ESEA Waiver: Implications for the Providence School District Providence School Board Presentation June 18, 2012

What Does the ESEA Waiver Offer? Relief from identifying an ever-increasing number of schools as “in need of improvement” Increased flexibility in use of Title I funding A more accurate and diagnostic accountability and intervention system

Rhode Island’s Approved ESEA Waiver A New Approach to School Measurement MeasureComponents Elementary / Middle Schools High Schools Absolute Percent Proficient All Students Minority + FRL IEP +LEP 30 Progress To 2017 TargetAll Students10 Achievement Gaps Minority+FRL 30 IEP+LEP Percent of Tested students in Distinction Level All Students55 Growth All Students 25n/a Minority+FRL IEP+LEP HS Graduation RatesAll Students n/a 20 High School Scaled ScoreAll Students n/a 5 TOTAL 100

A New Approach to School Classification ClassificationDescription Commended Commended Schools are the highest performing schools. They represent the strongest patterns of performance across metrics, test at least 95% of their students, and serve all students well. Leading Leading schools demonstrate success by having strong achievement in reading and mathematics, small or no gaps in student performance, or are improving student achievement, or increasing graduation rates. Typical Typical Schools perform near or at the state average and may out-perform the state average on one or more metrics but also may demonstrate significant challenges on one or more metrics. Warning Warning schools have a combination of substandard achievement in reading and math, unacceptable achievement gaps, and demonstrate little or no progress in improving achievement or graduation rates. Focus Focus schools have substandard achievement in reading and math, unacceptable achievement gaps, and demonstrate little or no academic progress in improving student achievement or increasing graduation rates Priority Priority schools have the lowest achievement in reading and mathematics, intolerable gaps in student performance and demonstrate little or no academic progress in improving student achievement or increasing graduation rates. Rhode Island’s Approved ESEA Waiver

A New Approach to Intervention ModelDescription Closure LEA closes the identified school and enrolls the students who attended that school in other public schools within the state that are higher achieving. These other schools should be within a reasonable proximity to the closed school and may include, but are not limited to, charter schools or new schools for which achievement data are not yet available. Restart LEA converts a school or closes it and reopens a new school under one of the following mechanisms: (1) a regional collaborative organized pursuant to RIGL Chapter ; (2) a charter school operator or a charter management organization or similarly independent entity that materially changes school operations; (3) an education management organization that has been selected through a rigorous review process; or (4) the creation of a joint Labor/Management Compact Flex Model The Flex Model requires districts to select a comprehensive package of intervention strategies from a RIDE-developed and managed list of 28 empirically proven intervention strategies. The LEA selection of the strategies must be: (1) coherent, (2) comprehensive, (3) responsive to the results of the diagnostic screen, and (4) ambitious but achievable.

So What Happens In Identified Schools?