Reports size up schools, students

Data takes look at achievement

The recently released A-to-F school letter grades and the Every Student Succeeds Act numerical scores for Arkansas’ more than 1,000 public schools reflect both the hit to student achievement since 2019 and the efforts to recover.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is publishing today the 2022 state-applied letter grades and both the 2021 and 2022 Every Student Succeeds Act scores for each campus.

The letter grades and numerical scores — on which the grades are based — provide a gauge of school and student success. They can be used by school faculties and parents of students as a point of discussion about students.

Additionally, the numerical scores are used by the state to identify the lowest-performing schools and schools with low-achieving subgroups of students for targeted or comprehensive support from the state.

The 2022 letter grades are the first applied to Arkansas schools since the 2018-19 school year —which was before the covid-19 global pandemic that in March 2020 shut down on-campus instruction for

the rest of that school year.

Even though Arkansas schools reopened for on-site instruction in 2020-21, the pandemic proceeded to disrupt traditional instruction that year and, to a lesser extent, in 2021-22.

Just about one out of ev- ery three schools — 32% — received a D or F state letter grade in 2022.

Three years ago, in 2019, the school grades were better. About one out of every five campuses — 19% — had a D or F grade and 81% received grades of A, B or C.

But on the other hand, the Every Student Succeeds Act scores show that the state’s schools made up some lost ground between 2021 and 2022.

The Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education reported that almost 60% of the schools had higher Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, scores in 2022 than in 2021. That was the case for only about 11% of schools between 2020 and 2021.

This year’s 2022 overall state average Every Student Succeeds Act score for elementary schools is 67.33; for middle grades, 66.88; and high schools, 64.01. The 202021 state average score for elementary schools was 66.91; for middle grades, 56.87; and high schools, 63.25.

The federal Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to hold schools accountable for student learning. Signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2015, the federal act is the current version of the decades-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Arkansas’ ESSA scores are comprised of results from state-required annual tests that include the ACT Aspire exams given yearly in grades three through 10 in math, literacy and science.

The ESSA scores also take into account the academic growth students made from the previous year as well as factors such as numbers of students reading at grade level, student absenteeism, enrollment in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses, high school graduation rates, students participating in community service, and college entrance exam results.

Schools that serve only kindergarten through second graders who do not take take the Aspire tests are paired with schools that the youngest pupils will eventually attend. The primary school is assigned the Aspire scores from the school that serves older pupils. That test result is combined with other factors to generate an ESSA score for the primary school campus.

DEEPER DIVES

Leaders of the Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education have urged parents, educators and community members to look beyond the school letter grade and “focus on the various data elements to see a more in-depth picture of student learning.

“Looking at all the data allows stakeholders to identify, celebrate and capitalize on all successes, as well as identify areas that need improvement,” Kimberly Mundell, spokeswoman for the state agency, said last week.

“We encourage parents to have conversations with their child’s teachers and school administrators and look for opportunities to engage in efforts to enhance and improve student learning,” Mundell also said.

Carol B. Fleming, president of the Arkansas Education Association, the state’s largest union of teachers and support staff, cautioned against focusing solely on a school’s letter grade and Aspire results.

A test score and letter grade reflect a moment in time and “are not a true representation of a student’s growth nor the growth of the entire school community,” Fleming said. “A grade will not reflect the school culture and atmosphere, which can only be experienced through interactions and observations of the students, parents and educators.

“Our public schools are a great source of support for our children and communities,” she added. “It is where our children are nurtured, educated and given the opportunity grow and expand.

Open lines of communications and partnerships between teachers and parents are essential, Fleming also said.

“Public school educators are dedicated to the goal of providing students a quality education that prepares them to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world. This requires communication between parents and educators that focuses on the needs of each child. Together, we can achieve the best for each of our students and must not allow a test score to limit those possibilities and opportunities.”

AWARDS AND SUPPORT

The Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education will award a total of $6,877,600 to 178 schools through the Arkansas School Recognition Program. Awards are based on a school’s ACT Aspire results from the 20212022 school year and graduation rates from the 2020-2021 school year.

The awards go annually to the top 10% of public schools that achieve high student performance on the state-required Aspire exams in grades 3 through 10 and to the top 10% of public schools identified as making the greatest growth or improvement.

High school graduation rates are also calculated in the rewards, if applicable.

Schools with an under-performing student body — as determined by the school’s Every Student Succeeds Act score — will be identified for comprehensive support and improvement by the state.

Similarly, schools with consistently under-performing subgroups of students — whose subgroup ESSA school scores are at or below the ESSA School Index score at the 5th percentile — will be identified for additional targeted support and improvement.

FINAL YEAR

The state-required, online ACT Aspire tests in math, literacy and science — a key component of the Every Student Succeeds Act scores and letter grades — will be discontinued after 2023 spring testing season.

ACT Inc., the producer of the college entrance exam as well as the Aspire tests used in Arkansas, is discontinuing the Aspire.

This past February, Arkansas education leaders announced the selection of Cambium Assessment Incorporated, or CAI, to help in developing replacement exams for the Aspire tests.

The new tests to be given initially in the 2023-24 school year are to be crafted so they align with Arkansas’ academic content standards, to test what is expected to be taught in the state, state officials have said.