No improvement, agency says of LR

A recent Arkansas Department of Education report to legislators on the state-controlled Little Rock School District concluded that “Overall, no significant improvement” could be determined this past school year on what are called leading indicators.

Leading indicators are statistics about a school that has been labeled as academically distressed, that show whether an improvement plan is working. Student discipline numbers, teacher and student attendance, and numbers of D’s and F’s on student report cards are some of the leading indicators used to assess school improvement progress over the four quarters of a school year.

The data on student and teacher absences in Little Rock’s academically struggling schools, as well as Dollarway School District schools, prompted state Board of Education member Diane Zook of Melbourne to observe last week that the districts and schools are in the driver’s seat.

“I know any district that has state intervention would love to have their elected boards back … but they are masters of their own destiny,” Zook said.

They have to figure out ways to get students to class and teachers to work, she said, as then teaching and learning can take place.

Grassroots Arkansas, an organization that has repeatedly called for the immediate return of the Little Rock district to the governance of an elected school board, said later that the state is continuing to hold the district “hostage” and appears to “blame teachers with high absenteeism for maintaining the LRSD under the state control.”

“Grassroots Arkansas stands in strong support of all the hard-working educators in the District who lawfully have the right to personal and sick leave,” the statement issued by Anika Whitfield said.

“We also stand with parents who are working incredibly hard to get the Little Rock School District returned to their community, but are repeatedly told that they just need to work harder.”