Two Tiverton Middle School students are being celebrated for what is a nearly unheard of accomplishment in the world of standardized testing — each received a perfect score on their most recent English Language Arts (ELA) RICAS tests last year. 

For seventh graders Abby Gilfillen and Luca Palumbo, the unexpected news came via U.S. mail to their homes last fall. Abby, who described herself as stronger in math than English through the years, said she was shocked when she saw the results, but she also assumed a perfect score was fairly common.

Luca, who says he is “definitely an English person,” responded in a low-key manner when he looked over his test results.

“My parents pointed out that it was a perfect score and to be honest, I didn’t really have that much of a reaction. I was like, ‘Oh, cool,’ and I thought that was the end of it.”

Administrators, staff, and school leaders, on the other hand, were elated with what they say are the two students’ remarkable – and extremely rare – perfect scores.

Katie Barrett, District Data Manager for the school district, said while she has not received final confirmation from the RI Dept. of Education, her best estimate is that of the 9,726 students in the state who took the Grade 6 ELA RICAS last year, only about 45 – including Abby and Luca -- achieved a perfect score of 560. That's a little over half of one percent.

Principal Andy Zitoli pointed to the subjective nature of the ELA tests when discussing Abby and Luca’s results. While the tests include multiple choice and true/false answers, students are also required to answer some questions in an essay format with multiple paragraphs.    

“They are looking for well-written responses. It would seem so easy to take a point off, if the student missed something. For that not to happen means they [test-scorers] are saying it is perfect. These two really dug in with their answers, and they came up with really thoughtful responses.”

Both students credited former and current teachers for their success, and both used nearly identical language on one point — if you don’t like the teacher, you are not going to enjoy the subject, and you will not be motivated to do your best. That was not the case, they said, with the teachers who most inspired them.

The school’s ELA coordinator, Shelly Nogueira, said the district’s middle schoolers have benefited from several new initiatives in recent years, particularly an increased emphasis on the craft of writing in all subjects, which gives them opportunities to write throughout each school day.

“Our ELA curriculum, along with districtwide professional development, and the support of our amazing faculty reinforcing the importance of writing across all subject areas have contributed to the success we are seeing. We are proud of our students and happy they are being recognized for their accomplishments.”

The RICAS – an acronym for Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System – are given in math and ELA each spring to students throughout the state in grades 3-8, with results typically released in October.