Mixed messages

School district superintendents in Carroll County had mixed reviews regarding educational grades and growth rankings released last week.

Each school in the state was given its annual letter grade from the Arkansas Department of Education based on a number of factors including academic growth, test scores, graduation rates and attendance figures. In addition, the Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas released its list of “outstanding educational performance awards” that highlight “high-growth Arkansas schools.”

“The mission of the Office for Education Policy is to examine educational issues through the lens of academic research and disseminate our findings to educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders around Arkansas,” the OEP said in its release of school rankings. “Annually, we highlight excellent schools around the state in our OEP awards.” The release states that growth is calculated at the student level, and “essentially reflects how much a student improved his or her score from the prior year compared to what was predicted based on prior achievement history.”

During the 20222023 academic year, ACT Aspire examinations were administered to students in grades 3 through 10 across the state in math, reading, writing, English and science. The scores in reading, writing and English were combined to create an overall score for English Language Arts.

“We are pleased to be able to highlight how students are growing academically in schools across the state, and hope the information will spark discussion among stakeholders about how to ensure all schools are growing the knowledge of Arkansas students,” OEP’s report states.

BERRYVILLE

Berryville High School’s growth ranked No. 7 in the state and No. 4 in Northwest Arkansas with a 84.12 score, according to OEP numbers.

In addition, a score of 84.69 put the high school at No. 5 in the state for growth in English Language Arts.

“We’re just super proud of our students and our teachers there at the high school with this accomplishment,” superintendent Owen Powell said. “They’ve been working extremely hard and it’s good to see the results. They’ve definitely earned that recognition.”

While its growth numbers are strong, the high school again received a C letter grade from the Arkansas Department of Education, something that Powell acknowledges is difficult to understand.

“Well, it is confusing,” he said. “On one hand you’re getting recognition and congratulations, and then on the other hand, you’re getting a report card that shows you’re just average. It is confusing and for educators, it’s frustrating, too.”

The OEP report is based simply on growth in areas such as English, reading and math, while the letter grades also take into account many other criteria, Powell said.

“OEP is strictly looking at growth at a school over the last year,” he said. “The letter grades from the state department use an entirely different formula of factors from attendance, to graduation rate to how many AP classes you offer.”

Berryville Elementary School also received a C grade from the state, while OEP numbers showed a growth score of 79.16, a growth percentage of 32, an achievement score of 55.13 and a achievement percentage of 43. Also receiving a C from the state was Berryville Intermediate School while Berryville Middle School got a D.

“I don’t feel like the letter grade reflects the work we’re doing,” Powell said. “We’re working really hard.

“Not making any excuses, we got a C at the elementary, a C at intermediate and we got a D at the middle school, but were less than one point away from being a C. It’s one of those things we’re not happy with. We don’t want to be average and we’ve got to do better.”

One area that does need to improve is attendance, the superintendent said.

“We’ve identified that we’ve got to improve on our attendance,” Powell said. “Our attendance, really through the district, is not very good and that’s one place that we definitely have to improve on.”

EUREKA SPRINGS

The only school to receive an A grade in the county was Eureka Springs High School.

“We’re happy about that and excited,” superintendent Bryan Pruitt said. “It’s a struggle to be able to keep that, but we have a dedicated group of students, staff and parents that really work hard for us to maintain it. It gets tougher all the time, very demanding with a lot of expectations.

“Our kids take those tests seriously and take their education seriously.”

According to the OEP report, Eureka Springs High School had a growth score of 81.86, a growth percentage of 85, an achievement score of 66.5 and an achievement percentage of 96.

“I’m very pleased with the high school,” Pruitt said.

Eureka Springs Elementary School repeated with a B grade from the state and had a growth score of 82, a growth percentile of 67, an achievement score of 72.89 and an achievement percentage of 87 in OEP’s report.

Eureka Springs Middle School earned a C grade from the state and had a growth score of 82.09, a growth percentage of 77, an achievement score of 62.30 and an achievement percentage of 72 in OEP’s report.

“We supply the best teachers we can get and try to keep whatever curriculum, materials and supplies available for students to be able to succeed,” Pruitt said. “We really work hard on identifying the kids that need more help and really spend some extra time on making sure that those kids that don’t get it … we do what we can to help build them back up. It’s a lot of work and I can’t say enough about our teachers.”

Pruitt said that while the annual testing is critical and the basic backbone to the OEP rankings, other things such as attendance are important for the district in the state education department grades.

“There are a lot of indicators involved,” he said. “Attendance is part of it. That’s why it’s so critical for parents to make sure kids are here at school.

“If you have high absenteeism it counts against you.”

Pruitt praised involved parents and a supportive community for helping the district be successful.

“We have a great community that supports our school,” he said. “We are always working hard and digging deeper to see what we can do to improve. We try to be proactive with professional development and that will make us better for our students and our community.”

GREEN FOREST

Green Forest Elementary ranked No. 10 in the state and No. 4 in Northwest Arkansas overall in the OEP growth rankings.

To top that off, the school also ranked No. 1 in the state in OEP’s English Language Arts growth, something superintendent Matt Summers said is mission accomplished.

“Reading and writing are front and center every day,” he said. “We’re very proud of students’ performance. We’re very proud of the hard work of previous and present leadership at the elementary school.”

According to the OEP report, Green Forest Elementary School had an overall content growth score of 87.67 and a 91.54 score in ELA Content Growth.

The school received a letter grade of B from the state education department and had a growth percentage of 96, an achievement score of 63.51 and an achievement percentage of 69, according to the OEP report.

Green Forest Intermediate/ Middle School received a C grade from the state with a growth score of 79.18, a growth percentage of 27, an achievement score of 53.13 and an achievement percentage of 44 in OEP’s report.

Meanwhile, Green Forest High School received a D grade from the state and a 79.79 growth score, a 51 growth percentage, a 35.3 achievement score and a 28 achievement percentage, according to the OEP report.

“Most areas in our district are trending upward, which is a big thing,” Summers said. “Our point of emphasis at the beginning of the year with professional development was the old chicken and the egg question: Which is more important, growth or achievement?

“We kind of batted that around a little bit. If you’re having growth you’re trending in the right direction. Maybe your achievement is not where you want it to be at the moment, but if you continue to show growth and you continue to trend upwards then it’s a process and you will start moving in those right directions.”

Summers said the high school wasn’t far from a higher grade.

“You could look at our high school and say, ‘oh my goodness they’ve slipped to a D,’ but if you run the math it’s less than two percentage points on the score. Are we pleased with that? No, we’re not. But it’s that close on some of this. … The D at the high school is disappointing but we’ve got plans in place to make sure that we’re moving and trending upward in all of our schools.”

Summers said different demographics around the state make it hard to really compare school districts.

“You need to look at what your population is, what’s your free and reduced lunch count,” he said. “If it’s an affluent district then you’re going to have different issues than maybe one that’s no so affluent. Diversity is a big piece, too. Is English spoken in the home or is another language spoken in the home? All those come into play.

“I’m not one to ever make excuses and I don’t stand for those in our district. We look at troubled areas and think about opportunities. I think that mindset follows through and you really see that in our elementary. They are taking advantage of opportunities.”