Rhode Island State Indicators

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SALT Survey Indicators

SALT Survey teacher response rate: The percentage of the total number of eligible teachers who responded to the 2005 SALT Survey.

SALT Survey student response rate: The percentage of the total number of students who responded to the 2005 SALT Survey.

SALT Survey parent response rate: The percentage of students whose parents responded to the 2005 SALT Survey.

Student Indicators

Student attendance: The percentage of time the average student was present during the required 180 instructional days per year.

Stability: The proportion of the total student enrollment in the state that stayed in one school through the whole school year.

Mobility: The rate of student turnover, that is, the percentage of students in the state who moved into or out of a school during the school year.

Dropout rate: The percentage of students, from the Class of 2005, who dropped out of school; this percentage is calculated using four years of data, that is, by tracking the students from this graduating class from the time they entered high school four years ago.

Rate of suspensions (incidents per 100 students enrolled): Statewide, Elementary, Middle, and High

The total number of incidents that led to suspension, statewide, per 100 students.

Students with disabilities: Suspensions (incidents per 100 students enrolled):

Among students with disabilities, the total number of incidents that led to suspension (statewide), per 100 students with disabilities.

Teacher Indicators

Teachers with emergency certification

Full state certification in Rhode Island requires:

• • Bachelor’s degree from an accredited or approved institution of higher learning.
  • Completion of an approved teacher-preparation program within the past five years or Completion of designated professional-education course work for the area of certification sought, to include a minimum of six semester hours of student teaching or two years of documented teaching experience. In addition, secondary and special-subject teachers must have from 30-36 semester hours of designated subject content-area course work in their field of specialization.
  • Passing score on the appropriate state required test.
  Individuals who do not qualify for full state certification may be granted an Emergency Certificate (called an Emergency Permit, beginning in 2005) to teach in the public schools, upon written request of the Superintendent of Schools, when fully certified applicants are not available.

The Superintendents must advertise for certified candidates in the statewide newspaper and must contact local colleges and universities with educator-preparation programs. If, after those measures are completed a certified individual is not available, superintendents may send in a written request on behalf of an intended candidate for an Emergency Permit.

Highly qualified teachers

A term established by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), “highly qualified teachers” must hold full certification and must demonstrate subject-matter competency. Under state regulations, they may do so by several methods, including completing an academic major or graduate degree in the subject taught, passing an approved standardized test, meeting approved professional-development or service criteria (as detailed in the Rhode Island HOUSSE Plan, or by other approved methods). For more details, see the Rhode Island HOUSSE Plan.

Percent of classes not taught by highly qualified teacher: Statewide

This calculation takes into account that teachers may be “highly qualified” in one subject area but not in another. For example, a science teacher may be highly qualified to teach biology, but not to teach physics. This statistic shows the percentage of classes not taught by teachers who are highly qualified in the specific subject that they are teaching.

The RIDE Office of Educator Quality and Certification, which collects the data on Highly Qualified Teachers, cautions that because of new data-collection procedures implemented during the 2004-05 school year, the data on High Qualified Teachers may be unreliable. The data will be more accurate for the 2005-06 school year.

Percent of classes not taught by highly qualified teacher: Low-poverty schools

Percent of classes not taught by highly qualified teacher: High-poverty schools

For these calculations, all schools in the state were sorted by poverty level, using percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch as the determinant. Low-poverty schools were the quartile (25 percent of the schools) with the lowest percentage of students in poverty. High-poverty schools were the quartile (25 percent of the schools) with the highest percent of students in poverty.

Teacher-student ratio: Elementary Schools
Teacher-student ratio: Middle Schools
Teacher-student ratio: High Schools
Teacher-student ratio: Statewide

These ratios show the number of teachers per student at each school level and statewide. These calculations are based on full-time equivalents (FTEs) of the number of teachers, under which, for example, two half-time teachers count as one teacher.

School Indicators

Schools that did not make “adequate yearly progress”: Schools that missed any of the 21 targets established by the federal No Child Left Behind Act are those that did not make “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) in 2005. These are schools that are classified either as making “insufficient progress” or as “with caution” plus the elementary and middle schools that missed their attendance target. (State assessments were not administered in elementary and middle schools in 2004-05.)

Schools identified for improvement: Schools that have not made AYP in the same subject area or other indicator (participation rate, attendance, graduation rate) for two consecutive years or more are “identified for improvement” under provisions of the NCLB, and they retain this status until they make AYP in that subject area or indicator for two consecutive years.
Schools facing NCLB sanctions: Once a school is identified for improvement, it may be subject to provisions of the NCLB, such as school choice (a parent’s right to transfer the child to another school within the district), free supplemental educational services (e.g., tutoring, summer school), or corrective action (developing a plan to improve school performance), or restructuring. Once a school is identified for improvement and faces NCLB sanctions, it retains that status until it makes AYP for two consecutive years.

Note: These sanctions apply only to schools that receive federal funds under the Title I act, which gives aid to high-poverty schools.

For further discussion of adequate yearly progress and the Rhode Island Accountability system, see How Rhode Island Classifies Schools.