Hooray! Today we are so excited to announce the winners of this year’s OEP Growth Awards!
We love to celebrate the schools where students are learning SO MUCH!
OEP is focused on recognizing Arkansas schools demonstrating Outstanding Educational Performance. OEP awards focus solely on student academic growth. Unlike other indicators of school performance, academic growth is not very correlated with school demographics. This means it is reflective of what students are learning in school, not what challenges they may face due to out of school factors.
The new state accountability model reflects the percentage of students that met or exceeded growth targets, but we continue to focus on the MAGNITUDE of growth made by students at the school. We feel that this provides a more nuanced understanding of a school’s success. An average growth score is 80, and school-level scores typically range between 70 and 90.
Here at OEP, we choose to highlight student academic growth because we believe that it is the best reflection of the impact that a school is having on students’ academic success.
You can see how all schools stack up in growth in our newest downloadable dataset for all schools in the state, but we are going to hit the highlights!
Highest Overall Growth: Elementary Level
- The #1 elementary school for overall student growth is Pottsville Elementary with an overall growth score of 90.70.
- Pottsville Elementary also took the top spot for growth in math at 92.83.
- Marvell-Elaine Elementary took the top spot for growth in ELA at 90.80.
Pottsville Elementary has won an Overall OEP Growth award 7 times since we started awarding them in 2017 but Marvell-Elaine Elementary is brand new to the best of list! Way to GROW!
Highest Overall Growth: Middle Level
- The #1 middle school for overall student growth is Imboden Area Charter with an overall growth score of 86.13.
- eSTEM Junior High was top in math growth with a score of 86.05.
- Students in Imboden Area Charter demonstrated the greatest growth in ELA among all middle schools in the state at 87.42.
Highest Overall Growth: High School Level
- The #1 high school for overall student growth is Haas Hall Academy Jones Center with an overall growth score of 87.28.
- Haas Hall Bentonville grabbed the top spot in high school math growth with an amazing 90.01.
- LISA Academy North High students demonstrated the highest growth in ELA of all high schools in the state, with an overall growth score of 86.91.
It’s important to note that the schools who claim these top spots range from 2% – 98% of students facing economic disadvantages outside of school. Growth is not about the kids who walk in the classroom, but about the quality of instruction that happens once inside!
Congratulations to all our schools demonstrating Outstanding Educational Performance.
—————Stay tuned to learn about more OEP Award Winners!————–
Next up! 2025 awards for high growth schools serving high poverty populations, those who are “Beating the Odds!”