Five out of six Barrington schools earn five-star rating

Rating system also weighs school culture

Posted 11/18/19

Less than two dozen schools across Rhode Island earned a five-star rating from the Rhode Island Department of Education in its recent accountability report. 

But in Barrington, five out of …

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Five out of six Barrington schools earn five-star rating

Rating system also weighs school culture

Posted

Less than two dozen schools across Rhode Island earned a five-star rating from the Rhode Island Department of Education in its recent accountability report. 

But in Barrington, five out of the six public schools earned the top-rating. 

Barrington High School, Hampden Meadows School, and Barrington Middle School each earned a five-star rating for "achievement and growth," while Primrose Hill and Nayatt School earned the top-rating for "achievement." Sowams School earned a four-star rating for "achievement."

The star rating system summarizes overall school performance and includes traditional tools for measuring student success, such as test scores and graduation rates. It also emphasizes school culture and the student learning experiences. 

"This approach holds schools accountable for a broader range of measures, and pushes all communities to focus on areas for improvement,” said RIDE Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green. “Every school and every community has work to do to improve outcomes for all students.”

The RIDE report awarded five-star ratings to just 22 (out of the 299) public schools across the state — most districts were lucky to have one five-star rated school. 

But in Barrington, the vast majority of schools earned the top rating. 

Some of the rating was based upon the percentages for student and teacher chronic absenteeism — all of the Barrington schools had less than 7 percent chronic absenteeism for students and less than 3 percent for teachers. In fact, four of the six schools had no chronic teacher absenteeism.

The Barrington schools also had some of the highest marks in the state for proficiency in English language arts and math on standardized testing. 

This year's star ratings for Barrington schools mirrored last year's ratings, where five out of the six schools in town received five-star ratings.  

In addition to the 22 five-star schools statewide, there were 49 four-star schools, 134 three-star schools, 59 two-star schools, and 35 one-star schools. 

Within the one-star category were 22 schools identified for Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI), a federal designation for a state’s lowest performing schools. Half of those schools are located in Providence.

Daniel P. McConaghy, chairman of the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education, said the state remains committed to engaging communities statewide in the school improvement process.

“We all have a role to play in improving Rhode Island schools, and we hope that these results will spark additional conversations across the state about supporting educators, engaging students, and empowering families," he said.

New factors

New this year to the star rating system were two measures at the high school level:

• Commissioner’s Seal, which measures the percentage of high school graduates demonstrating high school proficiency in both ELA and mathematics on the SAT, PSAT, ACT, or approved Advanced Placement test. This measure is designed, in part, to call attention to the “honesty gap” in the number of students graduating high school without meeting expectations in ELA and math assessments.

• Postsecondary Success, which measures the percentage of high school graduates earning college credits, Advanced Placement credits, or industry-recognized credentials.

Another additional measure, science proficiency, will be added to accountability starting in 2021. Rhode Island first did a field test of the Next Generation Science Assessment in 2018, and expanded to all students in grades 5, 8, and 11 in 2019.

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