• Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System (RICAS)

     

    Rhode Island transitioned to the Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System (RICAS) during the 2017-2018 school year. The move to update assessments comes as Rhode Island drafted its State Plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the federal education law that replaced No Child Left Behind, and implements a comprehensive strategy for education as delineated in legislation passed last year.

     

    For students in grades 3 through 8, the state will use the “RICAS,” a Rhode Island administration of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS).  The transition will affect only the state assessment tools. Teachers will not have to change their approach to classroom instruction as grade-level expectations will stay the same.

     

    RICAS will be administered using the same online test platform as the PARCC. Some of the test questions on the RICAS were developed by PARCC, and remaining questions were developed by the state of Massachusetts. Utilizing the Massachusetts assessment will provide Rhode Island with transparent, easily transferable data for educators to better understand what is working and what needs improvement.

     

    For more information, please visit RICAS at RIDE and/or the RICAS Resource Center.