Advocacy Group Ranks School District Above State Average

The following is a press release localized for the Bristol Warren Regional School District:

The Rhode Island Campaign for Achievement Now (RI-CAN) released its 2012 School Report Cards for 300 Rhode Island public schools.

In overall student performance, the Bristol Warren Regional School District elementary schools ranked 13th in the state, while Kickemuit Middle School tied with North Kingstown for 11th place, and Mt. Hope High School tied with North Smithfield for 11th place.

“The report cards are designed to help Rhode Island parents serve as effective advocates for their kids," said Maryellen Butke, RI-CAN executive director. "Parents deserve to know how well their child’s public school is meeting the needs of all of its students.”

RI-CAN used students’ academic performance in four key categories: average student performance, subgroup performance, achievement gaps and performance gains. The grades, which range from A to F, are calculated based on the October 2011 New England Common Assessment Program scores, released in January 2012 by the Rhode Island Department of Education.

Click here to read their methodology.

Using the data from the School Report Cards, RI-CAN also released the Top 10 Rhode Island public schools that have higher levels of achievement in critical areas. RI-CAN used these rankings to generate Top 10 lists for each category in the report cards: Performance Gains, Low-Income Performance, African-American Performance, Hispanic Performance, Improvement, Limited English Proficiency Performance and Title I School Performance.

In its 2012 Top 10 Schools (attached to this post), ranked number one in the state as most improved over last year. KMS also ranked third in the state for proficiency based on low-income student performance. ranked seventh in the top 10 high schools in the state based on low-income student performance.

“Our state's achievement gaps are still unacceptably high and overall performance statewide is stagnant,” said Butke. "We must be transparent about how Rhode Island schools are performing - it's a critical step towards improving our schools."