Rhode Island’s Department of Education recently named 22 schools as Commended School ranking in the latest release of high performing schools. Some the schools on the list have been on the list of Commended Schools for many years now! However, 30 schools were placed on the state’s priority list. Let’s look more into the ratings and how the state determines them.
The Department of Education uses a composite index score or CIS to determine a rating for schools based on a number of predetermined factors. These factors include Proficiency level, Gap closure, Student growth, and Graduation rate.
Proficiency Level:
Proficiency is based on last year’s results from the PARCC assessments administered to grades 3-8 Math and ELA. Rhode Island is still transitioning into the PARCC test, but the state uses these results as part of the index score.
Gap Closure:
This component looks at how schools are doing at narrowing the gap between the lowest performing students and the performance standard for “Meeting Expectations” on the PARCC Assessment.
Student Growth:
Student Growth is measured by the annual improvement among each tested student in the school compared to other students at the same achievement level.
Graduation Rate:
The Graduation Rate for 2015 is used to determine this part of the index.
The Rhode Island Department of Education uses only three ways to classify its schools Commended, Focus, and Priority. Twenty-two schools received the highest rating of commended. Two schools have been on the Top Honored list for 5 years in a row! These schools are Rockwell School in the Bristol Warren School District, and Fort Barton School in the Tiverton School District.
Thirty schools were priority schools that listed as needing improvement. These schools are the same schools that were on the list last year. No new priority schools were added to this year’s list. Priority Schools have been giving 2 to 3 years to improve and move off of the “naughty” list for the state. However, one school. William E. Tolman Senior High in Pawtucket, listed last year was able to be removed from the list this year.
The state did send “Alerts” to 50 schools because of low participation on the PARCC examine and low graduation rates. The schools who were sent that notice has a high “opt out” level for PARCC testing which can affect the schools funding rate nationally.
Lumos Learning offers many different resources for Rhode Island schools that are looking to improve the student achievement both in the classroom and on the PARCC Assessments. Interested schools should contact Rhode Island’s Sales Rep, Bonnie McRae, at 1-888-309-8227 ext: 111 or go to www.lumoslearning.com to learn more.
Referenced Article: http://www.golocalprov.com/news/rhode-islands-lowest-performing-schools
