User's Guide:  Table of Contents

Introduction

• Welcome to the 2002 Users Guide

• The big picture of RI's school accountability efforts

• The federal government gets much more involved

• Performance Progress

• Information Works! continues to evolve

• Resources available on our website

• The school charts on the Web

• The Principal Sources of the Data for Information Works!

• When data are statistically unreliable

• An exception to the rule in Field #4

I.  Field #1

Assessment elements

• What you are looking at

• What you are looking for

• No Score

• The Triangle

• “Parental refusal” exemptions to the Health Test

• Test subscales

• The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT)

II.  Field #2

Statistically generated performance range /actual performance

• What you are looking at

• What you are looking for

• Statistically generated performance models level the playing field

• The rationale

• The Rhode Island model

• Colored dots and black diamonds

III.  Field #3

Demographic profile

• What you are looking at

• What you are looking for

• Demographic characteristics

• Eligible for subsidized lunch

• Ethnic background

• Limited English Proficient (LEP)

• Special Education

• Parents’ education

• Type of Schooling

IV.  Field #4

Achievement over the past three years, by student characteristics

• What you are looking at

• What you are looking for

• General school-functioning at a glance

• Poverty/Non poverty

• Multi-racial *note the extra field

V.  Field #5

School highlights

• What you are looking at

• What you are looking for

• School Goals

VI.  Field #6

Selected school climate SALT survey findings 

• What you are looking at

• What you are looking for

• Obstacles to improvement have become intolerable
   

Parent Contact

• What you are looking at

• What you are looking for

• Parents as school improvement partners

• Minor discrepancies between IW! numbers and school SALT survey databooks

VII.  Field #7

Various school indicators

• What you are looking at

• What you are looking for

• Indicator measures and definitions

• Suspensions

• Teacher grievances

VIII.  Field #8

Progress towards targets

• What you are looking at

• What you are looking for

• How was 'improving' and 'not improving' determined?

• A degree of leeway

• All subsets are on the Web

• Why are the promised three-year averages not being used

IX.  Field #9

Financial information (per pupil)
Data source: In$ite

• What you are looking at

• What you are looking for

• In$ite's school-to-school, district-to-district comparisons

• Common agreements among all business managers

• Warning! Be wary of misunderstanding numbers out of context

• Per pupil expenditures

• In$ite category structure and definitions

Instruction

• Classroom teachers

• Substitutes

• Instructional paraprofessionals

• Pupil-use technology and software

• Instructional materials

• What you are looking at

• What you are looking for

• Sources of revenue