LITTLE ROCK — Reports key on best
test-taking pupils
Arkansas' top-performing elementary and middle schools, as based on 2009 Benchmark and End-of-Course exam results, will be highlighted over the next three months in a series of reports issued by the Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
The first report, released Friday, focuses on the top 20 overall best-performing schools in each of six Benchmark Exam categories: elementary math, elementary literacy, middle school math, middle school literacy, combined math and literacy at the elementary level, and combined math and literacy at the middle schools.
The elementary schools at the top of the top-20 lists include the Vilonia Academy of Technology, which is a Vilonia School District-run charter school, and Park Magnet Elementary in the Hot Springs School District.
Top schools in the middle school Benchmark categories are Vilonia Academy of Service and Technology, which is a Vilonia district-run charter program for fifth and sixth grades; Umpire High School, which serves gradesseven through 12 in the Wickes School District; and Lisa Academy, an independently operated charter school in Little Rock.
At least 93 percent of the students in those schools scored at grade level or at an advanced level on the state-mandated exams.
All the schools honored in the categories and a description of how the calculations were made is on the Office of Education Policy Web site, www.uark.edu/ua/oep. The report may be accessed by clicking on the Outstanding Educational Performance Awards link.
New reports highlighting subsets of the top-performing schools will be issued every two weeks. The next report will focus on the top schools that are "beating the odds." Those are high-performing schools despite the fact that a majority of the students are from low-income families.
UA students, staff join reading project
FAYETTEVILLE - University of Arkansas students, faculty and staff are joining Northwest Arkansas reading groups for the region's One Book, One Community project.
They will read The Devil's Highway by Luis Urrea, a nonfiction account of 26 men who suffered after crossing from Mexico into a desolate section of the Arizona desert in May 2001. Only 12 survived.
As part of the project, Urrea will present a free, public lecture at Reynolds Center Auditorium, beginning at 7 p.m., Oct. 15.
The Fayetteville Public Library is encouraging book clubs in Northwest Arkansas to read the book. The library will host a luncheon for area book clubs, with Urrea as featured speaker.
The Northwest Arkansas Writing Project will offer workshops for middle-school and high-school teachers who want to use The Devil's Highway in classrooms.
Two UA professors developed the One Book, One Community project: Kevin Fitzpatrick, who holds the Bernice Jones Endowed Chair in Community, and David Jolliffe, who holds the Brown Chair in English Literacy.
UAPB opens center for adult education
PINE BLUFF - The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff has opened an adult education center.
The center offers GED classes Monday through Thursday and parenting classes on Fridays. Other classes cover beginning computer technology, the Workforce for Alignment and Growth in the Economy program and English as a second language.
The center, a collaboration between UAPB and the state's Adult Education Unit, is located in Room 227 of the Walker Research Center on the UAPB campus. Most classes are taught in Room 107 of Dawson-Hicks Hall.
Additional information is available from Linda Kittler, director of adult education at UAPB, at (870) 575-8206 or from Karla Wilson at (870) 575-8202.
Arkansas, Pages 22 on 08/30/2009