Brian Fernandes remembers reading the same passages over and over as a child and feeling lost. He could say the words correctly but had no idea what he was reading. The moment when reading finally clicked – when one sentence flowed into the next with complete comprehension – stays with him to this day.
“I literally remember as a kid having that light bulb go on for me, and I can actually visualize it and feel it sometimes,” Fernandes said. The experience continues to motivate him, even after 30 years as a reading specialist in Barrington.
One thing hasn’t changed in those three decades, however. Many children are struggling to learn to read proficiently in Rhode Island.
Indeed, more than half of the state’s public school students aren’t meeting reading proficiency standards, according to the Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System English Language Arts assessment.
In the 2024-2025 school year – the most recently available RICAS results – only 33.7% of Rhode Island third through eighth graders met or exceeded reading expectations, meaning nearly 2 out of 3 students statewide fell short of proficiency.
In recent years, the state has focused efforts on boosting proficiency, including passing legislation such as the Rhode Island Right to Read Act in 2019, requiring public school educators to exhibit either competence in or awareness of the science of reading and structured literacy.
Today, 95% of public school educators have completed their training, and a curriculum that meets statewide academic standards has been purchased for each grade, said Angélica Infante-Green, the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education. She expects these two steps will create a cohesive statewide foundation for improving reading proficiency.
Still, the social and economic challenges students face outside of the classroom remain closely tied to their reading abilities. Rhode Island’s systemic housing shortage, rising cost of living and mental health issues can make it harder for students to focus on and prioritize learning, potentially compounding the literacy challenges they face.
Proficient rates tend to be lower in urban core communities. In Providence, only 24% of 3rd graders hit the proficiency mark, while 16% of eighth graders did so, according to RICAS results.
Javier Montañez, Providence schools superintendent, understands the circumstances of why that is.
“How can I focus on learning when my focus is ‘My stomach is rumbling and I’m hungry?’ My focus is ‘Where am I going to put my head down to sleep the next day or tonight?’ So, my focus is on living versus ‘I’m trying to educate myself,’ ” Montañez said.
Despite low proficiency rates, Rhode Island did outperform, albeit slightly, the average scores on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, with 33% of fourth graders and 31% of eighth graders meeting or exceeding reading proficiency, compared with 30% and 29%, respectively, nationally.
Infante-Green noted that Rhode Island’s fourth-grade average reading score of 216 out of 500 in the NAEP placed the state 14th in the nation, up from 21st in 2022. Meanwhile, the eighth-grade score of 258 ranked Rhode Island 25th in 2024, up from 34th in 2019.
“We’re making a lot of progress in Rhode Island,” Infante-Green said.
Rankings aside, Rhode Island’s reading scores edged down between 2019 and 2024, NAEP results showed.
And the wide gap in proficiency rates between affluent suburbs and lower-income urban ring communities remains persistent. For example, 79% of Jamestown third graders met or exceeded RICAS reading expectations in 2024, compared with just 8% in Central Falls.
With the state categorizing 54% of public school students economically disadvantaged, Montañez said parents can often be too busy working extra jobs to spend time to read to them, one of the most important activities to support their children’s future literacy.
“It’s not that parents don’t want to do it; sometimes they can’t do it,” he said.
For example, a 2018 longitudinal study performed by the University of Chicago found early parent-child book reading was associated with stronger elementary school language and literacy outcomes, as well as greater motivation to read for enjoyment later in childhood.
With some students receiving more support at home than others, children enter the state’s public schools with varying levels of literacy preparedness. This initial discrepancy can be further compounded by mental health struggles.
To tailor teaching to the needs of Providence’s diverse student population, the school district has deployed 17 coaches to provide professional development for teachers and 54 interventionists to support both students and teachers, adapting instruction and curriculum throughout the district’s schools, Montañez said.
That support will be crucial as the city aims to increase the percentage of third graders scoring proficient on the RICAS-English Language Arts assessment from 24% in June 2025 to 50% by June 2030, and eighth graders from 15.9% to 25%.