A quick word

A first take on new school grades

THE COMING week will be busy for those of us who watch, and care about, Little Rock’s schools. A new framework for managing those schools is supposed to go before the state Board of Education on Thursday.

And who knows what will happen with teachers, as their union bosses threaten a “job action,” which is only euphemism for “strike.”

But this past week there was a bit of good news concerning Little Rock’s schools. It shouldn’t go by without a mention:

Although too many schools in the state’s largest school district still received F grades this last grading period, many others improved.

Four schools are no longer considered failing. The paper said that 30 schools have improved growth scores, which means kids are learning in them. And more than half of the schools have reached a growth score of at least 80, which indicates that the average student there matched or bettered achievement rates from the previous year.

There will be a lot of debate in the coming days about what to do with the LRSD. But here is something that, one would think, would be agreeable to all:

Let’s find out what’s going on in those schools that have improved. And if we can’t bottle it, then at least ask principals and teachers to explain it. And find out what educational programs are working there. And how those teachers pulled a failing school out of the low point.

Can what’s happening at Cloverdale Middle, not to mention elementary schools like Bale, Romine and Stephens, be duplicated? Can teachers at those schools pass on their knowledge and tactics to their colleagues?

This would seem to be an innocuous suggestion. But considering everything we’ve heard over the last few months, few suggestions seem innocuous when it comes to education. (Some of us dared to say what’s best for the students in schools should be the priority in education, and you wouldn’t have believed the uproar.)

At several schools in Little Rock, something is working. Let’s find out what.