Using Information

Learning Support Indicators

Each learning-support indicator is a numeric score (0 – 100) that provides information about a school and how it operates. The bar graphs show the indicator for each school and the statewide average for each indicator, based on school level (elementary school, middle school, high school).

These learning-support indicators are reported for each school:

• School Climate
• Parental Involvement (and parent engagement)
• Instruction
• Attendance
• High schools receive a 5th indicator: Graduation rate.

The first three learning-support indicators are index scores derived by the 2005-06 SALT Survey. Each score is based on responses to numerous questions on the surveys.

The school-climate indicator is based on parent, student, and teachers surveys; the parental-involvement indicator is based on the parent and teacher surveys; the instruction indicator is based on the teacher surveys.

The goal for the School Climate, Parental Involvement, and Instruction indicators is a score of 100.

Attendance is reported as a percentage. It shows how many days children in each school are present, that is, not absent because of illness, suspensions, truancy, or other situations such as family emergencies.

For attendance, the long-term goal is 95%, meaning that no more than 5% of the school year should be lost due to absences. The goal for the current year is 90%.

Graduation rate shows the percentage of students in the class of 2006 who have graduated from of school, based on the number of students in that class who entered the school four years ago.

For the graduation-rate indicator, the ultimate goal for each school is 95%, matching the goal established by the R.I. Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education that no more than 5% of all students will drop out of any high school. The goal for the current year is 75.3%.

Test scores are useful for telling us what students have learned and which students have learned, but the scores do not tell us about the conditions in a school that contribute to improved student learning. The learning-support indicators give us information that helps educators, their school-improvement teams, and the school communities decide what teaching practices, school structures, and cultures should change in order to improve learning. The learning-support indicators are meant to begin discussions in schools and districts about what should be done to provide the conditions in which students will be able to learn better.

See the technical bulletin for an explanation of the learning-support indicators and how they are calculated.