The Blytheville School District and 10 schools statewide -- including Little Rock's J.A. Fair and McClellan high schools -- have met criteria to be removed from academic distress, the Arkansas Department of Education staff said Monday.
The Education Department also recommended that campuses in the Pine Bluff, Watson Chapel, Dermott and Mineral Springs school districts and in the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District be released from academic distress. One open-enrollment charter school, Little Rock Preparatory Academy, also is recommended for release.
The recommendations -- which are are subject to Arkansas Board of Education approval on Feb. 9 -- signify that more than 49.5 percent of students at each school and in the one district scored at proficient or advanced levels on state math and literacy exams over a three-year period.
The 10 schools and the Blytheville district had fallen below that 49.5 percent standard in past years. Schools and districts labeled as being in academic distress put them in jeopardy of state takeover or even the disbanding of the school or district if satisfactory student achievement gains aren't made.
The Little Rock School District, the state's largest with about 24,000 students, was taken over by the state and its locally elected school board was removed in January 2015 because six of its 48 schools were labeled at the time as academically distressed. One of the six -- Baseline Elementary -- was removed from the state's distressed list last year, and now Fair and McClellan are recommended for removal.
"It's a real testament to the staffs at those two schools that their students' performance improved enough over this past testing cycle to come out of the distress status," Little Rock Superintendent Mike Poore said. "That's the biggest positive."
The percentage of students scoring at proficient or better on state-required math and literacy tests at McClellan improved to 51.9 in 2016, giving the school a 49.66 percent average for the three-year period.
The percentage at students scoring at proficient or better at Fair was 50.6 in 2016, for a three-year average of 50.68 percent, according to state Education Department data.
Three Little Rock schools --Hall High and Cloverdale and Henderson middle schools -- remain on the state's list of academically struggling schools and the district remains under state control, although the district itself has not been labeled as academically distressed.
Poore said Monday that he was unsure about the three-year averages for Hall, Henderson and Cloverdale, and he was anxious to know if they showed improvement.
"We'll want to look at that," he said about the data for all schools. Still, he said he was heartened by Monday's recommendations to the state Education Board.
"It tells me 'Hey, if we do things right, we are going to get ourselves away from these distress tags,'" he said. "We just have to keep moving away and keep charting the path that we are on of being real intentional about our work with students and our support to staff and our support to the building leadership.
Asked whether the recommended release of Fair and McClellan might make the Little Rock district eligible for release from state control, Education Department spokesman Kimberly Friedman said it was too soon to say.
"While progress is being made at LRSD, three schools remain in academic distress, so it is premature to draw any conclusions about how this announcement could impact the state takeover of LRSD," Friedman said in an email response to questions. "We anticipate that that will be a future topic of discussion for the State Board of Education," she added.
Phyllis Stewart, the chief of staff in the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District, which was previously part of the Pulaski County Special district, called the news about Jacksonville Middle School's recommended release "something to shout about!"
A total of 56.33 percent of Jacksonville Middle School students scored at proficient levels on the state tests last spring, giving the school a three-year average of 50.434 percent proficient or better.
Jacksonville Superintendent Tony Wood said efforts to turn around a school must be intense and focused.
"Principal Mike Hudgeons and his staff have extended their reach with will, skill and accountability to improve student achievement," Wood said. "With the right policies, design and implementation to achieve instructional improvements and school culture change, teachers and principals can help students achieve success. We are on the right path, and we're doing great things to demonstrate that."
Tina Long, superintendent of Little Rock Preparatory Academy, was equally pleased about the state recommendation to remove the distress label from the charter system's kindergarten-through-fourth-grade campus where the percentage of proficient students was 62.87 in 2016, giving the school a three-year average of 53.04 percent.
"The teachers have worked extremely hard, as well as have the students," Long said. "We are anticipating that this is just the first accolade as we go up ... the ladder of academic success for our kids."
Long said teachers began 1½ years ago to focus on individualized, targeted instruction.
"Everything that we are doing is based on the students' data," she said. "All of the teachers' lessons are designed based directly off the students' data in the previous four weeks. Students are put into small groups and they receive targeted instruction and they rotate. So groups rotate all day. There is never a whole-class-setting happening. It's group, group, group, and the children are rotating through. It's controlled chaos but it is working for our students. They are thriving. "
The Blytheville School District is one of three school systems labeled as being in academic distress, the others being Covenant Keepers Charter School in Little Rock and Dollarway School District. The Blytheville district is being recommended for removal of the distress tag after 57.25 percent of its students achieved proficiency in 2016, bringing its three-year average to 51.15 percent.
Similarly, Blytheville High School-A New Tech School is also being recommended for removal of the distress tag. The school now has a three-year average of 50.6 percent of students scoring at proficient or advanced levels.
The other schools to be cleared of their academically distressed labels upon Education Board approval are:
• Pine Bluff High, with a new three-year average of 50.77 percent proficient or better, up from its previous three-year average of 43.27.
• Belair Middle in Pine Bluff, with a new three-year average of 50.96 percent proficient, up from 46.13 percent.
• Mineral Springs High, with a new three-year average of 51.97, up from 48.13 percent proficient last year.
• Dermott High, with a new three-year average of 52.31 percent, up from its previous three-year average of 49.45.
• Watson Chapel High, with a new three-year average of 54.61 percent proficient, up from the previous three-year average of 47.31 percent proficient.
Determining the three-year proficiency rate for schools this year was complicated by the fact that students took three different tests over the three-year period and state officials had to work with testing companies and consultants to ensure comparable year-to-year information. Students took the Arkansas Benchmark and End of Course exams in 2014, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exams in 2015, and the ACT Aspire exams in 2016.
About a dozen schools statewide, including the three in the Little Rock district, are not being recommended for removal of their academic distress labels.
Friedman from the Education Department said those schools will be given at least 30 days to appeal the continued academic distress label. Data specific to each of those school districts and schools is being prepared. All appeals will be heard by the Education Board in March, she said.
Metro on 01/31/2017