Most Springdale Schools Need Improvement

— The state has identified most of Springdale’s schools as needing improvement.

The Arkansas Department of Education announced Monday the classification of every school in the state based on a new system intended to hold schools accountable.

The new system places each school in one of five categories: exemplary, achieving, needs improvement, needs improvement focus and needs improvement priority.

It’s a complete change from labels formerly used. Earlier this year, Arkansas received a waiver for certain requirements under No Child Left Behind, freeing it to pursue a system that recognizes schools as much for how they improve as for their overall performances.

The new system looks at student performance on state assessments in terms of student achievement and student growth. For high schools, it also takes graduation rates into account.

Each school and school district is assigned an annual measurable objective unique to each school, said Tom Kimbrell, state education commissioner. The objectives are set using the 2011 testing data.

Annual performance or growth targets were set in literacy and math for all students as well as subgroups of students, including the economically disadvantaged, English learners and students with disabilities. If the target was not met for any of those groups, the school was designated as needs improvement.

The new system “helps us to better distinguish and measure success and progress for students across Arkansas,” Kimbrell said during a news conference Monday.

Springdale’s Alternative Learning Center is one of 46 schools statewide, and the only one in Northwest Arkansas, identified as needs improvement priority, the most serious category.

Eight Springdale schools are in needs improvement focus, seven are in needs improvement and 10 are in achieving status. None were identified as exemplary; only five schools statewide attained that status.

Priority schools are the lowest-performing schools in the state, Kimbrell said. Focus schools have the largest achievement gaps between certain groups of students within that school.

At A Glance

Springdale Schools Classifications

Exemplary

-None

Achieving

-George Junior High

-Bayyari Elementary

-Elmdale Elementary

-Hunt Elementary

-Jones Elementary

-Lee Elementary

Smith Elementary

-Sonora Elementary

-Walker Elementary

-Westwood Elementary

Needs Improvement

-Hellstern Middle

-Kelly Middle

-Harp Elementary

-Shaw Elementary

-Turnbow Elementary

-Tyson Elementary

-Young Elementary

Needs Improvement Focus

-Springdale High

-Har-Ber High

-Central Junior High*

-Southwest Junior High*

-Tyson Middle*

-George Elementary*

-Monitor Elementary

-Parson Hills Elementary*

Needs Improvement Priority

-Alternative Learning Center

  • Indicates school met first-year goal on 2012 assessments. If goals are met in 2013 assessments, they will get out of either focus or priority status.

Source: Arkansas Department Of Education

Priority and focus schools will receive more assistance from the state. The progress of those schools will be tracked on a regular basis, Kimbrell said. If these schools meet their annual measurable objectives for two consecutive years, they may be removed from their respective categories.

Springdale Superintendent Jim Rollins said the state performed scholastic audits earlier this year on four of the eight schools identified as focus schools. Recommendations for action have been enacted for them. Scholastic audits were just completed on the other four focus schools; district officials expect to receive recommendations from those audits within the next six weeks.

The Alternative Learning Center enrolls about 300 high school students at three sites combined. Rollins said many variables come into play with kids in an alternative education setting.

“We’re applying a traditional test to a nontraditional situation,” Rollins said. “Sometimes that gives you some awkward test results.”

Expectations for those students are high, he said.

Paul Griep, Alternative Learning Center principal, said numerous measures have been adopted to raise student achievement.

For example, the school has arranged all teachers in the same subject area to have a common planning time, which encourages collaboration among them, Griep said.

Investing in technology, working to increase student attendance and concentrating on assessment strategies to determine what students are grasping the material are a few other ways the school is trying to boost achievement, he said.

Dozens of students are on a waiting list to get into the Alternative Learning Center.

Kimbrell stressed schools classified as needs improvement are not failing schools. In fact, these schools could be very high performing; the designation simply means school leaders and teachers must examine the data to find out which specific group of students is not achieving on state assessments, then make a plan to meet their needs.

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