LITTLE ROCK — Forbes recognizes
director of KIPP
Scott Shirey, executive director of the KIPP Delta Public Schools - a charter-school system in east Arkansas - is recognized in the Nov. 21 edition of Forbes magazine.
Shirey was named one of “Seven that Matter,” a list of educators and businessmen who have worked to improve educational opportunities for students.
The list was compiled by Wendy Kopp, the founder and chief executive officer of Teach For America and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Teach For All.
“Scott is dramatically changing opportunities for some of our nation’s highest need rural children,” Kopp said about Shirey.
Other honorees include Kaya Henderson, chancellor of the Washington, D.C., public schools, and Howard Fuller, a longtime parent advocate and distinguished professor of education and director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University.
4 charter schools
in LR miss mark
The Arkansas Department of Education last week released a list of all public schools and whether they met minimum achievement standards based on the results of the latest state Benchmark and End-of-Course exams.
Included in the 480 schools identified as not meeting standards for two or more years were four independently run public charter schools in Little Rock: Dreamland Academy, Covenant Keepers Charter and Covenant Keepers Charter High, and Little Rock Preparatory Academy. The schools are now designated as needing improvement.
LISA Academy High and e-Stem High School Charter - both in Little Rock - along with the Benton County School of the Arts in Rogers, Haas Hall Academy in Fayetteville and KIPP Delta Public Schools based in Helena-West Helena were charter schools that met minimum state standards.
The remaining charter schools in the state did not meet standards in 2011 and are now designated by the state as being on “alert” status. If a school on alert misses the achievement requirements when the tests are given again in 2012, that school will be designated as needing improvement.
Those alert schools are Academics Plus in Maumelle, LISA Academy Middle School in Little Rock, Arkansas Virtual Academy based in Little Rock, e-Stem Elementary Charter and e-Stem Middle School Charter in Little Rock, LISA Academy-North Elementary, Middle and High schools in Sherwood, Jacksonville Lighthouse Charter Elementary and Middle schools, and Imboden Area Charter School.
Statewide, 256 schools are on alert status.
Doctorate at UAPB gets a national OK
The Higher Learning Commission - a national accrediting agency - approved accreditation for the first doctorate at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, the final step necessary for the program’s approval.
The new doctorate in aquaculture and fisheries will enroll its first five students next year, the university said last week.
The program was previously approved by University of Arkansas trustees and the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board after a years-long process that involved six evaluations from outside agencies, adjustments to the university’s governance and several reports critical of the campus’s undergraduate programs.
UA leaders said the doctorate will help support the state’s economy.
Arkansas is the secondlargest producer of aquaculture products in the United States, behind Mississippi.
Farmers and wildlife experts from around the world send fish to the center’s fish pathology unit to identify diseases and halt their spread.
Arkansas, Pages 16 on 11/13/2011