Newport This Week

Rogers Graduation Rates Drop 10 Points



The graduation rate for Rogers High in 2020 dropped by 10 points to 65 percent, the lowest in Rhode Island, but a deeper look into the numbers presents a more complex, nuanced view beyond just one statistic. Supt. Colleen Burns Jermain said the number is “not pretty,” writing in a June 3 letter to the School Committee, adding, “We have a lot of work to do.”

The first complication to consider is that the 65 percent figure refers not only to Rogers’ students but to all those the state counts as Newport students. The state, which compiles these figures, said Newport had 177 fourth year students in 2020 but only 154 of these attended Rogers.

Of Newport’s overall number, 115 of the 177 graduated on time. At Rogers, 114 of its senior class, 74 percent, received their diplomas this spring. Only one young Newporter who was counted in the district’s statistics but did not go to Rogers graduated with his or her class.

Many of the 23 credited by the state to Newport, but not at Rogers, are ODPs, or Out-of-District

Placements, either sent for behavioral or academic reasons to other institutions or whose family enrolled them elsewhere to enter academic programs unavailable at Rogers.

Thus, 62 of all of Newport’s senior class did not graduate this spring with their peers. Twenty five were “retained,” meaning the district had plans for them to get the necessary credits. The district believes the effects of distance learning exacerbated these students’ learning difficulties as the 2020 number doubled the previous year’s number of 10.

Another eight were “Exits-Unknown.” These are non-graduates about whom the district has no information regarding where they are and if they are in some academic institution working towards a degree.

The number of dropouts from the 2020 class is 25. Eight of the dropouts had just come to the United States when they enrolled at Rogers. “Some are illiterate in their own language,” said Assistant Principal Michael Monahan, and have significant learning challenges. For others, “There are priorities that come before school for some of our students,” Rogers Principal Vance said, pointing out that students drop out to work.

An unknown number of the retained students fall into a confusing category. They have fulfilled their academic requirements but cannot receive a diploma or be counted as graduates because they are still in their “individual education plan” programs.

Often, to exit the program, they must learn life skills, such as cooking and housekeeping, so they can live on their own. These students can continue in the program until they are 22. Rogers High is small enough that a few IEP students who remain as non-graduates can greatly affect its numbers.

“We’re penalized for doing the right thing,” committee member Sandra Flowers said. Her colleague, Stephanie Winslow, said it is unfair to judge districts by their four-year graduation rates.

Certainly, the pandemic affected the graduation rate, not just for Newport students but, as numerous reports have attested, nationally. The pandemic struck rapidly in the late winter of 2020, forcing the district to scramble to go to all distancing learning, with just the few days left of spring vacation to prepare.

One striking example of how COVID-19 affected the 2020 graduation rate is that the district had arranged for some students who were a few credits short of receiving a diploma to spend the summer aboard the Oliver Hazard Perry, where they would have taken science, mathematics and social studies courses, gaining the credits needed to graduate. But the program had to be cancelled.

The 2021 graduation numbers will not be available until October. But Vance believes they will be better as the district has expanded special programs to help at-risk students. Further, the district had the experience of the last school months of 2020 to build on, and the summer, to prepare for this latest school year.

“Poverty does play into this,” Jermain said. Twenty-five of Rogers’ non-graduates were eligible for either free or reduced rate lunches. School Committee member Rebecca Bolan believes there are students who could qualify for these programs whose families do not apply for them.

Jermain said an important way to increase graduation rates is to improve teaching foundational skills in elementary school. “We have a lot of work to do with our literacy,” she said.

“This is a black eye for the Newport Public Schools and Rogers High School,” committee member Bob Leary said. “This is a mess.”

He recommended putting the district’s employees, starting with the administrators, on performance based contracts.

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