Statewide Analysis

Table of Contents

I. Introduction: RI has taken a somewhat unique path regarding school accountability, as compared with the other 49 states
	RI’s school data is now mature, allowing us to arrive at some necessary judgments
	Furthermore, the federal government recently raised the stakes
	We believe information really does work
II. We know: Our state tests are demanding and anchored to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
	State assessment data
	Overall statewide assessment results for elementary, middle and high schools
	RI faces its performance deficits squarely
	We recommend: ‘Personalization’ - getting to know the students - will help reduce ‘no scores’
	Achievement over the past three years, by characteristics
	While elementary reading is a bright spot, over-all performance over the past three years is not heartening
	The Office of Assessment recommends
III. We believe: School Performance Categories lists provide useful images of each school’s progress toward 100% proficiency for all students
	Performance progress
	RI adds a new facet - annual judgments - to its accountability system
	The criteria that determine Improving vs. Not Improving schools and The criteria that determine performance levels
	High school performance groupings list
	For now, improvement is what really counts
	The time had come to generate annual judgments about the schools
	A whopping 58% of all RI schools were deemed ‘not improving’
	Middle school performance groupings list
	RI’s standards are high
	The Commissioner emphasizes
	The criteria for determining the categories will probably expand
	Elementary school performance groupings list
	We recognize: Four special schools have much to teach us about improving
	The Office of Instruction advises
IV. We believe: Slowly, the profile of RI’s schools, children and demographics is changing, presenting new challenges
	Basic demographic and school-level statistics
	Who are we?
	Profile of RI Public Schools
	Characteristics of students attending school in this state
	The Census shows that the percentage of children “at risk” is increasing at a significant rate in RI
	Percent of children living in “high risk” families according to Kids Count criteria
	Children with multiple disadvantages are at the greatest risk for failure
	2001 Kids Count - Child well-being indicators for New England and the U.S. Average
	The Office of Integrated Social Services recommends
V. We know: Adjusting for socioeconomic factors sometimes tells a very different story from raw performance measures
	“Value-added” modeling
	All kids are not equally challenging to educate
	RI’s statistical model uses five student characteristics
	How to read the Value-Added Charts and how schools are assigned to cohorts in the value-added charts
	Value-added chart for high schools
	Take a moment to learn to read the charts themselves
	Value-added gives an important second data point
	Value-added chart for middle schools
	Value-added chart for elementary schools
	We recommend: Schools need to attend to the gaps that have grown over the years between groups of students with different characteristics
VI. We know: The perfect per pupil expenditure is the one that accomplishes the job reliably and efficiently
	Financial support and investments
	No one knows what the ideal per pupil expenditure ought to be
	RI’s education funding depends heavily on property taxes, so the municipalities’ ability to support their children has an inverse relationship to students’ need
	Since 1997’s Article 31, we’ve been tinkering with funding solutions
	Two charts visually depict tax revenue and expenditure data
	Residential Property Value Per Student Compared to Tax Rate
	Relative Tax Capacity and Effort based on Residential Property Value
	Towns with large fiscal capacity tend to make the smallest effort and vice versa
	The tax ‘capacity and effort’ exercise illustrates the inequities among the 36 districts, resulting from the value of their residential property
	RI Expenditure Council Recommends
	Per pupil instruction and instructional support expenditures by district
	In$ite® data facilitates comparisons of school-to-school and district-to-district finances
	Bear in mind exactly what ‘per pupil expenditures’ means
	RI has some built-in fiscal anomalies
	General Education Instruction and Instructional Support Expenditures - high schools
	Instruction by category and Instructional Support look only at the cost directly related to supporting the child, the teacher or the classroom
	The In$ite data raise questions that must be addressed at the school site itself
	General Education Instruction and Instructional Support Expenditures - middle schools
	We recognize
	The Commissioner emphasizes
VII. We believe: Parents and guardians are an untapped powerhouse poised to help schools, according to the SALT Survey
	SALT survey findings about parent contact
	Few schools have invested in creating a strong home-school connection
	Teacher responses from the SALT Survey
	The Commissioner emphasizes
	We recommend: Work with the parents to create clear mutual expectations
	We recommend: Creating robust home-school communication is a critical first step Computer technology is an invaluable tool for enhancing home-school connections
	The Commissioner recommends
	We recommend: Getting active, non-token parent involvement in school governance requires creativity and flexibility regarding the time of the SIT meetings
	We recommend: Engage more parents with choice
	The Commissioner concludes: We know how to improve schools