User's Guide: Reading the Reports
School Report – Page 2
Field #6: Performance progress
WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT
You are looking at the eight subtests (the K-3 schools have only
one, RI Writing) that contribute to determining whether or not a
school is improving or not improving. WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR
You are hoping to see that the percentage of students in the
lowest levels of achievement has declined, that percent proficient
has gone up, and that overall this school is improving in both
mathematics and English language arts. How was ‘improving’ and
‘not improving’ determined?
Using the cumulative percent of the three “baseline” years
compared to the cumulative percent of two “current” years, the
conditions for improvement being considered are: Both:
- at least a 3% gain in students achieving proficiency, and
- at least a 3% decline in students at the lowest levels of
achievement
In either:
- 2 out of 3 mathematics subtests, or
- 3 out of 5 English language arts, as long as one from both A
and B (above) is in reading
Schools satisfying the above criteria are ‘improving’
schools. Those who are not making such improvements are ‘not
improving.’ Why are the promised three-year averages not
being used?
Because RI has only five years of comparable testing data so
far, the progress trend lines were based on only five years of
data each, three for the “baseline” – 1998,1999, and 2000 – and
the following two years for the “current” – 2001 and 2002.
The 10th grade New Standards ELA exam was not administered
for the first time until 1999 and, therefore, does not yet have
five years of data. The 1999 and 2000 exams alone were used as
the baseline.
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