Teachers’ absence is detailed in report
Teachers in Arkansas’ traditional schools and in its open-enrollment charter schools had chronic absenteeism rates in excess of the national averages, according to a report jointly released by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Foundation.
In large part using 2013-14 school year data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the study focused on 35 states and the District of Columbia that had sizable numbers of charter schools.
In all, 28.3 percent of teachers in traditional public schools were chronically absent, as were 10.3 percent of charter school teachers. Chronically absent is defined as missing 10 or more days in a school year, not counting professional training days or holidays.
Arkansas’ charter school teachers had the second highest rate of chronic absenteeism that year, 27 percent, second only to charter school teachers in Alaska.
Arkansas’ traditional public schools showed a 32 percent rate of chronic absenteeism among teachers in 2013-14, the eighth highest rate among the 35 states in the study.
In 34 of the 35 states, traditional school teachers were more likely to be chronically absent than teachers in charter schools.
ACT average is 18.3
in county schools
The high schools in the Pulaski County Special School District earned composite ACT college-entrance exam scores ranging from 17.1 to 19.5 on a scale of 1 to 36. The district’s average composite was 18.3.
The composite score is a combination of the scores earned on the subject area exams: reading, English, math and science.
Maumelle High had the highest composite score in the in the Pulaski Special district — 19.5.
Sylvan Hills High had an average composite of 18.5.
Robinson High had an average composite of 17.1, and Mills High had an average composite of 17.3.
The ACT composite score declined statewide in Arkansas for students in the Class of 2017 as compared with the Class of 2016, falling from 20.2 to 19.4. State education leaders attributed the drop in scores to an increase in test-takers. For the first time, all students in the graduating class were given an opportunity to take the exam at no cost during the school day.
Initiative’s leader sets retirement plan
Ken James, president of Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Mathematics and Science Inc., will retire from that position at the end of the year, Jerry Adams, chairman of the board of directors for the initiative, announced last week.
James is a former Arkansas education commissioner, having served in 2004-2009, and a former superintendent of three school districts in Arkansas — Batesville, Van Buren and Little Rock — as well as districts out of state. He has headed the nonprofit math and science organization since September 2013. During his tenure, the Arkansas initiative has expanded to more than 70 schools across the state and added 11 new schools for the 2017-18 school year.
The mission of the organization is prepare more high school students for college and careers in the math and science fields by supporting their enrollment in Advanced Placement math, science and English courses and their scoring 3 or higher on Advanced Placement exams.
The board of directors will engage in a search to replace James and hopes to conclude the selection process in November, Adams said.