PROVIDENCE, R. I. -- State Board of Education Chairwoman Eva Marie Mancuso said she is willing to discuss the NECAP but not until students have an opportunity to retake the test next month.
Students must score partially proficient on the NECAP to graduate, although they have more than one opportunity to take the test and they have to show only modest improvement to graduate. Some 4,000 students did not reach that bar last fall.
Mancuso defended discussing the NECAP in executive session because she said it pertained to a lawsuit filed by the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. The suit asked the board to re-open public debate on the test.
"We were discussing our response to a lawsuit," she aid. "We weren't discussing the NECAP or whether it was the right test. Steve Brown should know better."
"I'm not going to get involved in a side show with 16-year-olds," she said, referring to a student who wanted to speak who had not signed up to do so. "I'm starting to see Steve Brown the same way -- as a side show."
"The question is, do we lower the standards or do we have kids career and college ready?" Mancuso said. "Because people weren't sucessful in 2008 and 2010 and 2011, it's all the same issues."
Mancuso said, "It's in place. Let's hold our ground. Let the process play out and the let's look at the results."