A. Kaynor noted that this is the Academic Oversight Committee of Excel Academy Rhode Island as well as the School Improvement Team which sets Excel Academy Rhode Island's LEA Strategic Plan, monitors the school's progress towards its goals, and updates the Strategic Plan annually and resubmits to RIDE by July 1.

No members of the public provided comments at this meeting.

S. Patton, F. Reyes, and members of the school and academic teams shared updates with the Committee on the school's academic outcomes, as detailed in the Academic Update Slides and Board Academic Data Dashboard, which were provided to the Committee.

The headline message to the Committee is that the school's results from the 2024-2025 school year continue to show strong improvement for our school, with the following highlights and areas of strength:

• RICAS Growth: Students earned an SGP of 68 in ELA and an SGP of 72 in Math, putting us 1st in the state for student growth.
• RICAS Achievement: Students are performing above the state average in all three subjects.
• Student Culture: Chronic absenteeism and student suspension rates continue to improve.
• Staff Culture: 90% of staff members returned and staff had the highest satisfaction and optimism across Excel's five campuses.

P. Santiago asked a clarifying question about changes to the calculation based on a meeting with RIDE earlier this year. F. Reyes clarified that the metric itself is not shifting, and the change in how the metric is calculated is already accounted for in the data that we are reviewing today.

A. Kaynor asked a clarifying question about how SGP is calculated, which S. Patton and F. Reyes answered.

O. Stearns asked how many of our students are MLLs, which P. Santiago answered.

O. Stearns commented that he is impressed to observe more closely how there are academic growth stories to celebrate from last year across every group of students. S. Patton commended the school team for a successful school year, and noted that we are focused now on building on that growth and continuing to improve this school year.

S. Patton also reviewed the following areas of concern that we are focused on:

• 5th Grade Math: The number of students earning Meeting and Exceeding scores dropped, while the number of students earning Not Meeting scores increased. This change reflects a wider trend of underperformance in 5th grade Math across the network.
• Low Growth for SWDs: While MLL students grew at the rate of their peer, SWDs were 11 pts lower in both ELA and Math.
• Too Many Students Not Meeting Expectations: A large portion of students across grades are still not meeting expectations, which raises concerns about high school readiness​.

S. Patton reminded the Committee of our priorities heading into this year (SY25-26), as well as updated areas of focus this fall based on early indicators at the school, as detailed in the Academic Update Slides.

S. Patton presented an diagnostic analysis of Tier 3 ELA and Math support intervention needs across Excel's middle school campuses by grade level, as detailed on Slide 24 of the Academic Update Slides.

A. Kaynor asked a clarifying question about the definition of Tier 3 intervention needs, which S. Patton, F. Reyes, and M. Perry answered.

K. Cushing commented that many of the Committee members sitting around the table this evening represent a large portion of the team that founded Excel Academy Rhode Island just a few years ago, and that this group of team members is very comfortable doing the highly detailed work to improve student outcomes day by day.

F. Rojas asked for additional context about the disproportionate outcomes for SWDs and MLLs that the team is observing, which P. Santiago and F. Reyes provided. M. Perry noted that a significant number of students who are not SWD or MLL are still in need of Tier 3 intervention, which suggests that they may have had weaker instruction prior to enrolling at Excel. F. Reyes and S. Patton added that we heavily prioritize assessing students' needs early when they join Excel, so that we have the data and context that we need to give students an education that is as responsive to their individual needs as possible.

A. Kaynor, F. Reyes, and S. Patton previewed the Academic Oversight Committee schedule for the year.

C. Chhay and F. Rojas thanked the staff for their extraordinary work on behalf of students and families.

List of documents used in the meeting:

• Meeting Agenda
• Prior Meeting Minutes
• LEA Strategic Plan & SIT Membership Overview
• Quarterly Board Academic Data Dashboard
• Academic Update Slides