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Superintendent outlines RIDE accountability changes, highlights steady district performance and lower chronic absenteeism
Summary
South Kingstown Superintendent presented the Rhode Island Department of Education accountability results, explaining multi-year cohort scoring and subgroup thresholds; district total points were about unchanged from last year, with improved graduation rate and reduced chronic absenteeism but shifts in where points were awarded.
South Kingstown Superintendent Dr. Maguire presented the district's summary of the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) accountability 'star ratings' and explained why year-to-year comparisons can be misleading.
Dr. Maguire told the school committee that RIDE uses multi-year cohorts and subgroup thresholds when calculating ratings, noting a subgroup must reach an n-size of 20 students before that subgroup's scores count toward a school's accountability measures. "When you're averaging multiple years of data, it is not an apples-to-apples comparison," he said, adding that small cohort changes can produce large swings in a school's star rating.
The superintendent said district-level total points are roughly unchanged from last year, but the distribution shifted: growth points declined while English-language-proficiency and diploma-plus measures rose. He noted the district's four-year graduation rate increased to 92.5 percent and chronic absenteeism is trending downward.
Board members pressed for clarity about what "growth" measures and the effects of small cohorts. One member questioned whether improved achievement naturally reduces growth points ("less room to grow"). Dr. Maguire described growth as a measure derived from state assessments that places students into low, average or high growth tiers and said several legitimate factors (including students without baseline scores and grade-level testing differences) affect those calculations.
Committee members praised reductions in chronic absenteeism and credited credit-recovery programs and school leaders for maintaining high graduation rates. The committee accepted the report by voice vote.
What's next: staff said they will return to several of these measures in future reports and program planning, and that the district intends to use the accountability data to guide targeted interventions for low-performing subgroups.
