Survey Says! Perspectives on Progress to Expand Quality Instruction in Rhode Island

What’s the best way to find out how state education initiatives are impacting students, families, and educators? Asking them! 

Earlier this year, I highlighted some compelling outcomes from the Tennessee Educator Survey, so I was excited to see Rhode Island share its own survey results recently. The Ocean State is already a leading example of data transparency when it comes to quality instructional materials – it maintains a map of the curriculum used in every district and school in the state with the corresponding EdReports rating – and this survey adds another layer of useful information.

Rhode Island SurveyWorks engages students, teachers and staff, and family members on many  topics, including instructional materials and school resources. Thousands of people responded to the most recent collection: over 79,000 students,12,000 teachers and staff, and 30,000 family members. By my estimation, that’s about 58% of students and 86% of teachers and staff statewide, and it didn’t happen by accident. State leaders provided a variety of communications strategies for districts to use in engaging families to respond. Well done, Rhode Island! 

The state also deserves praise for sharing an honest report on efforts to improve local districts’ use of quality curriculum. 

First, the positive. The majority of teachers report solid knowledge of and engagement with their materials: 

  • 86% feel they know all the content they need to teach quite or extremely thoroughly. 
  • 67% are knowledgeable about where to find resources for working with students who have unique learning needs.
  • 65% review student assessment data to make instructional decisions at least two or three times per month.
  • 56% of teachers work collaboratively to develop or modify materials or activities for differentiated instruction at least two or three times per month. 

But teachers report a lack of involvement in decision-making around selection and implementation of materials:

  • 25% of teachers say they are/were involved or very involved in their district’s selection and implementation of high-quality instructional materials. 
  • 39% believe their feedback related to the implementation of high-quality instructional materials is extremely or quite valued.
  • 52% feel extremely or quite supported by their school’s leadership as they implement new curricular materials.
  • Approximately a third believe their opportunities are relevant to the content that they teach (35%) or valuable (33%). 

As I always try to do, I’m focusing on bright spots that suggest the necessary building blocks are there to improve instruction for students and teachers in Rhode Island. 70% of teachers believe their colleagues’ ideas for improving their teaching are extremely or quite helpful, pointing to an opportunity to expand communities of practice and team time for professional development. 

The student feedback from the survey also holds promise. A majority (58%) of students find the things they learn in their classes extremely or quite interesting, which sends a positive message about both the curricular content and teachers’ delivery of it. 77% of students report that their teachers almost always or frequently take time to make sure they understand the material. And encouragingly, 77% of students think school will be extremely or quite important to them in the future. 

Sometimes we are so focused on the end goal of expanding high-quality instruction that we miss opportunities to praise states that are sharing their sometimes messy journey to figure out what works best. I look forward to watching Rhode Island build on successful efforts to tackle the challenges this survey explores.

Jocelyn Pickford is an education policy and communications specialist focusing on understanding and promoting practitioner-informed public policy across the private, public and non-profit sectors as a Senior Affiliate with HCM Strategists. She began her career in education as a high school English teacher in a regular and special education inclusion classroom and is now a public school parent and recent member of her local district school board. Previously, Jocelyn led the design, launch and implementation of the Teaching Ambassador Fellowship at the U.S. Department of Education to integrate teachers into the national education policy dialogue. Jocelyn’s passion for her work was seeded during her own public school education and took root during her classroom teaching experience in Fairfax County, Virginia, where she led action research and presented instructional materials to a variety of audiences. Jocelyn earned her bachelor’s degree from Trinity College (CT), working as a professional writer and editor prior to becoming a teacher, and obtained her master’s in secondary education from the George Washington University. Jocelyn lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and two children.