BARRINGTON ACCOUNTABILITY PRESS RELEASE:
RIDE Local Education Agency (LEA) Accountability Results Show Pandemic Had Deep Impact Statewide
As required by state law, the first release of results shows a baseline for districts post-pandemic, aiming to better inform stakeholders, including families, on education decision-making.
BARRINGTON, R.I. – On Friday, April 7, the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) issued the first release of its Local Education Agency (LEA) Accountability results. The release meets a state requirement established by the Education Accountability Act of 2019 - RIGL 16-97.1-2(a)(1) - requiring RIDE to provide a mechanism to review and report on the efforts of schools, charter schools, and school districts, including regional school districts, to improve the academic achievement of their students.
Rhode Island adopted a system of LEA Accountability that is congruent to the established school accountability system; is aligned to the requirements of the U.S. Department of Education; and emphasizes improvement and equity with in-depth profiles of districts and key indicators for school leaders to monitor and consider for improvement.
Considering the deep impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, for its initial launch, the LEA Accountability system does not provide star ratings for districts but rather detailed visualizations for each metric factored to help districts identify root causes and determine actionable steps to improve academic outcomes. LEA Accountability information can be found within RIDE’s Report Card.
The recent results show that among LEAs, 31 have English Learning Proficiency as a focus area for improvement, and 21 have Achievement. On the other hand, 25 LEAs showed strong performance in Graduation Rates and 17 in Growth. Barrington achieved 41 out of 44 Points.
Student Growth
47% of students demonstrate high growth on ELA assessments resulting in 3 out of 3 points on the rating scale.
41% of students demonstrate high growth on Math assessments resulting in 3 out of 3 points on the rating scale.
97% of students graduate within four years resulting in 5 out of 5 points on the rating scale.
76% of students demonstrated proficiency in math and English Language Arts at the high school resulting in the commissioner’s seal and 3 out of 3 points on the rating scale.
Post Secondary Success Index of 99, resulting in 3 out of 3 points on the rating scale.
A chronic absentee rating of 9.5 % for students, resulting in 3 out of 3 points on the rating scale.
A chronic absentee rating of 2.6 % for teachers, resulting in 3 out of 3 points on the rating scale.
A 0.0 out of 100 average for suspensions, resulting in 3 out of 3 points on the rating scale.
20% of all students exceed expectations in English Language Arts resulting in 3 out of 3 on the rating scale.
13% of all students exceed expectations in mathematics resulting in 3 out of 3 on the rating scale.
Areas for Improvement
86% of English Language Learners made the necessary growth to be proficient, resulting in 3 out of 4 points on the rating scale. It is important to note that we reach nearly 100% by 5 years of entry for our English Language Learners.
Barrington achieved 99% participation on ELA state assessments, with 69% of students reaching or exceeding proficiency, resulting in 3 out of 4 points on the rating scale.
Barrington achieved 99% participation on ELA state assessments, with 64% of students reaching or exceeding proficiency, resulting in 3 out of 4 points on the rating scale.
To build on our strengths and address areas of challenges, Barrington has been:
Completing training in Right to Read to address literacy
Adding math interventions
Focusing on small group instruction
Increasing training and interventions for gap closure
Continuing work focused on Deep Learning
This information is especially critical in the wake of the pandemic as districts seek to leverage funds and resources to support strategic planning and actions articulated in our various plans, including Strategic Plans, American Rescue Plan Act (ESSER III) plans, and Consolidated Resource Program (CRP) plans. A report released by the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment in April 2022 indicated that it would take three to five years of accelerated learning for Rhode Island students to return to pre-pandemic academic achievement.
In the coming months, Barrington will work closely with RIDE to explore and implement strategies that will allow us to better serve students and improve outcomes based on the findings of these results.
Descriptions of the indicators considered are below:
Indicators for LEA Accountability include:
Achievement: Illustrates how students perform on RICAS and SATs, and the DLM alternate assessment, in mathematics and ELA.
Growth: Calculated from student growth percentiles, it recognizes student progress in ELA and math compared to their academic peers.
English Language Proficiency: Measures the progress of Multilingual Learners in reaching English language proficiency. It measures the adequacy of each student’s annual progress toward proficiency. The ELP indicator represents progress toward each student’s annual growth target.
Graduation Rates: The Composite Graduation Rate includes four-, five-, and six-year adjusted cohort graduation rates, with each cohort rate weighted equally. Each school or LEA incorporates information on three different cohorts; the graduates and number of students in each of the four-, five-, and six-year graduation cohorts for the most recent reporting year. It is important to note that in any given year, the Composite Graduation Rate is based on three different cohorts of students.
Diploma Plus Measures: The Diploma Plus measures are designed to recognize when schools better prepare students for postsecondary success by measuring two main features of preparedness: academic proficiency as determined by students earned a Commissioner’s Seal, and postsecondary credentials such as industry-recognized credentials, college credit, and Advanced Placement (scores of a 3 or higher).
School Quality and Student Success: The five measures are: ELA Exceed Expectations, Math Exceed Expectations, Student Suspensions, Student Chronic Absenteeism, and Teacher Chronic Absenteeism. The two Exceeds Expectations measures report the percentage of students who perform at Level 4 on the state assessments in ELA and mathematics out of tested students who meet the requirements for accountability reporting.