The new system for assessing and ranking schools may be confusing, but it brought good news to South County this week: not one area school district was classified as "in need of improvement," and five local schools have been commended by the Board of Regents for improving in both math and language arts for two years or more.
"I think it clearly is good news, and shows that most schools in South County are meeting the targets in the new classification system," said David Byrd, an education professor at the University of Rhode Island.
In addition, three schools that just two years ago were called "low performing schools" showed so much improvement since then, they are on the commended list this year: Chariho Regional High School, Narragansett High School and Westerly High School.
Dunn's Corners Elementary School put Westerly on the list a second time and Davisville Middle School in North Kingstown also received the honor.
Every school so recognized pointed to concrete initiatives that helped them improve: teacher writing committees, new student advisory programs, hiring a principal to oversee learning and teaching issues, intense teacher collaboration.
"We've built on this for several years," said Davisville Principal Jane Kondon, who's been at the helm for 20 years. "It doesn't happen instantly. We're just finally seeing the fruits of all of the hard work."
The new standards, designed to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, sets 21 targets for subgroups -- such as economically disadvantaged, special-education limited English proficiency -- and categorizes schools as high performing, moderately performing or needing improvement, based on how many subgroups hit or exceed their targets.
It also designates school districts as in need of improvement if 40 percent or more schools are making insufficient progress toward those goals, or if more than one educational level -- elementary, middle or high school -- misses targets.
"Every single district in the state has improvements to make, because no one is at 100 percent, and that is the goal," said Elliot Krieger, spokesman for the state Education Department.
Demographics may play a role in test scores as well, cautioned URI professor Byrd.
"It also has to do with the classifications they are using now and the percentage of students in poverty, for example, or with limited English, which might be lower in South County than in our urban schools," Byrd said.
However, the region also has some of the highest rates of students receiving special education services, and several of those districts were able to hit their targets in that subgroup.
In addition, talking about district performance can obscure some of the real issues -- both positive and negative -- area schools grapple with, Byrd said.
However, tangible improvements can be made, as shown by Newport's recent success in moving schools out of the "needing improvement" category and Davisville Middle School's winning streak, said Anne M. Seitsinger of URI's National Center on Public Education and Social Policy.
Schools that analyzed their scores last year identified their weak points and worked with the center, focusing on literacy and math skills, Seitsinger said.
Davisville, for example, strengthened team spirit, giving students a heightened sense of belonging; started a new advisory program so that every student has a mentor in the building; interrelated subjects, so students studying the Civil War in social studies class read literature from that period in their language arts class; and ensured teachers could talk and plan lessons together by carving out a block for that purpose every two days.
"The school also has the benefit of consistency of leadership," Seitsinger said.
Taking the tests -- the New Standards Reference Exams -- seriously helps, officials at the commended schools say.
"Two years ago when we were low performing, we said to the sophomores, who are now our seniors, 'Is this what you want?' " said Narragansett High School Principal Stephen Coppinger. "Now we say the seniors are the class that saved our school, and the juniors now just beat them. And that's what we want."
Westerly High School had a 99.4 percent participation rate on both the math and English portions of the test, and Dunn's Corners had 100 percent, said Asst. Supt. Sylvia Blanda.
"We got across the importance of doing well on the test, and teachers have torn apart the curriculum and built on each grade level to address weak areas," Blanda said.
Westerly teachers also started a writing committee and a problem solving committee, to discuss strategies over several grade levels.
Chariho has worked with the Institute for Learning Consortium for three years, working on a new theme each year -- clearly stating expectations for students, teaching students to support their theories with evidence and pursuing academic rigor.
In addition, an assistant principal for learning and teaching was hired last year.
"We needed a person whose entire focus was on the most important thing that we do, not on disciplinary matters or other things," said Chariho Principal Robert Mitchell.
