User's Guide
The quality of the data this year (school year 1997-98) was much improved over last year’s. The work involved in “cleaning” the data, which is to say tracking down inconsistencies and inaccuracies, was significantly reduced. It was by no means perfect, however, and the process of verifying the data was still lengthy. Still, last year’s publication of the information did inspire greater accuracy.
RIDE is further refining its procedures to ease the work of data-collection.
When Data is Statistically Unreliable When the number of test-takers drops below 10, the results are considered statistically unreliable and are not reported. Also, very small numbers make it possible to identify or to invite guessing as to the achievement results of individual children. Information Works! is about the functioning of schools and districts not about individual children. Therefore, in Field #4, which shows “gaps” with disaggregated data, any group with certain characteristics consisting of less than 10 children — scoring high, low or indifferent — was dropped. This year symbols indicate when there were too few test-takers in that category to report or if no test-takers achieved proficiency. Very small classes of test-takers such as those in New Shoreham and the RI School for the Deaf also require leaving a number of fields empty.
Return to Top || Return to the User's Guide Home Page ||
Return to Information Works Home Page