2013, implement a tiered diploma system, in which performance on the NECAP , considered in conjunction with course work and performance-based measures, would determine the tier of diploma a student would receive.

Educators, school leaders, students, parents and citizens across the state have testified in unanimous opposition to the proposed changes. Key grounds for opposition are as follows:

1. The proposed changes propose to do too much, too fast. It is unfair, and in fact in direct violation of the current Rhode Island High School Regulations, to hold the class of 2012 to graduation requirements that are different than those that were in place when the students entered high school (the key change is from a compensatory system to a conjunctive system). Previous major changes implemented from RIDE, like the change to a multiple measure system five years ago, were phased in over time to allow for maximum implementation.
2. The NECAP was not designed to be a high stakes test, and to use it in this way is pedagogically unsound. No other state that uses the NECAP uses it as a high stakes test. The math portion of the NECAP is particularly inappropriate.
3. The three tiered diploma system will likely have the unintended consequence of creating a tracking system, a practice that has been proven to exacerbate inequitable practices in schools.
4. Educational research overwhelmingly supports the use of multiple measures to assess student performance. Although the proposed regulations include multiple measures, in a conjunctive system a student's diploma level, or right to a diploma, will overwhelmingly be determined by one measure only:  the NECAP test.
5. The proposed changes to the Rhode Island High School Regulations will have a disproportionate impact on students from low-income families and students of color. This will perpetuate an already inequitable public education system, and hold students accountable for the failure of a system. This is an inappropriate accountability practice.