The Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) first recorded the school colors of Rhode Island College of Education in a 1948 list, applied to a “generic” hood lining pattern of gold with a white chevron. This was the hood lining pattern the Bureau had already assigned to Mills College in California between 1895 and 1902.

A unique hood lining assignment for Rhode Island College of Education must have come in the 1950s when blue edging was added to the white chevron of the “generic” pattern. This description first appeared in a 1972 IBAC list. The shade of blue was probably light, the Faculty color the Bureau had assigned to Education, but it may have been dark blue, the color of a ribbon in the design on the Rhode Island flag. An original academic hood from this period has not been located to confirm the exact shade.

In Academic Heraldry in America (1962) and Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970), Kevin Sheard seems to have misunderstood this lining pattern; he said that “an edging of blue overlaps the gold, one of gold overlaps the white.”