Local schools receive grades from state

The Arkansas Department of Education recently released letter grades for public schools across the state.

Those grades, however, don’t necessarily reflect the positive things happening at the three Carroll County districts, area superintendents agree.

The ADE recently released the official 2024-2025 school letter grades, marking the first year of full implementation under Arkansas’ updated accountability formula.

The accountability formula is designed to provide a clearer and more meaningful picture of how Arkansas schools support student achievement, year-to-year growth, and ensures that graduates are prepared to be enlisted, enrolled or employed, according to information provided by the Arkansas Department of Education.

In Carroll County, Eureka Springs School District received the only A letter grades, with Eureka Springs’ high school and elementary each receiving one of 122 top letter grades across the state.

Eureka Springs Middle School meanwhile, received a C letter grade, but is appealing the designation to be bumped up to a B grade.

Berryville’s high school and middle school each received B letter grades, while its intermediate/ elementary schools received a C letter grade.

The C grade is also being appealed, superintendent Owen Powell said, to go to a B grade.

Green Forest School District is also appealing a grade after its elementary school received a C grade, just points away from a B grade.

The district’s high school and intermediate school each received C grades.

“LEARNS is all about improving the way we educate kids in Arkansas, and our new letter grade formula, alongside the new ATLAS exam, allows us to do that with a better, more full picture of where each of our students and schools stand,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee-Sanders said in an ADE news release. “We never want to settle until every child in Arkansas has a pathway to success and with this additional information and the new resources now available through the LEARNS Act, we are creating opportunities to help every student across the state.”

ADE Secretary Jacob Oliva added in the release, “These results offer consistent, comparable measures that schools can use to celebrate progress and plan targeted improvements. Our focus remains on ensuring every Arkansas student learns and grows each year.”

Letter grades are based on a series of categories, according to the ADE website. Achievement (percent proficient in English Language Arts, math and science), growth of all students from previous year’s testing results (percentage growth in English Language Arts, math and science), and growth of lowest quarter of students who are farthest behind their peers (percent who met growth target) are used for grades K-8 while “success ready graduate” is an added category for high school students.

Across the state, 122 schools received A letter grades, 291 schools had a B letter grade, 352 had a C, 137 were graded D and 130 received an F grade.

“Last year, ADE provided districts with simulated grades based on the first administration of the ATLAS assessment so schools could review and understand how the new formula works before official grades were issued,” according to the ADE.

BERRYVILLE

Superintendent Owen Powell is hoping for B’s across the board for his district after appealing a C grade that is shared by the intermediate and elementary schools.

“Our high school and middle school both had B grades and our intermediate school dropped from a B to a C, but we’re appealing that,” Powell said. “The elementary school gets the same grade as your intermediate school because they’re a feeder school.

“The intermediate school did drop a few points, but they were really close. Real close. That’s the main reason we’re appealing for that B.”

Like the other county superintendents, Powell said the grades can be misleading.

“There’s a whole lot that schools could be graded on,” he said. “It’s strictly letter grades off the test. That’s a combination of achievement and growth, and there’s a lot more that goes into a school than just testing, so it can be a bit misleading.”

But, Powell acknowledged, it’s the same system for each district in the state, which levels the playing field a bit.

“Every school is graded the same way,” he said. “So, it’s hard to really complain about it a whole lot, because we are at least comparing apples to apples.”

GREEN FOREST

Like the other districts in the county, Green Forest is appealing a grade after superintendent David Gilmore said the elementary school missed a B letter grade by four points.

“We had a B at the elementary last year and missed by four points of having a B again,” he said. “You’re going to see some ups and downs and fluctuations because different kids are tested each year and sometimes you have teacher changes and things like that. The elementary is still very strong and I know they’re working hard and doing all the things they need to do.

“Even though it looks like it may look bad going from a B to a C, they were four points away from getting B and they’re still doing a really great job right there.”

The middle school stayed at a C letter grade, and was just seven points from a B, Gilmore said, adding that the high school also got a “solid” C after receiving a D grade two years ago.

“The middle school made significant gains that you may not see with the letter grade because they had a C and stayed a C, but they were seven points away from being a B level, so that’s some significant gains there,” Gilmore said. “I’m very confident are going to keep working hard and very likely have an A or B for this next year.

“The high school made gains as well. We had a D two years ago and it came up to a C, and in these grades it wasn’t even borderline on being a D. It was a good solid C and working toward a B.”

The growth in the district is apparent, Gilmore said.

“There’s a huge correlation to showing growth in our district, especially with our lower students,” he said. “We had above state averages in most areas in most grade levels as far as students who met their growth targets. We’re showing a ton of growth in our students.

“Some schools may have more students that pass the assessment overall, but I want to see all of our students growing, and we’re seeing a lot of that in the district. Overall, I’m pleased with the work that the teachers are doing. They’re using the teaching the standards they’re supposed to and using high quality instructional materials to do so, teaching to a rigorous level.”

The high-impact tutoring the district utilized last school year helped, Gilmore said, and the district has already applied for that program again.

“You never know how kids are going to test,” Gilmore said when asked about the overall label a school gets with the letter grade that’s based solely on results of the ATLAS testing. “A kid may be having a rough day and they’ve worked really hard and learned a lot throughout the year, and that one day they sit down to test and just have a bad day.

“My daughter, for example, was usually an A/B student all the time and graduated with a very high GPA, but she just wasn’t a good test taker. Some kids just don’t test well, so this is not always the best representation of your school district.”

Green Forest is certainly not a district that should be labeled by the grades it received, he added.

“I can assure you we’re not a C school district,” Gilmore said. “If you walk down the halls and you see the quality of teachers that we have, and the work that they’re putting in there. They’re doing an amazing job. In my mind, they’re A schools. But yeah, the letter grades can be a little deceiving for sure.”

EUREKA SPRINGS

Eureka Springs superintendent Bryan Pruitt said the middle school grade dropped from an A to a C according to the ADE, but he’s appealed that decision after the district analyzed the data.

“I had our director of programs look through the data and there was some conflicting results there,” Pruitt said. “Not big differences, but some, so we appealed the middle school grade.”

It’s unfortunate that schools are judged in totality by a letter grade that only reflects student testing for one week each April, Pruitt said.

“Yeah, it’s kind of a complex deal on the letter grades,” he said. “It is how we’re labeled and that’s how we are judged. That’s unfortunate because that’s not the most important thing we do here.

“We want to educate all kids, but we also want to take care of them. There’s a lot of things we do with our kids to make them be successful, but the letter grade is how we’re judged. It’s important when people look at our school district that we have our standards high and have high expectations for our students and staff. That also includes me.”

The bar was set high a year ago when all three schools in the district had A’s, Pruitt said.

“I talked to our board earlier and I told them last year we had three A’s, and it’s almost scary because a lot of people don’t know how difficult and how complex it is to get an A and then to keep it.”

Which is just what the district’s elementary and high school did.

“Yeah, we’re really proud of those A’s,” Pruitt said. “It just shows an example of hard work and commitment of the students, the parents getting them ready every day and encouraging them, and then four our staff for the high quality instruction and using high quality materials.

“It’s complete teamwork.”