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Rhode Island Schools: The Basic Facts

View/download Profile of Schools, Student Characteristics, and School Performance (PDF, 38KB)

View/download Family and Poverty Indicators (PDF, 64KB)

WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT

The charts in this section give information about the public schools in Rhode Island, the students who attend these schools, and the teachers who teach in them.

Here you will find an overall census of the Rhode Island public schools for the year 2006-07, demographic information and other data about the students attending schools in Rhode Island (including percentages of students in nonpublic schools), and summaries of the statewide data on school-performance classifications. The Family and Poverty Indicators contain information about the economic status of families with children.

WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR

You are looking to get a sense of the composition, diversity, and economic status of the school population in Rhode Island.

Teachers

On the previous page, the first set of numbers shown (headcounts) is an actual count of all teachers in the Rhode Island public schools. The second set (FTEs) shows the number of teachers computed as full-time equivalents: a teacher working half-time counts as 0.5 FTEs, for example. This FTE figure is used for certain computations elsewhere in this report. For example, we use FTEs rather than the actual count to determine the teacher-student ratios.

Public Schools

In the 2006-07 school year there were 314 public schools in Rhode Island:
The state’s local school districts operated 295 public schools plus 3 public charter schools: Textron Chamber of Commerce Academy and Times2 Academy, both in the Providence School District, and the New England Laborers/Cranston Public Schools Construction Careers Academy.

The state operates 4 schools: the Rhode Island School for the Deaf, the William M. Davies Jr. Career-Technical High School, and The Metropolitan Regional Career & Technical Center (The Met), which are operated by Boards of Trustees, and the DCYF Alternative Education Program.

In the 2006-07 school year, there were 8 independently operated public charter schools; each of these schools functions in effect as its own school district: The Learning Community, in Central Falls; CVS Highlander Charter Elementary School and Paul Cuffee Charter School, both in Providence; International Charter School, in Pawtucket; the Compass Charter School and the Kingston Hill Academy, both in South Kingstown; and the BEACON Charter School, in Woonsocket.

The Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program is a public school. There are 4 other regional collaboratives, which provide special-education and alternative-education services for children in the districts within their region. These collaboratives are considered regional programs rather than schools.

There are 3 publicly operated early-childhood centers (preschools). These three public schools are not subject to the accountability provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, nor do they receive school-performance classifications through the Rhode Island accountability system.

In addition to the 314 public schools:

There are 8 Area Career & Technical Schools operated by school districts:
• Career Center at Coventry High School
• Chariho Area Career & Technical Center
• Cranston Area Career & Technical Center
• East Providence Area Career & Technical Center
• James L. Hanley Career & Technical Center
• Newport County Career & Technical Center
• Warwick Area Career & Technical Center
• Woonsocket Area Career & Technical Center

These are not stand-alone high schools; they are operated by school districts, and they enroll students from outside the district. Each has its own school report, however student test scores are attributed to the high school where the student takes core academic subjects. None of these Area Career & Technical Schools receives a school-performance classification.

School Districts

In 2006-07 there were 36 locally operated public school districts, including four regional districts (Bristol Warren, Chariho, Exeter-West Greenwich, Foster-Glocester).

Each of the 4 schools operated by the state is a state school district.

Each of the independently operated 8 public charter schools is a charter school district.

Type of Schooling

Public charter: The percentage of Rhode Island’s students who are enrolled in charter schools, whether independently operated or operated by a school district, as of October 2006.

Other public schools: The percentage of Rhode Island’s students who are enrolled in public schools operated by a district, as of October 2006, exclusive of those enrolled in public charter schools.

Home schooled: The percentage of students who have received permission from the school committee of their local district to be instructed at home according to the provisions of Section 16-19-2 of the General Laws of Rhode Island, as of October 2006.

Nonpublic: The percentage of students attending private or parochial schools, as of October 2006.

Eligibility for subsidized lunch

Eligible for free or reduced-price lunch: Students whose family incomes fall below certain income (poverty or near-poverty) guidelines. This measure indicates the percent of students who were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches in October 2006.

Not Eligible: Students whose family income falls outside the low-income guidelines as of October 2006.

Ethnic background

African-American: A student having origins in any of the African-American racial groups, not including people of Hispanic origins.

Asian: A student having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Pacific Islands, e.g., China, Japan, Korea, the Philippine Islands, and Samoa.

Hispanic: A student of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or Central or South American or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.

Native American: A student having origins in any of the original peoples of North America, including American Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts.

White: A student having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, or the Indian subcontinent.

Receiving ESL or bilingual education

English as a Second Language: A student who receives content-area instruction solely in English while learning English as a second language.

Bilingual: A student who receives instruction in English and another language to support content-area learning while learning English as a second language.

Receiving special-education services

Nonrecipients: Percent of the K-12 public-school students in the state who do not receive special-education services.

Self-contained: Percent of the K-12 public-school students in the state in self-contained special-education classes, in which instruction is provided by a special educator in a separate special-education setting for more than half of the instructional day.

General Education with Supports: Percent of the K-12 public-school students in the state for whom instruction is provided by a special educator for less than half of the instructional day; the rest of the instruction for these students is provided in a general-education setting. (This population does not include students receiving special-education services who have been parentally placed in nonpublic schools.)

Homebound/Hospitalized: Percent of the K-12 public-school students in the state who receive education services either at home (because of medical reasons) or in a hospital setting.

Schools in Each Classification

This table gives you a snapshot of school performance in public schools as measured by the Rhode Island Accountability System.

All elementary and middle schools are classified as either:

High Performing
Moderately Performing, or
Insufficient Progress

Some high-performing and moderately performing elementary and middle schools are recognized as “commended schools” because of exceptionally high performance or significant improvement.

High schools were not classified in 2006-07 because of the transition to a new high-school assessment. High schools that missed multiple targets or missed targets for consecutive years, however, were classified as making “insufficient progress.”

All schools that met all of the annual targets established by the No Child Left Behind Act have made “adequate yearly progress.”

Family and Poverty Indicators

The Rhode Island Kids Count tables present information about the economic and social status of the Rhode Island student population. The tables show the percentage of students living in poverty in each of the New England states and in the nation as a whole. They also show for groups of Rhode Island students the mother’s level of education attainment.

Though many students overcome adverse circumstances and succeed in school, achievement levels tend to mirror levels of poverty and of parental education.

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For further information call the Rhode Island Department of Education at 401-222-8471.

Information Works! is produced in partnership with the National Center on Public Education and Social Policy at the University of Rhode Island.