Paul Cuffee Charter School

Paul Cuffee Charter School includes three Rhode Island schools serving kindergarten through grade 12: Paul Cuffee Lower School (K–5, 358 students), Paul Cuffee Middle School (grades 6–8, 189 students), and Paul Cuffee Upper School (grades 9–12, 243 students). The clearest overall concern is that all three schools’ latest reported all-grades results in comparable subjects are below state proficiency, although Middle School is notably closer in science.

Paul Cuffee Middle School stands out in all-grades ELA and science: its 21.6% ELA proficiency is 2.2 percentage points above Lower School’s 19.4%, and its 20.0% science result leads Upper School by 6.2 points and Lower by 7.3. Paul Cuffee Lower School leads in all-grades math, at 19.9% versus Middle’s 17.6%, though both are below the state’s 31.9%. Results within grades can differ sharply: Middle’s eighth-grade math proficiency (32.8%) exceeds the state’s 30.2%, while its seventh-grade result is 6.1% versus 27.9% statewide. Paul Cuffee Upper School offers a different bright spot: its 93.6% graduation rate is above the state’s 85.5%, despite low reported SAT and PSAT proficiency.

Recent changes are mixed: Lower’s science proficiency rose 2.9 points and math rose 2.1, while ELA fell 1.1; Middle’s ELA rose 5.2 and science 4.8, while math dipped 0.8; Upper’s science fell 4.2. SchoolDigger’s ranking percentiles improved from 8 to 20 for Lower and 22 to 34 for Middle between 2023–24 and 2025–26, while Upper rose from 30 to 37 before falling to 24. Middle has the highest student–teacher ratio (14.5) yet leads in ELA and science; Upper has the lowest (9.3). Reported free/reduced-lunch rates range from 86.31% at Lower to 90.53% at Upper, a contextual difference that does not explain results. Because the schools serve different grades and have different assessments, comparisons are most useful within matching subjects and grades.