User's Guide: Reading the Reports
School Report – Page 1
Field #1: Assessment elements
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Percent of eligible
students at each performance level on the assessments
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WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT
You are looking at a graphic representation of the assessment
scores on the Spring 2002 state tests. The 100-point scale
represents 100% of the children who were eligible to be assessed at
this grade level. The dark, colored band at the top of the bar shows
the percentage of the highest scoring students. The dark gray band
near the bottom indicates the percentage of the lowest scorers. The
black band at the bottom shows those students eligible to take the
tests who, for whatever reason, did not. The two bands above the
white band are the percentage of students who have met or exceeded
the state’s standard for proficiency.
WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR
You are hoping to see that all children have met or exceeded the
standard and are represented only in the top two blocks.
No Score
The band on the assessment bars, labeled “no score” in the
legend, shows the percentage of eligible test-takers who were absent
or did not complete the multiple-day testing. To achieve 100%
participation by eligible test-takers, some schools need to reduce
the extent to which their students either don’t come to school,
won’t come because of poor school climate, or do not complete the
test sufficiently to obtain a score. The Triangle
The triangle below each assessment sub-scale bar
indicates the percentage of all students who met or exceeded the
state standard including those children who are not eligible to take
the state tests because they are beginning English-language
learners. The triangle includes as proficient or not proficient
those special-education students whose Individual Education Programs
(IEP) call for the use of alternate assessments. Results for
special-education students who were eligible to take the alternative
assessments but did not, for whatever reason, count as a “no score”
just as they do with the regular testing program. Thus, the number
in the triangle uses the number of all children in the tested grade
as the denominator and the percent who achieved proficiency as the
numerator. This fraction, if you will, generates the percent
proficient for the school as a whole. The bar above the triangle
represents only the achievement on the New Standards Reference
Examinations, RI Writing and RI Health Education assessments, and
the Alternate Assessment. (Information about the alternate
assessments, for which only 1%-2% of the state’s public school
students will ever be eligible, is included in the State Report.)
“Parental refusal” exemptions to the Health Test
The RI Health Education Assessment, administered in grades 5 and
9, is the one test from which students may be exempted if parents so
request in writing. Statewide, 282 children’s parents signed them
out of the health test in 2002 – 240 at grade five and 42 at grade
nine. Those children are counted as “not proficient” in the
triangular “all kids” scores. Test subscales
The NSRE in mathematics contains three subtests, which are:
Skills, Concepts, and Problem Solving. The NSRE in English language
arts contains four subtests, which are: Reading: Basic
Understanding, Reading: Analysis and Interpretation, Writing:
Effectiveness, and Writing: Conventions. Particular items from the
entire test, which is taken over the course of three days, are
grouped in various ways to form the subscale scores. Some items are
used in more than one subscale. The Scholastic Assessment Test
(SAT)
The SAT is not part of the RI assessment program. Students who so
choose pay to take the tests to fulfill college-admissions
requirements. The scores shown in IW! are only for seniors,
representing the highest score each senior attained (some of which
had been attained while they were still juniors). The participation
rate is derived by taking the fall 2002 enrollment divided by the
number of seniors who have an SAT score.
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