County Schools Need More Work in Math, Literacy

— Washington County high schools fell short of their goals in the status report issued earlier this week by the Arkansas Department of Education.

Elkins, Farmington and West Fork high schools were cited as “needs improvement schools” in literacy, while Greenland, Lincoln and Prairie Grove were named needing improvement in math.

At A Glance

School Status

Achieving Schools

-Elkins: Elementary and primary schools

-Farmington: Randall G. Lynch Middle School

-Lincoln: Middle school

-West Fork: Elementary school

Needs Improvement Schools

-Elkins: Middle and High schools

-Farmington: High School, Ledbetter Intermediate, Williams and Folsom Elementary schools.

-Greenland: Elementary, middle and high schools

-Lincoln: Elementary and high schools

-Prairie Grove: Elementary, intermediate, middle and high schools

-West Fork: Middle and high schools

Source: Staff Report

The achieving schools in the six smaller school districts were elementary schools in Elkins and West Fork and middle schools in Farmington and Lincoln. An achieving school is one in which all students met goals on Benchmark testing last spring.

The state’s new accountability system focuses on closing the achievement gap between students who demonstrate performance or growth each year on standardized tests and those who don’t. It replaces the adequate yearly progress system in place under the federal law No Child Left Behind.

The focus of the new system is to increase student achievement, narrow the achievement gap and improve the high school graduation rate.

Targeted achievement levels in literacy and math are established for each school for two groups of students. One is the entire student body. The other is an at-risk group identified as the Targeted Achievement Gap Group, which includes students with disabilities, English-language learners and those economically disadvantaged.

A school missing its targets doesn’t mean a school is failing. The data is available to show which students aren’t making gains and allows teachers and administrators to develop strategies to help all students achieve.

School officials said they are incorporating strategies to help teachers prepare students for annual testing in accordance with the Common Core standards.

Melody Sebastian, director of academic operations in Lincoln, said math teachers are meeting once a month to work on curriculum and what students need to know when.

“Even though they are achieving, the middle school is involved in this work,” Sebastian said. “We’re trying to do everything we can.”

The district hired University of Arkansas faculty members to train teachers for several days in the next few weeks.

The teachers will be working on student problem solving by taking what they know and putting it into a real world context, Sebastian said.

Officials are concerned about improving graduation rates. A district can be cited as needing improvement if the graduation rate doesn’t increase a certain percentage each year.

Clay Hendrix, Lincoln superintendent, said the requirement can have an adverse effect on small schools with graduating classes of 100 or fewer students, particularly if the graduation rate is at 90 percent or above. It is more difficult to increase the graduation rate by several percentage points. Lincoln’s graduation rate for 2011 was 95 percent.

The graduation rate is based on the number of freshmen who are still in school four years later.

Hendrix said certain situations count against a high school, such as special needs students who stay in school for the fifth year or students who move to another district but may not show up at the new district. Students who drop out of regular school and attain a General Educational Development diploma within the four-year time frame also count against a school’s graduation rate.

“I am happy with our graduation rate but there are some uncontrollable measures,” Hendrix said.

John Karnes, West Fork superintendent, said he was disappointed by the status report.

His district is working on a several strategies to help students achieve and improve the performance rates, including a testing program measuring a student’s growth throughout the school year.

“I feel like we’re moving in the right direction and we’re not far away from achieving in all three schools,” Karnes said.

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