Rhode Island
Catch Massachusetts by Watching It Fall: McKee Spins Flat RICAS Scores as Progress—While Two-Thirds of Kids Still Miss the Mark
What happened
On Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, Governor Dan McKee, Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green, and the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) released the state’s 2026 assessment and accountability results. On the Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System (RICAS) for grades 3–8, math proficiency rose 0.4 percentage points to 31.8%—a fifth consecutive annual gain that still leaves roughly two in three students short of meeting expectations. English language arts (ELA) proficiency fell 0.6 points to 33.1%. RIDE and McKee framed the day as resilience: protecting progress while other states decline, and “narrowing” the long-standing gap with Massachusetts.
The gap story is the one that does not survive a second look. RIDE’s own release puts Rhode Island’s ELA proficiency at 33.1% in 2026 versus 33.7% in 2018—essentially flat over eight years. Massachusetts ELA fell from 51.0% to 40.0% over the same span, shrinking the ELA gap from 17.3 points to 6.9. In math, Rhode Island moved from 27.3% to 31.8% while Massachusetts dropped from 47.7% to 41.1%, cutting that gap from 20.4 points to 9.3. GoLocal and the Boston Globe both note the obvious: a large share of the “catch-up” is Massachusetts getting worse, not Rhode Island getting dramatically better. McKee’s 2023 goal was to meet or beat Massachusetts by 2030. He lost the Democratic primary last month; that runway is gone.
Secondary results are harsher still. On the SAT for grade 11, math proficiency ticked up 0.2 points to 23.5% while ELA dropped 3.8 points to 47.8%. Science (NGSA) rose to 31.1% from 30.8%. Chronic absenteeism kept falling—down 2.4 points year-over-year and 14.4 from the pandemic peak, with RIDE citing more than 4.4 million recovered instructional hours—and students who attend still outperform chronically absent peers by roughly 17 to 25 points. Accountability: 56% of schools earned three stars or higher; seven schools exited Comprehensive Support and Improvement status. Providence, returned to local control on June 30 after a seven-year state takeover, has far fewer students in CSI schools than before the intervention—even as the city board fights itself (Virtue Forge #50).
Infante-Green’s next ask is more state muscle: mandatory summer school for struggling students. She told reporters she has authority to require it now but does not want an unfunded mandate; RIDE is seeking summer-school money inside a $20 million FY2027 package aimed at math and literacy. The Globe notes McKee also signed a three-year charter-school moratorium (blocking new charters through at least 2029, including a planned Providence bilingual school) and legislation blocking the governor from opting Rhode Island into a federal tax-credit scholarship program. Foulkes, the Democratic nominee, has said she plans to hire a new commissioner.
Original reporting
Read the underlying sources:
RIDE — Rhode Island Assessment and Accountability Results 2026 (PDF)
Boston Globe (Dan McGowan) — R.I.–Mass. test-score gap narrows as Mass. scores fall (Oct. 9, 2026)
Virtue Forge commentary
Competence is not a press release. When fewer than one in three kids meet the state’s own math bar, and reading sits at one in three, the honest headline is failure dressed as patience. McKee set a Massachusetts yardstick, then celebrated a gap that shrank because the Commonwealth slid. That is comparison shopping, not catching up. Centralizing pride in RIDE dashboards, Learn365 branding, and community learning centers does not change the core product: too many Rhode Island children still cannot read and compute at grade level.
The policy sequel is familiar. After flat scores, the commissioner wants mandatory summer school and another multimillion-dollar package—more compulsory time and more state spending—while the same administration locked the door on new charters and on a federal scholarship pathway that would have given families exit options. Statism’s reflex is always the same: when the monopoly underperforms, lengthen the day and raise the appropriation; never open the exit. Providence’s return from a seven-year takeover into board warfare is the local mirror of the statewide story. Process theater and gap charts are not the same as kids who can do the work.
What to watch: whether the next governor keeps the Massachusetts goal with harder metrics (absolute proficiency, not gap-to-a-falling-peer); whether Foulkes, Guckian, or Block backs mandatory summer school and the $20 million ask; whether the charter moratorium and federal-scholarship block survive; and whether Providence’s post-takeover board produces results or more letters.