Gov. Asa Hutchinson's list of issues to be addressed during a special legislative session later this week includes education.
RELATED ARTICLES
http://www.arkansas…">Road-funding session called by Hutchinson
One of the measures would temporarily prohibit labeling and grading of the state's schools on the basis of results from the state-mandated tests given public school students in grades three through 10 this spring.
Another measure is meant to address kinks in the mechanics of holding school elections -- in Pulaski County Special and Helena-West Helena school districts -- at the same time as the Nov. 8 general election.
And still another of the items for the special session would merge Crowley's Ridge Technical Institute into East Arkansas Community College, both of which are in Forrest City.
The legislation on school labeling and grading is intended to "pause" or put a hold on categorizing schools as "academically distressed" or giving schools A-F letter grades based in part on the new ACT Aspire tests given this spring, state Education Commissioner Johnny Key said in an email response to questions on Monday.
The results from those tests are due back to the state by July 1 and, if there is no legislative hold on doing the calculations, they would be combined with results from the 2014 and 2015 testing programs to evaluate a school's performance.
"As Arkansas transitions from the provisions of No Child Left Behind, along with our transition to the ACT Aspire assessment, this bill allows the Arkansas Department of Education to work with educators and other stakeholders to develop a comprehensive accountability system under the Every Student Succeeds Act," Key said.
Congress and the president approved the Every Student Succeeds Act in December as a replacement for the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. The No Child Left Behind Act had very detailed provisions about student testing and penalties for schools in which students did not reach proficiency levels on the tests.
The new law alters those requirements and also allows for a transition period into the new system.
"The federal act provided a pause from certain provisions of federal accountability, and this bill simply mirrors that concept for state accountability measures like academic distress and school A-F grades," Key said.
Currently, three school districts and 24 of the state's more than 1,000 schools are labeled as academically distressed because fewer than half of their students scored at proficient or better levels on state tests over three years -- 2013, 2014, and 2015.
Schools and districts that are labeled as distressed must work with the state Department of Education to carry out improvement plans. They are also in jeopardy of state takeover and the loss of their locally elected school boards.
The current list of academically distressed schools includes five in the Little Rock School District and two in the Pulaski County Special School District. Blytheville and Dollarway school districts and Covenant Keepers Charter School are the school systems currently labeled as academically distressed.
"If the legislation passes, no new schools will be designated for academic distress, nor will A-F grades be issued, based on 2016 ACT Aspire results," Key said. "Schools may still exit academic distress if they meet the existing criteria. The legislation will not affect the school rewards program."
High-achieving schools as well as schools that make significant academic gains on the state-required tests are eligible for financial rewards as a result of state statutes separate from the statutes on accountability and letter grading of the schools.
Richard Abernathy, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, said Monday that he had not yet seen legislation that would put a hold on labeling distressed schools, but he welcomed the concept.
"I think it would be a good thing," he said. "Schools have been under such pressure with changing standards, changing tests. From a school perspective, it's been the Wild, Wild West," he said.
"This is an effort to say, 'Let's back up. We are going to hit pause for a little bit until we get everything lined out and then we will go back and reset the scores on what schools should be doing to avoid academic distress,'" he continued.
Scott Smith, the executive director of the Arkansas Public School Resource Center, an organization that provides support to rural school districts and charter schools, also said that withholding the school labels while transitioning to new accountability requirements "makes sense."
Also on the legislative call are legal adjustments to laws that require school elections to be held within the boundaries of the affected school district and prohibit anything from being on the ballot other than school-related matters.
A 2015 law allows school districts to hold annual school elections -- typically on the third Tuesday of September -- at the time of the November general election.
Key, the education commissioner, has directed the that school board elections in the Pulaski County Special and Helena-West Helena districts be held on Nov. 8 this year. Without a change in state law, voters in the two districts would have to sign two different poll books, be given two two ballots, and in some cases, go to two separate polling locations to vote in both the school and general election.
As the laws are currently written, the simultaneous elections in the Pulaski County Special district would require additional poll workers, poll worker training and voting machinery, Bryan Poe, Pulaski County director of elections, has said.
A Section on 05/17/2016