Name of Report: State Report Card: Student Performance Adjusted for “Value-Added”
Organizational Affiliation: Information Works!
Author: Rhode Island Department of Education and The National Center on Public Education
Date: 2003
Contact Information: Rhode Island Department of Education
225 Westminster Street
Providence, RI 02903
401-222-4600 ext. 2182 (telephone)
Pages: 10
Content Summary
Using 2002 assessment data, this report consists of several lists showing the percent of Rhode Island test takers at or above the standard for grades four, eight, and ten. The information in these lists is sorted by school and district and thus shows how the students compared with similar Rhode Island students. It is noted in the report that groups of students within a school and not the schools themselves are sorted for comparison. The four tested areas were mathematics (skills and problem solving) and English language arts (writing effectiveness, reading, analysis, and interpretation. This value-added scoring adjusts for poverty, educational background of parents, special learning needs, and minority group identity.
Major Findings
For all tested grade levels (four, eight, and ten) the results were strikingly similar. In areas of high minority populations and poverty such as Providence the percentage of students who met or exceeded the standard was far lower than the percentage of successful students from affluent areas with a low minority population. For example, the grade eight table shows that 82% of the students in East Greenwich (an area with few minorities) met or exceeded the standard in mathematics skills while 22% of students in Central Falls (an area densely populated by minorities) tested at or above the standard. It is interesting to note that schools in highly minority populated environments were not the only ones to have few students doing well; in a junior high school in Warwick (a relatively low to moderate income area) only 56% of the students tested at or above the standard in mathematics skills. Furthermore, when comparing students state-wide it is densely minority populated areas and impoverished areas that falls below the state average. This report illustrates the link between not only minority status and poor achievement but of poverty and low achievement as well.
Unaddressed Issues Or Concerns
Although this report attempts to account for factors such as poverty and minority group identity it fails to make these factors clear in its data tables. That is to say, there is no obvious correlation between these factors and performance. It is clear that wealthier school districts will be able to generate greater educational resources than poorer districts. In Rhode Island blacks make up 0.4 percent of the population in the wealthiest county but make up 7 percent of the poorest county population; blacks students are disproportionately harmed by economic disparities and funding discrepancies (JBHE 31). It also would have been helpful to note which schools these adjustments most affected.
Reference List
“News and Views: Ranking the States in Their Educational Expenditures to Prepare Black Students for College”. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. (1997): 30-33.
How to Access Report
http://infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2003/state/6-valueadded.asp