Letter to the editor

A Bold Vision For Chariho

Richmond voters have a clear choice this year for School Committee candidates. We offer a bold vision and a dynamic campaign platform of “All ‘A’ for Chariho.” Those “A’s” are Academic Excellence, Affordability, Accountability and Academic Transparency.

The first “A” in our platform is Academic Excellence for good reason. Our district’s most important product is the knowledge that it pours into the minds of our students. It is critical that this knowledge provides the strongest foundation needed for a student’s success in life. Math, reading, and writing are essential skills. As a district, we must be laser-focused on these fundamental basics and also provide our students with the ability to think critically.

The COVID shutdowns certainly had an impact on our local test scores. We must now move beyond the COVID era and set the highest metrics-based expectations for academic achievement. With close monitoring, we can identify shortfalls well before they are reflected on high-stakes testing.

We are results-oriented, out-of-the-box thinkers who value data-driven metrics. We believe in setting goals and achieving those goals. As School Committee representatives, we will foster a mindset of excellence within the Chariho District.

One out-of-the-box idea we propose is keeping fifth graders in an elementary school setting as opposed to moving students up to the middle school campus. From an academic and developmental perspective, it’s just common sense. Why are we proposing this idea? Just look at the data. Our third graders are performing fairly well in math and reading. However, when examining the RICAS data critically in math and reading from fourth to fifth grade, math scores plummet from 69% “Meeting or Exceeding Grade Level Expectations” in fourth grade, to 35.7% in fifth grade. With a 33.3% drop in math and 15% drop in reading from fourth to fifth grade, we must double down on achieving the highest level of academic excellence in these subjects. By keeping fifth graders in an elementary school setting, we can focus on making data-driven instructional decisions based on the foundational skills that are impacting comprehension. Similarly, there needs to be a diagnostic approach to determine the foundational skills and gaps in math. We welcome input from our exceptional elementary and middle school math and ELA professionals on this topic as they know best. We are committed to working as partners with our educators on the strongest path forward and invite them to email us at LouiseforChariho@gmail.com and IfKidsHadaUnion@gmail.com with feedback on this topic.