URI, RI education department wins award for Web site

By: Jeff Sullivan

Posted: 4/18/08

04/18/08 - The University of Rhode Island's division of the National Center on Public Education and Social Policy was given an Outstanding Publication award for its work on the Information Works! Web site by the American Educational Research Association.

The NCPESP collaborated on the Web site with the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, or RIDE, to show specifically how well and to what degree Rhode Island's public school system is improving the education of its students.

It also shows what areas improvements are needed, and what number of students are proficient at all levels of education.

"RIDE was absolutely thrilled about receiving this award," said David Abbot, the deputy commissioner of RIDE. "I can only say really good things about the project."

URI associate professor Anne Seitsinger, of the NCPESP, said that URI's involvement with the project ranged from production responsibilities to the actual input of the data. She said that the newest feature on the Web site was key in the AERA's choice of the site for the award. The feature allows web surfers the ability to take unchangeable information from Adobe Acrobat files and insert them directly into a database file, or an Excel spreadsheet-type format. This makes getting the information into other formats and presentations easier, as it is impossible to cut or copy textual information from an Adobe Acrobat file.

Seitsinger said that the area in which Rhode Island needs the most improvement is in parental involvement within their children's education.

"A lot of the research we have done here indicates that when parents are more involved in their children's education, students perform better," she said. "When students are aware that their parents are more involved in their education, the differences between being in school and being at home are not so great. Everyone's working together with the same message."

She added that blurring the line between the two figures of authority in the students' lives is more conducive to student achievement, because it combines the respect of each authority figure in the minds of students.

"I have long believed that a well-informed public is vital to the process of school improvement," said Commissioner for RIDE Peter McWalters in a press release. "Along with our partners at NCPE, we have invested a great deal of time and expertise in our effort to bring clear, accurate and timely information to the public through our Information Works! reports."

Seitsinger also said that on the high school level, improvements to regulations concerning student proficiency will be put in place because of the Information Works! Web site. These improvements included personalization, proficiency-based graduation and literacy skills.

The Web site has three sections for its reports, which are based on an individual school's proficiency rating, a district rating and how the state is doing overall. Graphs, charts and tables are provided on the site, which include a wide range of information, including attendance rates, graduation rates, teacher grievances, financial data on school spending and suspension rates.