Understanding Data
Dictionary of Data Terms
Teaching
Teachers with Emergency Certification
Individuals who do not qualify for full state certification may be granted an emergency certificate to teach in the public schools, upon written request of the Superintendent of Schools, when fully certified applicants are not available. The Superintendents must advertise for certified candidates in the statewide newspaper and must first contact local colleges and universities with educator-preparation programs.
Teaching
Not Highly Qualified Teachers
The No Child Left behind Act introduced the term "Highly Qualified Teacher," and requires that all teachers of core academic subjects be highly qualified. To meet the federal definition a teacher must 1) have a Bachelor’s Degree, 2) hold full state certification and 3) demonstrate subject matter competency in the core academic subject(s) by having a major or its equivalent or by passing a rigorous content knowledge test.
RIDE collects data from all schools and districts that determine what percentage of classes are taught by "highly qualified teachers." Note that a teacher may be highly qualified in one subject, but not in another (e.g., a science teacher may be highly qualified in biology but not in physics).
Read more about Rhode Island's criteria to determine if a teacher is highly qualified.
Teaching
Teacher-Student Ratio
The ratio of teachers to students is a simple calculation dividing the number of students in a school by the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers.
A note on InfoWorks data reporting: To ensure confidentiality, data are not reported for groups with fewer than 10 students, so that no individual student is identifiable. Where this is the case, InfoWorks reports "too few data." Also, "no data" is used to point out instances where data are not available for a particular state, district, or school indicator.