Blackstone+Valley+Prep+MS



**Black Stone Valley Prep MS** Blackstone Valley Prep Middle School is a charter school situated in Lincoln Rhode Island, though it is part of the Cumberland school district. This document looks at the comparisons of Blackstone Valley Prep and Lincoln’s Middle School. The reason for this being that while it is part of the Cumberland district, it is in Lincoln. The two schools are situated about four miles away from each other, with about an eleven minute driving distance between them. This report is for anyone who is interested in seeing the differences between these two schools or who are perhaps trying to decide where to send their child.


 * Accountability **

Of these two schools, it seems as though Blackstone may be considered to be the better of the two. In the accountability scores, Lincoln was given a typical grade and Blackstone a leading grade. This seems strange as Lincoln actually spends more money on their district than Cumberland does on. Lincoln spends $14,808 per student while Cumberland only spends $11, 038. While Lincoln seems to be spending more on its students, in the accountability scores, Cumberland does better than Lincoln. ( InfoWorks! November 27, 2013)




 * NECAP **

Standardized tests are a large part of education and when it comes to the NECAP assessments, both schools scored relatively close to one another. In 6th grade reading, Lincoln has students performing with 87% proficiency, and only 68% in Blackstone. When it comes to 6th grade math Lincoln comes out on top again, though not by much. Lincoln has 75% proficiency while Blackstone has 73%. In 7th grade reading Blackstone has 86% proficiency and 7th only has 78%. In 7th grade math Blackstone is ahead with 93% proficiency while Lincoln only has 65% proficiency. Based on this data, it seems that Lincoln's 6th graders test better than Blackstone's 6th graders and Blackstone's 7th graders test better than Lincoln's. (InfoWorks! November 27, 2013)

There are 203 students at Blackstone Valley Prep and 852 at Lincoln Middle School. Blackstone's smaller number of students highly suggests that each student gets more individual attention than at Lincoln Middle School. For every single teacher at Blackstone there are 10 students, and for every single teacher at Lincoln there are 11 students. Seeing as Blackstone has fewer students, it makes sense that it would have more students per teachers. Perhaps a way of improving Lincoln’s middle school would be to get more teachers to aid with the large number of students. In regards to teachers, Lincoln surpasses Blackstone in this way: 2% of teachers at Lincoln are not highly qualified, whereas at Blackstone 88% are not highly qualified. A highly qualified teacher is in its most basic sense, a teacher without a bachelor's degree. Therefore, it stands to reason the teachers at Blackstone may not have even graduated college. 0% of the teachers at Lincoln are teachers with an emergency certification, where Blackstone has 45%. It's hard to tell which school has better teaching as both have their ups and downs. Based on the numbers, it seems it could be that teachers at Lincoln are more educated/experienced, but are faced with larger numbers of students whereas at Blackstone, the less experienced teachers have small groups of children to work with. (InfoWorks! November 27, 2013)


 * Safety **

Perhaps one of the most important things at a school is safety. Based on the data, Lincoln had 261 incidents of suspension between 2011-12 and Blackstone only had 4. The students at Blackstone seem better behaved. At Blackstone, 95.5% of students said they felt safe walking the hallways. In Lincoln 53.5% of students agreed, only 38.2% strongly agreed. 8% of students at Blackstone have seen another student with a weapon of some kind and 12.4% have seen a weapon at Lincoln. While these numbers are not shockingly high, they are too high overall. There shouldn't be any weapons at a middle school or any school. Another thing that is important to school is the student's attendance. In the years 2011-12 the students at both schools had a 97% attendance rate, which shows that a large majority of students do go to school. (InfoWorks! November 27, 2013)


 * Diversity /The Student Body**

Lincoln is not the most diverse schools with less than 1% receiving bilingual services. At Blackstone however, 88% of students are receiving bilingual services. Blackstone also has a lower percent of students receiving special education services, them having 10% and Lincoln having 14%. 31% of the students at Lincoln are eligible for subsidized lunch and 65% is eligible for it at Blackstone. When it comes to the student populace, 91% of the students at Lincoln Middle School are white. At Blackstone, only 38% of the students are white, in fact, the majority are Hispanic kids being at 40% of the student population. Both the districts of Cumberland and Lincoln have large numbers of white citizens. In fact in the overall data from both communities, a majority of the students are white. In both districts they largely outnumber other races. If this is the case, then Blackstone should be like Lincoln in the sense that most of its students are white, but it is not like Lincoln in this way. A possible explanation for there being more Hispanic students at Blackstone is that while Cumberland is mostly white, it has a larger Hispanic community than Lincoln. When it comes to students with disabilities or who have a mental illness of some kind, Lincoln has more students receiving a form of special education than Blackstone. This suggests that Lincoln takes more students that are challenged and works with them. While Blackstone has a more diverse community, it takes in less students with disabilities. Blackstone unlike Lincoln is a charter school, and while it may seem like charter schools are better, it is mostly because they do not take in the students most struggling. (InfoWorks! November 27, 2013, InfoWorks! November 30, 2013)




 * Conclusion **

Blackstone Valley Prep. Middle School and Lincoln Middle School are both good schools with their own benefits and drawbacks. Blackstone as a smaller and more diverse community, while Lincoln’s is larger and primarily white. According to the scores of accountability, Blackstone is a better school. On their website they provide a daily schedule for the students that covers all forms of education, science, English, the arts, etc, and also provides advising and breakfast for the students. As they are both two different types of schools, their comparison can only go so far. Public and Charter schools each have different views and goals. Based on the data provided however, Blackstone Valley Prep. Middle School seems to be the better school.

InfoWorks! Rhode Island Education Data Reporting - RIDE.ri.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2013, from http://infoworks.ride.ri.gov/school/blackstone-valley-prep-middle-school
 * Works Cited **

InfoWorks! Rhode Island Education Data Reporting - RIDE.ri.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2013, from http://infoworks.ride.ri.gov/school/lincoln-middle-school

Middle School. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2013, from http://blackstonevalleyprep.org/our-schools/middle-school

Lincoln Middle School. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2013, from http://www.lincolnps.org/middleschool/

InfoWorks! Rhode Island Education Data Reporting - RIDE.ri.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2013, from http://infoworks.ride.ri.gov/district/lincoln

InfoWorks! Rhode Island Education Data Reporting - RIDE.ri.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2013, from http://infoworks.ride.ri.gov/district/cumberland