Education notebook

20th class finishes at magnet school

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs graduated its 20th class and its 2,000th student during ceremonies in May.

The Arkansas Legislature created the public residential high school for gifted and talented juniors and seniors in 1991. The first class graduated in 1995.

Since then a total 2,031 students have graduated, including 96 seniors this year. The seniors earned more than $16.5 million in scholarship offers, said Donnie Sewell, spokesman for the school.

Jessica Nguyen of Sherwood was recognized as the 2,000th graduate during the May 24 ceremonies. She is the daughter of Hong Thi and Ban Van Nguyen and she attended North Little Rock High School, East Campus, before enrolling in the Math and Science school. Nguyen plans to major in chemical engineering at the University of Arkansas.

Luther Lowe, a member of the school's Class of 2001 and chairman of the school's Board of Visitors announced at the ceremony that he was making a $10,000 donation to the school and that he would match donations made by others up to another $10,000.

Graduation ratetops 80% in U.S.

The high school graduation rate in the United States exceeded 80 percent in 2012 for the the first time in the nation's history, Diplomas Count 2014, an annual publication of the national Education Week newspaper, reported last week.

Despite the historic milestone, there were still 760,000 of the 3.8 million students who started ninth grade in 2008 who failed to receive their diplomas four years later.

In Arkansas, 78 percent of ninth-graders in 2008 graduated in 2012, according to the Diplomas Count report. The Arkansas rate was below the national 81 percent graduation rate.

The Arkansas rate has increased 1 percentage point per year since 2008-09 when it was 74 percent. That year the national rate was 76 percent, according to Diplomas Count.

The Delta Schoolnames first chief

Jenifer Fox will be the first Head of School for The Delta School, a new private school set to open in 2015-16 in Wilson in Mississippi County.

Fox, of Dallas, Texas, was recently selected for the position after a year-long, national search by the board of trustees for the new school. She will begin work in July and devote her first year of employment to planning the college preparatory curriculum, hiring teachers and recruiting students.

A former head of a school and administrator at private schools in five states, Fox earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin -- Madison, a master's degree in English from Middlebury College and a master's degree in education from Harvard University.

Fox, an author and educational consultant, wrote the book Your Child's Strengths, Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them, published by Viking/Penguin in 2008.

"The Delta School has a vision for educational excellence that takes educating the children of Mississippi County seriously," Fox said. "I am honored to be joining an organization devoted to teaching students how to think and live as leaders in the 21st century."

3 schools receivehealth center aid

Malvern High School, Cord-Charlotte Elementary School in the Cedar Ridge School District and Southside Elementary School in the Southside School District are recipients of state funding to open school-based health centers.

The Arkansas Department of Education in collaboration with the Arkansas Department of Health and Arkansas Medicaid in the Schools awarded the funds to the three campuses as a way to promote health, wellness and academic achievement.

The three centers, which will begin operation in 2014-15, are among more than 20 centers statewide that receive the state aid. Each center must have a health care professional on site at a minimum of 12 hours a week.

More information about the school-based health center program is available on the Education Department website: arkansased.org/divisions/learning-services/school-health-services/school-based-health-center.

Metro on 06/08/2014

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