The Rhode Island Campaign for Achievement Now today released its 2012 School Report Cards for 300 Rhode Island public schools. (Click here to register and view the Coventry report cards.)

“The report cards are designed to help Rhode Island parents serve as effective advocates for their kids," said RI-CAN Executive Director Maryellen Butke. "Parents deserve to know how well their child’s public school is meeting the needs of all of its students.”

RI-CAN used students’ academic performance in four key categories: average student performance, subgroup performance, achievement gaps and performance gains. The grades, which range from A to F, are calculated based on the October 2011 New England Common Assessment Program scores, released in January 2012 by the Rhode Island Department of Education.

Using the data from the School Report Cards, RI-CAN also released the Top 10 Rhode Island public schools that have higher levels of achievement in critical areas. RI-CAN used these rankings to generate Top 10 lists for each category in the report cards: Performance Gains, Low-Income Performance, African-American Performance, Hispanic Performance, Improvement, Limited English Proficiency Performance and Title I School Performance.

“Our state's achievement gaps are still unacceptably high and overall performance statewide is stagnant,” said Butke. "We must be transparent about how Rhode Island schools are performing - it's a critical step towards improving our schools."

Click here to read the methadology.

Click here to see the Top 10 schools list.