Lincoln continuing improvement plan

BENTONVILLE — A local school is making improvements in its test scores, and some of the area's youngest students are getting help from a national reading program, members of the Bentonville School Board Curriculum Committee learned Thursday.

The committee, which met for its monthly meeting, received an update from Principal Rose Peterson regarding Lincoln Junior High School's special-education population's test scores. The school, as a whole, has excellent Benchmark test scores but was placed on the state's school-improvement list several years ago because the school's special-education subpopulation did not make what is considered "adequate yearly progress" on its literacy Benchmark exams. In other words, not enough students who are categorized in that subpopulation scored either proficient or advanced on the exams.

When the school was placed on the improvement list, administrators and teachers worked together to create a plan that would help the struggling students improve their test scores, thus allowing the school to make adequate yearly progress. Those plans apparently worked, as the special-education subpopulation met the standard for adequate yearly progress for the last school year. The school isn'tout of the proverbial woods yet, however, as the state requires schools to meet the standard for two consecutive years before the school is removed from the schoolimprovement list.

"We're pleased with our progress, but we know we have a long way to go," Peterson told the committee.

This school year, the teachers will continue with many of the same plans they used last year that proved so successful, she said. The more than twopage list of programs and action plans includes using literacy specialists to work with students, as well as using quarterly assessments to gauge student progress.

The committee also heard from Sandra Dennison, a Reading Recovery teacher leader in the district. Reading Recovery is a national program designed to help first-graders who are demonstrating signs that they are not reading at grade level. Specially trained teachers work with the students using the Reading Recovery program tools. There are also teachers who work with older students in the elementary schools who are struggling with reading, she said.

According to data provided from students in the program since it started in Bentonville three years ago, many students have been "discontinued" from the program, which means they improve their reading skills to the point that they no longer need to participate in the program.