The Rhode Island Partnership seeks to build partners’ capacity to use research and data to improve students’ access to and participation in early college and postsecondary programs. Rhode Island leaders are concerned about students’ postsecondary outcomes given growing evidence that many public school students leave the system inadequately prepared for college and careers. Recent data show that there are large disparities in college enrollment outcomes across student groups. For example, in 2020, 49 percent of high school graduates experiencing economic disadvantage enrolled in college compared to 74 percent of students not experiencing economic disadvantage.1 Early college opportunities have been shown to improve students’ chances of enrolling in college.2 Rhode Island has invested heavily in early college opportunities as a way to increase college and career preparedness, although recent data show that access to these programs could be improved for some groups of students.3 In support of Rhode Island’s strategic goals, this partnership aims to increase the percentage of students earning college credits, with a particular focus on student groups with previously low early college participation rates.
The partnership brings together a range of partners invested in improving the college and career readiness of Rhode Island youth, including partners who implement and make decisions about the state’s early college and postsecondary programs. As part of its ongoing work with Rhode Island, REL Northeast & Islands is conducting a technical assistance project to help Rhode Island partners better understand the research base on direct admissions to inform their processes and policies. REL Northeast & Islands and its partners are also disseminating project and study findings to spread awareness and deepen understanding of early college and postsecondary access programs using strategies such as webinars, factsheets, infographics, briefings with invested parties, and videos.
Partner Organizations: Rhode Island Department of Education, Rhode Island School Counselor Association, Rhode Island Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner, Rhode Island School Superintendents Association
1 NESSC [New England Secondary School Consortium]. (2021). Common data project: 2021 annual report, school year 2019–2020. https://www.greatschoolspartnership.org/data-report/
2 Shields, K. A., Bailey, J., Hanita, M., & Zhang, X. (2021). The impact of accelerated college credit programs on educational attainment in Rhode Island. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/
3 Ibid.
Current projects
This project brings together key stakeholders from the state, districts, and schools to improve students’ access, participation, and success in early college programs. This project is broken into two different strands: (1) workshops on effective use of early college data, and (2) technical support on collecting and implementing data dashboard feedback. The purpose of the effective data use workshops is to introduce participants to the data inquiry cycle through which they will review available data sources and identify action steps to address barriers to access and participation in early college programs for historically marginalized groups of students. The dashboard feedback sessions aim to provide the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) with a better understanding of how different audiences are interacting with the dashboards. Subsequent training for the RIDE team will build RIDE’s capacity to use a structured process to gather and implement user feedback.
This study examines the cost per outcome for each of Rhode Island's three early college programs separately—dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, and Advanced Placement. Rhode Island K–12 and higher education leaders expressed a need for this type of information to provide an additional source of evidence as they make decisions about investments in the specific resources needed for each of the three early college programs.
Completed projects
No projects at this time.