Woonsocket
Woonsocket's 44% Absenteeism: The Highest Rate Among Rhode Island's Large Districts
Superintendent Patrick McGee has been blunt about the numbers. Woonsocket has two attendance officers for 5,300 students. In a city where chronic absenteeism runs at 44.13% (nearly double the state av...
Woonsocket Lost a Decade of Progress in Three Years
Woonsocket spent ten years building something. From 2010 to 2019, the district's four-year graduation rate climbed from 63.2 percent to 74.2 percent, an 11-point improvement won through new alternativ...
The 16-Point Divide: Urban Rhode Island's Chronic Absenteeism Is Double the Suburbs
In the suburban Rhode Island district of Barrington, 7.64% of students were chronically absent in the 2023-24 school year. Thirty miles north in Woonsocket, the figure was 44.13%.
Providence Hits Its Highest Graduation Rate Under State Intervention
Five years after the state of Rhode Island took control of Providence Public Schools, the district is posting its best graduation numbers on record.
Providence's 20-Point Turnaround: From 57% to 36% Chronic Absenteeism in Two Years
In the 2021-22 school year, more than half of Providence Public Schools students were chronically absent. The rate — 57.06% — meant that the majority of students in Rhode Island's capital city were mi...
Rhode Island's Graduation Rate Has Been Stuck at 84% for Seven Years
The rapid-improvement era felt inevitable while it lasted. Rhode Island's four-year graduation rate climbed from 75.8 percent in 2010 to 84.1 percent in 2017 — eight points in seven years, powered by ...
Middle School Is Stuck: 7.3 Points Above Pre-COVID, Slowest Recovery of Any Grade Band
Rhode Island's elementary schools are bouncing back. Its high schools, despite stubbornly high rates, have made meaningful progress. But middle school is stuck.
Four Gateway Cities, Four Different Trajectories: Providence Recovers While Pawtucket Stalls
In the 2021-22 school year, Rhode Island's four gateway cities all crossed the same grim threshold. Providence: 57%. Woonsocket: 52%. Central Falls: 48%. Pawtucket: 39%. More than one in three student...