State Report Card
Performance…by student characteristics
View/download performance over the
last three years, by student characteristics (PDF format, 17 KB)
WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT
These bar graphs show three years of data from the state’s
assessments in
mathematics, reading, and writing broken out, or “disaggregated,” by
groups of
students with similar characteristics. Each bar represents all
students with each
characteristic; the bars are placed along a horizontal line so that
the percent that
achieved proficiency lies above the line and the percent that did
not lies below
the line. This way, you can visually compare the achievements of the
varying
groups of students.
Students in poverty are defined as students eligible for federal
free or reduced-
price lunch; reliable data regarding poverty is available at the
elementary-school
level only. When students take the state assessments, they fill out
their own
social and ethnic identity. Those who check more than one option
regarding their
ethnic identity are included in the “multi-racial” category, but not
in the individual
racial/ethnic categories. Students who checked no option are not
included on
these graphs. WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR
Once again, the state’s goal is for all students (100%) to achieve
proficiency in
all subtests. We are years away from achieving this goal. At this
point, if half the
students are proficient (50%) on any subtest, the state has taken a
significant
step toward the goal. So you’d like to see that at least half of
each of the bars lies
“above the line.”
In addition, these bar graphs allow you to compare the achievements
of varying
groups of students. It is important that all students, regardless or
race, gender,
poverty, or educational status, make progress toward the goal of
100%
proficiency. If some groups of students lag behind others, this is
known as an
“equity gap.” So if some of the bars fall significantly below others
on the graphs,
groups of students are making unequal progress. These equity gaps
must be
closed.
Note re. Migrant Students: Federal law requires that states report
the
performance of migrant students in their statewide
school-accountability efforts.
RI's statewide census of migrant students for the 2001-2002 school
year shows
only 76 students enrolled in the tested grades, with fewer than 10
students in any
grade. No results are published when there are fewer than 10
students in any
group so as not to identify students or to invite guessing as to the
achievement
results of individual students. As always, the unit of RI's
school-accountability
system is the school and not the student.
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