Central Falls has had 7 principals in 6 years.

22% of the kids at Central Falls are not native English speakers. The rate for the state of RI is 3%.

23% of the kids at Central Falls are special education students. The rate for the state is 17%.

85% of the kids at Central Falls are classified as economically disadvantaged. The state average is 35%.

The number of college applications by Central Falls High School seniors has tripled during the past 5 years.

Reading proficiency at Central Falls has gone up 22% in 2 years.

Writing proficiency at Central Falls has gone up 14% in 2 years.

A state audit last year praised the school for its improvements and noted “Take the time to celebrate as a learning community the accomplishments, successes and positive changes that have taken place over the past few years.”

The dropout rate for Central Falls includes students whose parents were deported after an immigration raid in New Bedford, Mass. It also includes students who transferred when the honors program at Central Falls was eliminated.

Time for a mini lesson on how dropout rates are commonly figured: The number of graduating seniors is compared to the number of freshman who started in this class 3 years earlier. So if you have 100 freshman and 80 graduate 3 years later, your dropout rate is 20%. But what happened to those 20 who didn't graduate is not taken into consideration. If they transferred to a different high school and graduated, they are still counted as dropouts at the school where they were 9th graders. And in low income areas where schools have a high transient population rate, there is almost always a high dropout rate. Surprise!

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sh...

http://www.aft.org/newspubs/press/2010/030...