Tiverton officials cite strong RICAS scores, outline targeted action plans

Doctor Sanchioni presented the district’s 2024 RICAS results and a set of action plans aimed at addressing gaps and building on strengths across elementary, middle and high school grades.

"This test does not measure the greatness of the school," Doctor Sanchioni said, urging the committee to view RICAS as one data point among many and to use longitudinal trends to guide instruction. He told members the district’s three elementary schools generally outperformed state averages in ELA and math and pointed to all-time highs in some grade-level math scores.

Sanchioni reviewed longitudinal charts showing growth at Fort Barton, Picasset and Ranger schools and compared Tiverton results with East Bay districts. He said the district analyzes item-level performance (when available) and works with principals to develop school-specific action plans. "We look at each question and see how well our students performed on it...and look back into the curriculum," he said.

Principals described practical classroom steps drawn from the analysis: increase online reading and writing stamina, weave narrative writing across subjects, and add targeted mathematics skill work (for example, division and fractions) into daily warm-ups. Principal remarks emphasized the need to address cohort-specific skill gaps rather than relying solely on one test year.

Committee members pressed about unreleased item-level question data and the effect of scoring changes. "RICAS is now primarily scored via AI," one principal observed, noting a human read remains on a small percentage of writing scores. The district said RIDE had not yet released item-level questions this year; staff will revise action plans if and when that data becomes available.

No formal vote was required. District leaders said the action plans and additional school-level details are included in the packet and principals will continue to report progress at future meetings.