PORTSMOUTH — School Committee member Allen Shers said he’s lived in Portsmouth since the 1980s, and the local school system has always been considered one of the elite districts in Rhode Island.

But based on the district’s performance in the latest round of PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College) assessments, it seems Portsmouth has taken a step “backwards,” he said.

During Assistant Superintendent Thomas Kenworthy’s presentation of the latest PARCC scores to the committee Monday night, two slides projected onto a screen in the high school library were most concerning to Mr. Shers. 

Mr. Kenworthy had compared Portsmouth’s overall proficiency in English language arts (ELA) and math to several other similar K-12, non-charter schools in Rhode Island, including Barrington, East Greenwich, North Kingstown and Bristol-Warren.

In ELA, Portsmouth finished last among 10 schools with 50 percent proficiency. (Barrington led all schools with 74.5 percent.) In math, the district came in last among nine schools, with 42.7 percent proficiency. (Barrington came in first again, with 66.3 percent.)

“We used to say our school system was one of the top three,” Mr. Shers said. “Then it became four or five.”

The new test scores may be indicative of a more troubling trend, he said.

“Now when I look at that (math) graph, if I counted right, now we’re number nine,” Mr. Shers said, adding that it appears that the district is trending “backwards” in terms of assessment scores.

“As far as test results … 50 percent proficiency to me is not acceptable,” he added. “I look at these scores and I have a hard time figuring out why that’s going on.”

Overall, Portsmouth exceeded the statewide achievements in both ELA and math on the latest round of PARCC tests, but there were a few slip-ups when comparing local results in 2016 with 2015.

Only 53.6 percent of Hathaway students were rated proficient in math in 2016, compared to 67.1 percent last year — a drop of more than 13 percent. At the high school, the proficiency rate in English went from 54.8 percent in 2015 to 43.2 percent this year — a decrease of nearly 12 percent.

The fact that Portsmouth students started taking the PARCC assessment only two years ago is no excuse, said Mr. Shers. “These other schools have had the testing for only two years, too, and quite frankly their scores are better,” Mr. Shers said.

PARCC replaced the New England Collaborative Assessment Program (NECAP), which was administered in Rhode Island from 2007 to 2013 in a partnership with Vermont and New Hampshire. Test scores around the state went down with the implementation of PARCC, which is considered a more vigorous assessment.

Committee member John Wojichowski said he was also troubled by the scores. 

“We knew there was going to be this drop … and that’s true across the state. It’s a hard test, and we get that,” Mr. Wojichowski said.

However, “Barrington and East Greenwich have experienced less of a drop,” and the gap between those districts and Portsmouth has widened, he said.

What can be done?

Mr. Shers and others agreed that the school district is doing many good things and has an excellent team of teachers and administrators on board. “What we all here would like to know is, what can we do to better the situation?” he said. “If you’re not succeeding in one way, maybe you have to try another way.”

Mr. Kenworthy said one of the things he noticed when analyzing Portsmouth’s PARCC scores is that the higher-performing schools seem to be ahead of the local district when it comes to “1:1” classrooms and “blended learning,” which incorporate portable digital devices and more web-based online learning.

“All of those districts are a little further along in their 1:1 and blended learning initiatives,” he said.

Portsmouth has implemented this type of instruction at the sixth-grade level so far, with plans to gradually roll it out to other grades. Whether the district should move faster is a conversation worth having, Mr. Kenworthy said.

Participation rates

He also said getting PARCC participation rates up is key — not only to improve test scores but to give educators reliable data so they can make sound decisions on learning plans.

While participation is way up this year — nearly 90 percent overall, compared to 80 percent last year — Portsmouth still hasn’t met the state’s goal of 95 percent. In addition, all of the districts that outperformed Portsmouth in either ELA or math recorded a participation rate of at least 95 percent, he noted.

Mr. Wojichowski told the principals in the room that School Committee members would be happy to talk with parents about boosting student participation in PARCC. “If it ever helps for us to be the bad guy and yell at parents, we’d be happy to do so,” he said.