User's Guide: Field
7
Various School Indicators
What you are looking at
You can see the frequency or percentage for this indicator at the school,
district and state levels. These selected indicators were assembled in compliance with
three sets of requests:
- Legislation passed in February 1996 and incorporated into
Title 16, section 60-4(21-22)
- Article 31 - the State Student Investment Initiative,
passed in July 1997 and revised in 1998 (Title 16, section 7.1)
- Rhode Island's Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary
Education and Board of Regents
High school drop-out and graduation rates are
not included at the elementary and middle level charts because they are not applicable.
What you are looking for
You are looking to get a sense of what the school feels like to its
inhabitants, its tensions, its stability, its experience, its safety, etc.
Indicator measures
and definitions
- SALT survey teacher response
rate: the percentage of the total number of eligible
teachers in this school who responded to the SALT survey
- SALT survey student response
rate: the percentage of the total number of students
in this school who responded to the SALT survey
- Student attendance: the percentage of time the average student is present during the required
180 instructional days per year
- ELA assessment participation
rate: the percentage of eligible test-takers for the
NSRE English Language Arts assessment who actually took at least some
portion of the test
Please note: Rates should always be as
near as possible to 100%, with the understanding that a handful of children (e.g., those
with specific Special Education testing requirements or long term absences) are exempt
from taking the exam for documented reasons. Schools are responsible for giving make-up
tests within a set window of time. Chronically poor student attendance is not acceptable
as an excuse for a poor participation rate. Next year, RIDE will further tighten required
participation rates since a set of alternative tests for special needs children will be
fully operational, making it possible to account for virtually every child within the
state's assessment system.
- stability:
the proportion of the total student enrollment who entered the school at
the beginning of the year and stayed through the end
- mobility:
the rate of student turnover or the percentage of students who moved into
or out of the school during the school year as compared to fall enrollments
Please note: The
stability and mobility indicators measure different phenomena and are not inverses of one
another. The mobility index measures the rate of flow through the non-stable portion of
the student body. Together, the two indicators describe the degree of turnover in the
school and its potential effect on the classroom environment.
- suspensions:
The number of suspensions received by students. These students have been
temporarily dismissed from school, received an in-school suspension or were sent to an
alternative placement. The number of suspensions is followed by the total number of
students in the building. This website has a
break-out of student suspensions by reason and disciplinary action.
- drop-out rate:
The drop-out rate is derived by subtracting the
cumulative graduation rate (see #9 below) from 100. This method of figuring rates uses a
four-year picture which takes into account key factors such as annual differences in class
size and the different grades at which students drop out. The statistic reported here is
based on the number of drop-outs reported annually by grade level for students who dropped
out between October 2 of the previous school year to October 1 of the current year.
- graduation rate:
The high school graduation rate represents the percent of the current
ninth grade class that will graduate from high school after subtracting the aggregate
current dropout rates at the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades.
Special to the school report on the web
- average class size:
The average class size is the
average of the figures reported by the core academic elementary teachers on the SALT
survey. Other teaching staff are not included because the number of students they can
teach effectively varies widely by subject -- for example, physical education classes are
generally quite large. This indicator reflects the opportunity that core academic teachers
have to provide individualized attention to students.
- span of responsibility:
The average span of responsibility refers to the number of middle and high
school students whom core academic teachers are responsible for teaching on a regular
basis. "Core" academics are math, science, language arts and social studies. The
number reported for "span of responsibility" is the average of the figures
reported by the core teachers on the SALT survey. At the elementary level, average class
size is often the same as the span of responsibility, while in secondary schools the
number will be the total number of students who receive instruction in the course of a
teacher's day.
- teacher attendance:
The teacher attendance rate reflects the percentage of time the average
full-time teacher is present within the 180 day instructional period. This number was
calculated using the number of sick days which accounted for teacher absences.
- teacher grievances:
The number of grievances filed by teachers in the building in 1997-98,
broken out by type, contrasted by the number of full-time teachers
- types of grievances
1. insufficient materials
2. too many students
3. physical environment
4. district-level administrative decisions
5. school-level administrative decisions
6. other grievances
- suspensions:
This table shows the various reasons for which students received
suspensions along with the disciplinary action taken by the school.
reasons for suspensions
1. assault
2. fighting
3. weapons
4. sale of controlled substance
5. possession of controlled substance with intent to sell
6. under the influence of a controlled substance
7. disorderly conduct
8. threat/Intimidation
9. tobacco possession or use
10. vandalism
11. larceny/theft
12. other
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