ROGERS — Students at Eastside Elementary learned Monday morning their test scores won the school a National Title I Distinguished School honor.
The students and teachers gathered for an assembly greeted the news with a coordinated cheer.
“All right, all right, all right!” they cheered. “Awesome, awesome, awesome!”
The award is given by the National Title I Association to schools with a high level of students from low-income families. Only two schools per state receive the honor.
The schools are recognized for either closing achievement gaps between different groups of students, or as in the case of Eastside, exceeding federal academic performance requirements for two years in a row.
Eastside students scored proficient or advanced on state standardized tests in 2010 at a rate up to 19 points higher than the state average, according to data from the Arkansas Department of Education.
Teachers attributed the school’s success to teamwork among teachers, staff and parents, an innovative mix of programs and, critically, a year-round calendar that has more frequent but shorter breaks than the traditional school calendar.
Robin Wilkerson, the school’s principal, said the year-round calendar helps prevent a phenomenon known as summer slide, the loss of knowledge over the months-long summer breaks of regular school calendars.
Gary Ritter, a professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas, said the summer slide can have a bigger impact on students from low-income families. Students in those families may not have a parent at home as much to help with homework, he said. They could also be less likely to get out-of-school educational opportunities, such as museum visits, he said.