Event to showcase LR magnet schools
The Little Rock School District will showcase its distinctive schools and educational programs Saturday for students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grades during the LRSD Magnet School Fair at Park Plaza Mall.
The event will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on all three levels of the mall, with student performances occurring on the second level and informational booths located throughout.
Families will have an opportunity to hear firsthand about school and educational options from district students, staff members and administrators.
Educational programs to be featured at the fair include Little Rock’s districtwide tuition-free pre-kindergarten program; the science, technology, engineering and math program at Forest Heights STEM Academy for grades kindergarten through eighth grades; Advanced Placement courses in the district’s high schools; the AVID or Advancement Via Individual Determination college preparation program in middle and high schools; and the district’s new Excel career education program covering teacher preparation, construction, technology and medical fields.
Besides Forest Heights STEM Academy, schools to be featured at the event are Booker Arts Magnet Elementary; Gibbs International Studies/Foreign Languages Magnet Elementary; Carver Math and Science Magnet Elementary; Williams Traditional Studies Magnet Elementary; Dunbar Gifted and Talented /International Studies Magnet Middle School; Horace Mann Arts and Sciences Middle School; Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High; and the international studies magnet program at Central High.
Guests who visit school booths will be eligible to win door prizes throughout the event. More information is available from Pamela. Smith@lrsd.org or at (501) 447-1030.
AP computer test scores mean cash
The Arkansas Department of Education is offering cash awards of up to $1,000 to students who earn qualifying scores on the Advanced Placement Computer Sciences A exam taken between Aug. 1, 2017, and May 30, 2018.
The awards are intended to go to those students who successfully complete the Computer Science A course and score at top levels on the accompanying Advanced Placement test.
For a top score of 5 on the AP Computer Science A exam, an Arkansas public school student may receive $1,000 and the student’s school $250. For a qualifying score of 4 on the exam, a public school student may receive $750, with the school receiving $150. And for a score of 3, the student may receive $250, and the school $50.
The awards will not be provided until the 2019 state fiscal year begins, which starts July 1, 2018, according to information from the Education Department. Therefore, an allocation cannot be provided at this time.
The state agency is anticipating an allocation of up to $150,000 for the first year of the incentive program. The incentive program may be canceled and incentive amounts are subject to change at the discretion of the Education Department, with or without advanced notice, and is subject to available funding and allowable appropriation of funds.
Panel OKs review for charter school
The state’s Charter Authorizing Panel voted last week to conduct a financial review of the Arkansas Connections Academy with the possibility of revoking or taking other action on the state-issued charter for the one-year old statewide virtual school.
That hearing has been set for 8:30 a.m. Nov. 15.
The state Board of Education earlier this year asked for the panel review of the Bentonville-based Arkansas Connections Academy. That happened after Arkansas Department of Education officials reported that the charter school was not reporting its financial transactions on a regular basis to the Arkansas Public School Computer Network and so preventing state agency review of the school’s fiscal well-being.
The Charter Authorizing Panel also Thursday gave its approval to the application for the proposed Polk County Virtual Academy, a conversion charter school to be operated by the Mena School District starting in 2018-19.
That decision will be submitted next month to the State Board of Education to either ratify the panel’s decision or to choose to conduct its own hearing on the school plan before making a decision on it.
Education website claims two awards
The Web Marketing Association has presented two Standards of Excellence Awards to the Arkansas Department of Education’s My School Info website.
It is myschoolinfo.arkansas.gov.
The awards are in the education and government categories and indicate “above average evaluations” when compared with entries from across the globe.
The My School Info website was developed by the state Education Department’s Division of Research and Technology in collaboration with Mainstream Technologies, Inc., an Arkansas-based information technology services company.
The website provides the public with a way to examine public schools, said Eric Saunders, the department’s assistant commissioner for research and technology.
“Never before has the public had so much information at the fingertips that is easy to use,” Saunders said.
The Web Marketing Association was founded in 1997 to improve the quality of online advertising, Internet marketing, and website promotion.