RI Schools: The Basic Facts
Profile of Schools, Student Characteristics,
   and Kids Count

Learning and Achievement
Assessments
Disaggregations
Accountability
How Rhode Island Classifies Schools
2004 School-Performance Classification:
Elementary  |Middle  |High

Using Information
State Indicators
Value Added:
Elementary  |Middle  |High
Attendance and Graduation Rates,
Learning Support Indicators:
Elementary  |Middle  |High

Safe and Supportive Environments
Students' Point of View:Middle  |High
Suspensions

Equity and Adequacy of Resources
Property Value/Student Compared to
   Tax Rate
Tax Capacity and Effort
In$ite: Including Other Commitments
In$ite: Excluding Other Commitments
Out-of-District Obligations
In$ite: Instruction
In$ite: General Education
Middle  |High

Curriculum and Instruction
Advanced Placement Exams
Teaching Practices:
Elementary  |Middle  |High
Inclusion
Students with Disabilities
Students with Disabilities: Participation
Elementary  |Middle  |High
Students with Disabilities: Participation by District
Elementary  |Middle  |High

Engaging Families
Elementary  |Middle  |High

Select a school level to view/download the value-added charts in PDF.

• High (30 KB)
• Middle (31 KB)
• Elementary (46 KB)

What you are looking at

These three lists—one each for high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools—show what percentage of the students in each school met or surpassed the standard on four of the state tests. These lists use the 2004 assessment data only. The lists are sorted in such as way as to show you how the students in each school performed in comparison with similar students statewide. In the schools in the top band on each list, for example, the students performed better than similar students statewide on all four tests.

What you are looking for

If you were to sort Rhode Island schools by test scores, you would find that you have also sorted them by family income. This phenomenon would hold true in other states, and in other nations. Without the strong intervention of effective schooling, students tend to achieve according to their socioeconomic backgrounds. It does not have to be this way. Schools can make a difference in a challenged child’s life. We call this concept “value-added.” By using a statistical model, we can show which schools do very well—add value—with a difficult student population, and which schools may have test scores that seem impressive but that, when compared with similar students statewide, could be better.

This value-added model compares the performance of each school’s students with the performance of similar students statewide by adjusting for these factors:

1. Poverty
2. Non-English speaking background
3. Educational background of the parents
4. Having special learning needs, and
5. Having a minority racial-group identity

Though individuals with one or more of these characteristics can and do perform well on state assessments, the majority tend to perform less well than children who do not have these characteristics. The many reasons for these historic patterns of lower achievement include such things as school expectations, the availability of flexible grouping and different types of instruction, inadequate funding and support to the schools these children attend, individual and family health, and the quality of social services offered to students.

Also see the technical description of the model.