Welcome to the 2006 User’s Guide

For those of you new to Information Works!, please remember that the data is from school year 2004-05. Each year of Information Works! displays a wealth of data gathered in the year preceding its publication.

The User’s Guide presents three kinds of information:

1. The sections marked “What you are looking at” and “What you are looking for,” offer brief, user-friendly explanations for the data in each field, along with a notion of what we consider to be the information’s utility.

2. When relevant, the Guide provides the source of the numbers presented and, in some cases, how they were calculated.

3. In some sections, the Guide notes the changes that have resulted from state and federal policy refinements, with short explanations of or references to the policy itself.

Information Works! evolves:

Please note the following changes from Information Works! 2005:

Changes in the School and District Reports

We have added several pages to the school report:

Safe and Supportive Environments: Health Risks

Data from the SALT Survey of middle-school and high-school students regarding unhealthy or unsafe behaviors.

Changes in the State Report

A new section has been added that reports assessment and demographic data on English language learners.

When data could compromise confidentiality

When the number of test-takers drops below 10, the results are considered statistically unreliable and are not reported because they could compromise confidentiality. Small sample numbers make it possible to identify or to invite guessing as to the test results of individual children. Information Works! is about the functioning of schools and districts, not about individual children. Thus, very small classes of test-takers such as those at the Block Island School also not reported.

For charts and tables based on three years of assessment data – that is, tables that use the “index proficiency score” – data are not reported unless the minimum number of test-takers is more than 45 students.