As a new calendar year and the spring school semester begin, the 25,000-student Little Rock School District is in the midst of carrying out the requirements of the state’s newly approved school accountability system.
That means the state’s largest district is pumping resources - including math, literacy and leadership specialists - into eight schools identified by the state last summer as “priority” schools and 10 campuses identified as “focus” schools.
The focus schools are among 109 statewide with the greatest achievement gaps between students at risk of failure - particularly special education, low-income and limited English-speaking students - and those not considered to be at risk.
Little Rock’s eight priority schools are among the 48 that comprise the 5 percent lowest-achieving schools in the state in terms of state test results.
The eight priority schools are at ground zero in the district’s efforts tocomply with the state’s accountability requirements for improvement plans and additional personnel.
A priority school’s failure to comply with its improvement plan over two years puts its entire school district in jeopardy of being labeled by the state as “academically distressed” and ultimately subject to a state takeover.
The state’s new accountability system, approved in June by the U.S. Department of Education, requires districts with priority schools to hire school-improvement companies, termed “external providers,” to assist in raising student achievement.
To that end, the Little Rock School Board in November approved a $1.86 million contract with NCS Pearson Inc.
Pearson has now assigned 14 employees to work at J.A. Fair, Hall and McClellan high schools; Cloverdale and Henderson middle schools; and Baseline, Geyer Springs andWilson elementaries.
“We think these people are going to be a great help,” said Dennis Glasgow, the Little Rock district’s associate superintendent for accountability. “It always helps to have extra people in there.”
Glasgow said he expects the Pearson consultants to be experts in subject matter and in teaching strategies. They will be doing some staff training, but the district has asked that the consultants spend the bulk of their time in schools and in classrooms, working with teachers and students before the state Benchmark and End-of-Course tests are given in the early spring.
The specialists’ work is intended to dovetail with what the district’s math and literacy coaches are doing to address previously identified school and student needs.
“The Pearson staff will work in tandem with our math and literacy coaches,” he said. “This will double the capacity for support for teachers of math and literacy. We don’t expect Pearson - and they don’t either - tooperate independently of what our math and literacy people are doing.”
At least five and as many as seven specialists are assigned to each of the eight priority schools, with most of them serving multiple campuses.
For example, five Pearson specialists are assigned to Wilson Elementary. A literacy specialist will work at Wilson for 45 days, according to a late December schedule. Two math specialists will work a combined 45 days at the school. Two leadership specialists will serve a total of 10 days.
Wilson Principal Eleanor Cox met most of the Pearson specialists before the holidays and anticipates that the workers will be “a tremendous help.”
“We are all moving in the same direction in terms of trying to encourage our children to do their best academically,” she said.
The specialists will help the priority schools write state-required priority improvement plans, which will be incorporated into eachschool’s existing Academic Comprehensive School Improvement Plan. The priority improvement plan must be formed around seven schoolturnaround principles, including school leadership, effective teachers, instructional time and the instructional program.
The priority improvement plans are to be completed this semester. Cox said she doesn’t expect big changes in school operations.
“Everybody nowadays is test-driven,” she said. “We look at our data, and we move from there.”
Of Little Rock’s eight priority schools, Wilson and Henderson Middle School met hit targets on the 2012 tests. If the schools meet the targets again this spring, the priority labels will be removed.
“I just inherited a good group of kids; very, very smart kids,” Cox said. “They work very hard.” She complimented her teaching staff for doing the same.
In addition to the Pearson employees, five Arkansas Department of Educationschool improvement advisers are assigned to the eight priority and 10 focus schools to help review data and develop improvement plans.
In the case of priority schools, the advisers will monitor the schools electronically via the state’s Indistar computer system, Glasgow said.
The Little Rock district has assigned three specialists, all current employees, to the focus schools, and one additional improvement specialist for the focus schools is being provided by the Education Department, Glasgow said.
The focus school improvement plan is targeted to address the specific weaknesses at a school.
The focus schools are Bale, Brady, Franklin, M.L. King, Romine, Stephens and Wakefield elementaries; Dunbar and Pulaski Heights middle schools; and Central High.
All the labeled schools will be helped in their efforts to raise achievement by receiving federal grants of $50,000 each. The grantsare being used to offset the cost of the Pearson contract, Glasgow said, and to provide resources such as staff training at the focus schools.
Glasgow is optimistic that the required achievement gains can be made at the 18 schools. As it stands, the district achievement levels are below state averages but are improving - just as the state averages are improving annually.
“There is a gap between the district and state achievement levels, but the trends are the same,” Glasgow said. “We’re doing exactly the same thing they are doing. The only thing is we have greater challenges,” he said and noted the district’s 70 percent student poverty rate.
“We have good things going on, and we are making great progress. We are not stagnant,” he said.
Glasgow said the requirements of the accountability plan are achievable.
“It’s all best practice. We are doing most of it already,” he said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 01/06/2013