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PARCC Data Flawed - Second School District Comes Forward

Friday, November 20, 2015

GoLocalProv News Team and Kate Nagle

The Superintendent of the Tiverton School Department said that he believes the recent PARCC results for an elementary school in town are incorrect, making it the second school district contesting the results of the first year of the state educational assessment.

"We had an issue with one of elementary schools. We had a number of students take the alternate assessment, but the state counted those kids as regular ed kids, so then it looked like our participation rate was lower than it should be," said Superintendent William Rearick.

The revelation comes following the Scituate School Department claiming their middle school numbers were wrong, which RIDE acknowledged it was looking into.

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"We told RIDE they need to make the correction," continued Rearick. "They told us they were aware of the situation but that it wasn't corrected in time."

RIDE Says Schools Responsible

"We were the only distinct that did full paper-pencil," said Rearick. According to RIDE, eighty percent of the 75,000 students who took them did so on computers, and twenty percent were pencil and paper.

"RIDE said they weren’t coded correctly. The said they were 'code 5' they should have been 'code 6', but that’s not how we code them," said Rearick. "We're confident in our uploads. Our data shows we uploaded it correctly."

"I think the important part is that this is an important number, said Rearick. "I’ll give everyone the benefit of the double, but clearly we were unlucky."

RIDE said it was continuing to review issues with the test results -- but says the schools should have looked closer at the results before they went public.

"As is typical on publication of a report with thousands of data elements we are reviewing a number of data points. We will update as necessary and will inform media of any updates," said Elliot Krieger at RIDE. "We do not anticipate any effect on state-level results. Please also note that school districts had their results for review prior to the public release."

Scituate Assistant Superintendent Lawrence Filippelli, whose district is seeking a correction, spoke to the status of the process on Thursday.

"RIDE did reach out to me yesterday afternoon to tell me they were working on everything for me. I have to say, they are doing the right thing by us with the re-analyzation," said Filippelli. "They are going to send a correction and explanation of the correction to our School Committee and Superintendent at some point. I am just awaiting the new data set from them so I can finish my district-wide analysis after the new numbers come in. I am hopeful that they will acknowledge the glitch and correction publicly as well as with the district committee and leadership.

Related Slideshow: The RI High Schools with the Most Absentee Students

Below are the rates of chronic absenteeism for public high schools across the state. Figures are taken from the InfoWorks database maintained by the Rhode Island Department of Education. As the state defines it, a student has become chronically absent when he or she has missed 10 percent of the school year. With a 180-day mandated school year, that comes out to at least 18 or more days of missed school. Data is for the most recent academic year, 2013 to 2014.

#59 Ponaganset High School

Location: Foster and Glocester

Total # Students: 684

% Chronically Absent: 4%

#58 Beacon Charter High School for the Arts

Location: Woonsocket

Total # of Students: 227

% Chronically Absent: 6%

#57 Barrington High School

Location: Barrington

Total # of Students: 1,027

% Chronically Absent: 7%

#56 North Smithfield High School

Location: North Smithfield

Total # of Students: 519

% Chronically Absent: 7 %

#55 Portsmouth High School

Location: Portsmouth

Total # of Students: 960

% Chronically Absent: 8%

#54 East Greenwich High School

Location: East Greenwich

Total # of Students: 729

% Chronically Absent: 9%

#53 Exeter-West Greenwich High School

Location: Exeter and West Greenwich

Total # of Students: 540

% Chronically Absent: 9%

#52 Chariho Regional High School

Location: Charlestown

Total # of Students: 1,201

% Chronically Absent:

#51 Middletown High School

Location: Middletown

Total # of Students: 685

% Chronically Absent: 10%

#50 North Kingstown Senior High School

Location: North Kingstown

Total # of Students: 1,387

% Chronically Absent:11%

#49 Smithfield Senior High School

Location: Smithfield

Total # of Students: 755

% Chronically Absent: 11 %

#48 Westerly High School

Location: Smithfield

Total # of Students: 917

% Chronically Absent: 11%

#47 Block Island School

Location: New Shoreham

Total # of Students: NA

% Chronically Absent: 12%

#46 South Kingstown High School

Location: South Kingstown

Total # of Students: 1,073

% Chronically Absent: 12 %

#45 Tiverton High School

Location: Tiverton

Total # of Students: 1,607

% Chronically Absent: 14%

#44 Coventry High School

Location: Coventry

Total # of Students: 1,607

% Chronically Absent: 14 %

#43 Cumberland High School

Location: Cumberland

Total # of Students: 1,337

% Chronically Absent: 14%

#42 Narragansett High School

Location: Narragansett

Total # of Students: 429

% Chronically Absent: 14%

#41 The Greene School

Location: Exeter

Total # of Students: 162

% Chronically Absent: 15%

#40 Highlander Charter Academy

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: NA

% Chronically Absent: 16%

#39 Burrillville High School

Location: Burrillville

Total # of Students: 682

% Chronically Absent: 18%

#38 Lincoln Senior High School

Location: Lincoln

Total # of Students: 1,005

% Chronically Absent: 18%

#37 Mt. Hope High School

Location: Bristol

Total # of Students: 990

% Chronically Absent:19%

#36 East Providence High School

Location: East Providence

Total # of Students: 1,502

% Chronically Absent: 19%

#35 Paul Cuffee Charter School

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: NA

% Chronically Absent: 19%

#34 Times2 Academy

Location: Providence

Total Number of Students: NA

% Chronically Absent: 19%

#33 Academy for Career Exploration

Location: Providence

Total Number of Students: 168

% Chronically Absent: 19%

#32 Scituate High School

Location: Scituate

Total Number of Students: 469

% Chronically Absent: 19%

#31 J.M. Walsh School

Location: Pawtucket

Total number of students: 192

% Chronically Absent: 20%

#30 Classical High School

Location: Providence

Total Number of Students: 1,119

% Chronically Absent: 21%

#29 Toll Gate High School

Location: Wawick

Total # of Students: 958

% Chronically Absent: 21%

#28 West Warwick Senior High School

Location: West Warwick

Total # of Students: 935

% Chronically Absent: 21%

#27 Davies Career and Techinical Center

Location: Lincoln

Total # of Students: 849

% Chronically Absent: 22%

#26 Pilgrim High School

Location: Warwick

Total # of Students: 991

% Chronically Absent: 22%

#25 Johnston Senior High School

Location: Johnston

Total # of Students: 893

% Chronically Absent: 24%

#24 North Providence High School

Location: North Providence

Total # of Students: 969

% Chronically Absent: 26%

#23 Cranston High School East

Location: Cranston

Total # of Students: 1,583

% Chronically Absent: 27%

#22 Warwick Veterans Memorial High School

Location: Warwick

Total # of Students: 910

% Chronically Absent: 27%

#21 RI Nurses Institute

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: 266

% Chronically Absent: 29%

#20 Rogers High School

Location: Newport

Total # of Students: 538

% Chronically Absent: 32%

#19 RI School for the Deaf

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: NA

% Chronically Absent: 32%

#18 Tolman Senior High School

Location: Pawtucket

Total # of Students: 1,034

% Chronically Absent: 33%

#17 Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: 838

% Chronically Absent: 33%

#16 Cranston High School West

Location: Cranston

Total # of Students:1,526

% Chronically Absent: 33%

#15 Village Green Virtual Charter School

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: NA

% Chronically Absent: 39%

#14 E-Cubed Academy

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: 349

% Chronically Absent: 39%

#13 Mount Pleasant High School

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: 898

% Chronically Absent: 39%

#12 Central Falls High School

Location: Central Falls

Total # of Students: 727

% Chronically Absent: 40%

#11 Shea Senior High School

Location: Pawtucket

Total # of Students: 858

% Chronically Absent: 42%

#10 Blackstone Charter Academy

Location: Pawtucket

Total # of Students: 168

% Chronically Absent: 43%

#9 Providence Career and Technical Academy

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: 577

% Chronically Absent: 44%

#8 Woonsocket High School

Location: Woonsocket

Total # of Students: 1,579

% Chronically Absent: 47%

#7 Cranston Construction Career Academy

Location: Cranston

Total # of Students:158

% Chronically Absent: 49%

#6 William B. Cooley Senior High School

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: 617

% Chronically Absent: 50%

#5 Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: 486

% Chronicallly Absent: 53%

#4 Central High School

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: 1,112

% Chronically Absent: 55%

#3 Hope High School

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: 894

% Chronically Absent: 55%

#2 Sheila Skip Nowell Leadership Academy (II)

Location: Providence

Total # of Students: 81

% Chronically Absent: 87%

#1 Sheila Skip Nowell Leadership Academy (I)

Location: Central Falls

Total # of Students: 73

% of Chronically Absent: 89%

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