Special Education Overhaul Improves North Kingstown Teachers' Ratings

Last year North Kingstown High School had the lowest percentage of “highly qualified” teachers among all public, non-charter high schools in Rhode Island, according to data from the Rhode Island Department of Education.

Davisville Middle School had an even lower percentage, ranking it dead last among the state’s public middle schools.

This year, both schools have shot up the rankings, according to Sherri-Lynn Briggs, the data manager for the district.

Now, 98.2 percent of teachers at DMS and 98.5 percent of teachers at NKHS are “highly qualified,” according to data provided by Briggs.

Just last year, less than 80 percent of teachers at each school were classified as “highly qualified.”

The reason for the dramatic improvement – a recent overhaul of the special education program that places special education students in standard classes, said Dr. Phil Thornton, superintendent of North Kingstown schools.

“All the kids take the same test,” Thornton said. “In past years, [special education students] were given different curriculum.  Now, they are given the same curriculum.”

The No Child Left Behind Act introduced the term “highly qualified” in 2001.  Each state was allowed to define its own criteria.

Rhode Island requires teachers to hold a bachelor’s degree, be certified to teach in Rhode Island and demonstrate competency in the classes they teach, often through a major in college.

It was the third requirement that previously proved sticky.

Last year, special education teachers taught their students in standard subjects, separate from the rest of the school. While these teachers were certified to teach special education, they counted against the schools’ total of highly qualified teachers because they were not certified to teach each individual subject. This went against the demonstrated competency requirement.

Now, special education teachers team-teach with general classroom teachers.  Special education students have been integrated into classes with their peers and are helped along by the special education teachers, but the classroom teacher is the teacher of record. This makes it so special education teachers don’t have to meet competency requirements in standard subjects.

“An English teacher might assign a term paper, and what the special ed teacher will do is break it down into pieces,” Thornton said.

Although data released by the state at the end of May still lists NKHS as having one of the lowest percentages of highly qualified teachers, Elliot Krieger, a spokesman for RIDE, said the data might have inaccuracies and is still preliminary. Briggs said the school hadn’t submitted updated numbers yet.