Disastrous Pawtucket Schools Star Report Issued By Rhode Island Department of Education

It was another difficult day for the City of Pawtucket, Rhode Island School District. Hard on the heels that the influential New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC) had issued a formal accreditation warning for apparently dangerous operating conditions at Shea High School, the Rhode Island Department of Education issued its long awaited 2022 School Accountability & Improvement Results under a new, simplified “Star Rating System”, detailing school performance under the ESSA: Every Student Succeeds Act.

The results, frankly, are disastrous.

Not a single City of Pawtucket School received a greater than 3 Star rating.

In the three areas of evaluation, English, Math & Science, Pawtucket students achieved a rate of proficiency of 18.9, 14.7 & 13.8% respectively. The Samuel Slater Middle School, a 1 Star School, was “Identified for Comprehensive Support & Improvement for 2022-2023 due to Achievement & Growth, & Overall Low Performance.

Listed below is a general explanation/communication from the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE), followed by a performance breakout of each Pawtucket School. A link is provided for statewide, as well as individual community results.

From The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE):

The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) has released the 2022 school accountability and improvement results. This marks the first release of Rhode Island’s Star Rating system post-pandemic which details school performance data under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The Star Rating simplifies and summarizes overall school performance classifying schools from 1 to 5 stars to provide families and school communities a transparent, accessible, and easy-to-understand snapshot of school performance. The Star Ratings, and school accountability data, are housed within the online Report Card platform.

“School accountability data is more important than ever as we work together to accelerate student learning and identify areas of need,” said Chair of the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education Patti DiCenso. “This data will help our schools evaluate their progress, shift and expand supports as necessary and deliver the education our students deserve. We thank all our local education agencies for their unwavering commitment, urgency, and flexibility as we move our education system forward.”

Check Out Your Community and Your School Here!

“The snapshot released today underscores the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our education system and the need for continued targeted academic, social and emotional supports in our schools, particularly among our most vulnerable populations,” said Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green. “To stem the broader impact of the pandemic, we are committed to working closely with school leaders to continue to build and expand programs to help our schools accelerate learning and guide our students forward. We share our gratitude with the Rhode Island education community, who will use this data responsibly to inform families of their students’ schools and improve student outcomes across the board.”

Statewide, there are 14 5-star schools, 28 4-star schools, 116 3-star schools, 94 2-star schools, and 38 1-star schools. Within the 1-star category, there are 21 schools identified for Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI), a federal designation for a state’s lowest performing schools.

CSI schools are eligible for additional federal funding to support school improvement plans. Rhode Island has combined Community Advisory Board (CAB) and School Improvement Teams (SIT) to form CSITs (Comprehensive School Improvement Teams) to meet requirements of explicitly engaging families and community members in the school improvement process.

The Star Rating is determined using a broad range of performance measures. Schools must perform well across all measures to earn a high star rating. In other words, high performance in a single category cannot mask low performance in another.

The primary drivers of the accountability system, and of Star Ratings, are student achievement and student growth, measured through performance on state assessments. These measures are rounded out by a more expansive view of school climate and culture.

RIDE is pleased to highlight several Rhode Island schools that showed significant growth in accountability measures:

• Bernon Heights Elementary School (Woonsocket Public Schools): 1 (CSI) to 3 stars
• Fogarty Memorial School (Glocester Public Schools): 3 to 5 stars
• Matunuck Elementary School (South Kingstown Public Schools): 3 to 5 stars
• Robert L. Bailey Elementary School (Providence Public Schools) 1 to 3 stars
• The Rhode Island School for the Deaf increased from 1 (CSI) to 2 stars (This is of note because this school is comprised solely of differently abled students)

In addition to the Commissioner’s Seal and Postsecondary Success, the measures currently included in school accountability are:

• Achievement: Student performance in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics on the Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System (RICAS) for grades 3-8, the SAT for grade 11, or the Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) Alternate Assessment for students with significant cognitive impairments in grades 3-8 and 11.
• Growth: Measures student improvement, year-over-year, on state assessments. Including a growth measure allows the state to recognize schools whose investments and approaches are moving the needle.
• English Language Proficiency: Measures progress towards the attainment of English proficiency Measures year-over-year improvement among English Learners, an important and growing population of students.
• Student Absenteeism: The percentage of students who miss 10 percent or more of the school year, which is the benchmark for chronic absence.
• Teacher Absenteeism: The percentage of teachers who miss 10 percent or more of the school year, with the exclusion of professional development or pre-approved absences of greater than five days.
• Suspension Rate: Much like chronic absence, the suspension rate is a proxy measure for school climate and culture.
• Exceeding Expectations: Measures the percentage of students earning top scores on state assessments.
• Graduation Rate: Measures the four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates to emphasize that no student should fall through the cracks and to credit schools for getting all students to graduation.
• Student sub-group performance is also a central component of the system. In order to earn 5 stars, a school must have no low-performing sub-groups in achievement, growth, or graduation rate. If a school has two or more sub-groups classified as low performing, even if they perform very well in other measures, they cannot earn more than 3 stars.

PAWTUCKET SCHOOL RESULTS

Charles E. Shea High School

William E. Tolman High School

Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing and Visual Arts

Slater Slater Middle School

Joseph Jenks Middle School

Lyman B. Goff Middle School

Agnes E. Little School

Curvin-McCabe School

Elizabeth Baldwin School

Fallon Memorial School

Flora S. Curtis Memorial School

Francis J. Varieur School

Henry Winters School

M. Virginia Cunningham School

Nathanael Greene School

Potter-Burns School