Students with Disabilities

Download Students with Disabilities (60KB)

Assessments

WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT

These graphs are similar to those on the first page of the state, district, and school report cards. They depict the assessment scores on the Spring 2005 state tests—but in this case, only for students with disabilities. Students with disabilities includes both students receiving special-education services (that is, students with Individual Education Programs, or IEPs) and students with 504 plans. (Note that state assessments were administered only at the high-school level in 2004-05.)

The 100-point scale represents 100% of high-school students with disabilities who participated in the state assessments. The dark, colored band at the top of each 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 numbers in box below each bar show the percent of all students with disabilities—including those who participated in the state’s Alternate Assessment—who reached proficiency, that is, who achieved the standard or achieved the standard with honors, and the percent of all students in the state who reached proficiency. Note that only 48 11th-graders took the Alternate Assessment in 2004-05.

WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR

You are hoping to see that all students with disabilities have met or exceeded the state standard and are represented only in the top two blocks. The standard is the same for all students statewide—whether or not they have disabilities.

In addition, you would like to see that students with disabilities had about the same proficiency level (percent proficient) as students in the state as a whole. If the proficiency level (percent proficient) for any category of student falls significantly below the statewide average for proficiency, then there is an “equity gap” for that category. These gaps must be closed.

Characteristics of the Student Population in Rhode Island

The two pie charts above present information about the characteristics of the student population in Rhode Island. The first chart shows what percentage of Rhode Island students have disabilities; it also shows among the students with disabilities what percentage have Individual Education Programs and what percentage have 504 plans. The next chart shows demographic information about the state’s students with disabilities who have IEPs.

Educating Students with Disabilities in the Least Restrictive Environment

The pie chart above shows the extent to which students with disabilities are included within general-education classrooms, as well as the percentage of students with disabilities who are sent to separate special schools, generally on a tuition basis, and the percentage of students with disabilities who are homebound or hospitalized. (This same information is presented by school district in table format.)