School districts in Northwest Arkansas continue to outperform the state in the latest round of statewide test results on math and literacy exams, according to the Office of Education Policy at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
“It’s good news that we have more kids at the proficient or advanced levels than across the state,” said Gary Ritter, director of the Office for Education Policy at UA’s Department of Education Reform. “We should expect to see that.”
Northwest Arkansas school districts tend to have fewer poor students thanother districts in the state, Ritter said. The Northwest Arkansas districts typically pay higher teacher salaries and benefit from a larger labor force, especially with the teachers graduating from UA, the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and John Brown University in Siloam Springs.
The Arkansas Department of Education released annual results Tuesday from the Augmented Benchmark Exam, given to third- through eighth-grade students.
The annual Benchmark exam is used to evaluate and, if necessary, penalize schools. If schools don’t meet state minimum achievementscores on the Benchmark test for two or more years, the state places them on its improvement list. The schools must tutor students, allow them to transfer and, over time, hire school improvement specialists or school improvement consultants.
The results released Tuesday rank student performance as below basic, basic, proficient or advanced.
Ritter said the Rogers School District stands out for performing better than expected given the district’s population of low-income students: 59 percent.
“We’re definitely seeing we’re getting closer to that 100 percent goal,” said Ashley Daniel, director of data analysis and accountability for Rogers Public Schools.
In Rogers, at least 90 percent of the district’s students earned at least grade-level scores - proficient or advanced - in third-grade math and fourth-grade literacy, Ritter and officials from the Rogers School District said. The percentages of students performing on grade level reached the high 80s in fifthgrade math and eighth-grade literacy.
“We have seen very, very positive patterns with the closing of the achievement gaps, especially in fourthgrade literacy,” Daniel said.
In 2005, 65 percent of white students in the Rogers district earned proficient or advancedscores on the Benchmark exam in fourth-grade literacy, compared with 41 percent of Hispanic students, Daniel said. This year, 91 percent of both Hispanic and white students earned those scores. This year marked the first time for an achievement gap to close at the district level, Daniel said.
In analyzing the performance of school districts across the state, Ritter created a grading system that corresponded with each of the four categories reported for the Benchmark exam. The “below basic” scores equated to a grade-point of 1, or a D, while the “advanced” category equated to a 4, or an A. Ritter calculated grade-point averages for overall performance by district, as well as for math and literacy.
Among the top 10 largest districts in Northwest Arkansas’ 12-county region, the analysis showed six districts - Siloam Springs, Fayetteville, Rogers, Greenwood, Harrison and Bentonville - had a higher “grade-point average” than the state’s grade-point average of 3.08 for the third through eighth grades in both reading and literacy. Bentonville School District led the pack with a 3.45, while Fort Smith came in last among the 10 districts at 3.
In reading, grade-point averages for 10 districts ranged from 2.96 at Alma to 3.35 in Harrison, compared with the state’s grade-point average of 3.04, Ritter said. In math, the state earned a grade-point average of 3.11, and the gradepoint averages ranged from a3 for Van Buren to a 3.56 for Harrison.
A strong correlation exists between performance and a district’s level of poverty, or its population of students who qualify for free or reduced price lunches, Ritter said. School districts tend to have better performance when they have lower percentages of poor students.
“Overall, we’re pleased that we’re making good progress,” said Ronnie Newton, assistant superintendent for Alma, where 51 percent of students are poor. “We didn’t make as much progress as we hoped we could.”
A bright spot for Alma came with the eighth-grade literacy results, which showed that 80 percent earned proficient or advanced scores.
“That’s the highest we’ve ever gotten,” Newton said.
In math, the results showed gains for the third, fourth and fifth grades, with 84 percent of third- and fourth-graders earning at least a grade-level score and with 76 percent of fifth-graders scoring in that range, Newton said. Like all other districts, Alma is pushing for 100 percent proficiency in three years, as required by No Child Left Behind.
“We can always do better,” Newton said. “We’re examining as closely as we can our teaching strategies, what works and what doesn’t work.”
For more information on the Benchmark exam, visit the Office for Education Policy website at www.uark.edu/ ua/oep.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 07/22/2011