Rhode Island Proficiency Framework

The Framework for Proficiency-Based Learning is designed to help schools create efficient and effective systems that will ensure all students graduate prepared to succeed in the college, careers, and communities of the 21st century. For this reason, our model is focused on prioritizing and assessing the most critically important knowledge and skills, while also balancing high academic standards with the need for flexibility, responsiveness, and creativity in the classroom.

For proficiency-based learning to be effective, schools and teachers have to prioritize. They will need to determine what knowledge and skills students absolutely need to acquire before they graduate from high school, what content knowledge students need to learn in each subject area, and what essential benchmarks students need to meet as they progress through their education.

Rhode Island Proficiency Framework

The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE), in collaboration with Rhode Island educators and staff from the Great Schools Partnership, has created a model Proficiency Framework, inclusive of content areas and cross-curricular graduation proficiencies.

Why are proficiency-based graduation requirements (PBGRs) so important? RIDE has the answer: 

“PBGRs are required under the [Rhode Island] Secondary School Regulations. The Secondary School Regulations, approved by the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education in 2016, require schools to have PBGRs to determine student proficiency and readiness for graduation. This means that diplomas must be issued based on demonstrated proficiency in the six core content areas of mathematics, English language arts, science, the arts, social studies, and technology. ”

For graduation proficiencies, performance indicators, and scoring criteria, please see the links below: 

Scoring Criteria

Additional Resources:

Aligned Performance Assessments: samples of performance-based assessment student and teacher tasks as well as student work for a variety of content areas and grade bands.