Fayetteville, Springdale Schools Show Improvement

More schools meet target performance levels for 2009-10

Some schools in Fayetteville and Springdale are showing improvement under the federal No Child Left Behind standards, according to reports to be released Monday by the Arkansas Department of Education measuring adequate yearly progress for school districts across the state.

A number of schools in Springdale and Fayetteville in some phase of school improvement a year ago have moved ahead sufficiently to shed those labels or move up a notch in the process, school officials said Friday.

The Arkansas Department of Education plans to release the report to the public Monday. Many school districts have already received the information.

In Fayetteville, Owl Creek School and Holt Middle School are on the list for improvement. Both were listed last year as well.

Other Fayetteville schools at varying levels of school improvement are Washington Elementary School and Woodland Junior High School, said Sarah McKenzie, the district’s director of assessment, research and accountability.

“Our biggest gains were for literacy,” McKenzie said, noting the district’s focus on literacy for the last two years.

In Springdale, Smith Elementary School is the only school listed as on alert. Smith is on alert this year for inadequate progress on the math Benchmark; last year it was on alert for students’ literacy performance.

Elmdale Elementary School is still listed for targeted improvement — based on the performance of a subgroup — even though the school’s scores met the achievement level this year. A school on improvement has to be at the achieving level for two years in a row to be removed from the improvement status.

“We’re happy to see the forward momentum,” said Marsha Jones, an associate superintendent in Springdale. “Overall the district has made progress.”

She attributed the improvement to a better focus on individual students and their needs.

“In the end, this is about how to make a stronger student who can achieve at a higher level,” Jones said. “The ultimate goal is to make sure every child reaches his or her potential. We do that with personalized instruction, shared data, extra support, by monitoring programs and communicating that to the student.”

Springdale continues to be challenged by students with special needs and students with limited English language proficiency. The annual Benchmark exams, on which adequate yearly progress is based, are given in English, even to students who may not speak the language well.

With nearly 19,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, Springdale schools are home to some 1,500 Marshallese students and about 6,500 Hispanic students, Jones said. Between 30 and 40 languages are spoken by students and their families.

Some 62 percent of the district’s students are eligible for free and reduced meals, which is a measure of poverty in schools.

Fayetteville has an enrollment of about 8,300 students. About 40 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced-price meals. McKenzie said one of the most challenging subpopulations in Fayetteville are special education students.

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AT A GLANCE

Adequate Yearly Progress

Adequate yearly progress is a requirement of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The act calls for all students to test proficient or higher in math and literacy by the 2013-14 school year.

It requires annual improvement in the standardized math and literacy test scores for the general student population and for subpopulations such as students with disabilities, those who are economically disadvantaged, Hispanic students, students who know limited English or students who are highly mobile.

Subpopulations are only counted in the calculations if 40 students at a school are in one of the subgroups, according to Arkansas’ measurement plan.

Schools that do not make progress two years in a row are placed on the state’s school improvement list. They are subject to increasingly stronger sanctions for each year the school is in school improvement.

In the first year of school improvement, the school has to allow students to transfer to other schools. In later years, the state may require changes to personnel or curriculum.

If the school does not make adequate yearly progress after the fifth year, the state takes more control of the school and appoints a school improvement director, according to the Arkansas Department of Education.

Source: Staff Report

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