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User's Guide Home 
Introduction
How Do We Improve the Very Process of
School Reform?
Probably the most frustrating aspect of
school reform is the uncertainty. What works? How do we know? If it works, do we
understand why? Why does one program appear to produce excellent results in one school,
but not in another? Were there other factors involved? What were they? How did it work?
And how do we know?
To Succeed in the Information Age, Schools Need Better
Information About Themselves
To educate
life-long learners, schools must have sophisticated, helpful information about themselves
and their performance. With quantified, researched information about themselves, schools
can examine their own structures, practices, attitudes and investments. Better information
will drive better decision-making which, over time, will produce better student
performance.
The RI Department of Education is collecting three main
types of information:
• Student achievement – results from the
state tests or assessments.
• Financial data – from In$ite, a common
school financial reporting system designed by Coopers & Lybrand, and
• A variety of information under the banner of
School Accountability for Learning and Teaching (SALT). SALT includes the SALT survey,
other indicators of school environment like demographics, the SALT visit (when an external
team evaluates school practices, progress and climate) and school improvement plans.
These sources of information will offer schools,
districts and the public a level of analysis that school communities can use when crafting
strategic plans and investment initiatives. With a continuous cycle of
information-collection, review, analysis and decision-making, the entire education
community – from the classroom to the State House – will have more powerful
tools with which to transform our schools into high-performance learning centers.
We Must All Become Life-Long Learners
As we become an increasingly
data-rich society, we’ll need to learn to read and interpret charts, tables and
graphs. The visual interpretations of data within these pages pack a fairly high density
of information into forms where we can literally see some of the meanings. Comparisons are
obvious; gaps are clear. The design for Information Works includes as much contextual
information as possible to wrap around the assessment results. This larger, richer context
makes it possible to gauge a school’s accomplishments against its challenges. The
charts, tables and graphs require some patience initially, but the summary comments should
help ease you into the visuals.
This year’s Information Works offers snapshots of
the schools with two pages per school. Each school is unique, and we acknowledge that two
pages of graphs and charts can not possibly convey the distinctive blend of resources and
people that occupy a given school building. Thus, Information Works includes a careful
selection of only the most fundamental, pertinent and uniformly reportable information.
Behind the snapshots lies a wealth of additional information about individual schools. In
the spring of 1998 and every subsequent year, schools will have much more information
which communities can study to inform decisions for the next year.
Resist Jumping to Conclusions
Please
remember that this data will only become fully meaningful over time, as trends develop. A
school in the throes of improvement is succeeding even if their students’ achievement
is seemingly low compared to that of other schools or communities. The goal is for 100% of
RI’s children to reach proficiency. To help all children reach the standards, some
schools and some districts will need more support than others. We will know much more
about our schools and their challenges as assessment, demographic, financial and effective
practice trend data develops.
Also, bear in mind that a single year’s worth of
data is somewhat suspect because of the vagaries of random groups of children. A certain
year’s test-takers could be unusually high-performing or, conversely, uninspired.
Information Works Begins an Evolutionary
Process
This report
was developed quickly, but a variety of stakeholders – parents, teachers,
superintendents, principals and union leadership – were invited to review it and
comment. While outright errors have been corrected, most of the refinements suggested
during the review process will be considered in the course of the coming year as
Information Works continues its development for the 1999 report.
Rhode Island’s information agenda is ambitious and
pioneering. We will work together in the coming months and years to hone and perfect this
craft.
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