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2023 OEP Growth Awards!

Oct 4, 2023 | ,

This week, OEP is pleased to recognize Arkansas schools demonstrating Outstanding Educational Performance. OEP awards are different than other awards because we 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.

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.

Highest Overall Growth: Elementary Level

The top elementary school for overall student growth is Pottsville Elementary from Pottsville School District, with an overall growth score of 91.67. Pottsville Elementary also took the top spot for growth in math at 93.40. Green Forest Elementary from Green Forest School District had the highest growth score in ELA at 91.54.

Highest Overall Growth: Middle Level

The top middle school for overall student growth is Bentonville’s Lincoln Junior High , with an overall growth score of 86.69. Bentonville’s Washington Junior High took the top spot in math with a growth score of 90.47. Students in LISA Academy Middle in Rogers-Bentonville demonstrated the greatest growth in ELA at 87.87.

Highest Overall Growth: High School Level

The top high school for overall student growth is Haas Hall Bentonville , with an overall growth score of 85.37. Haas Hall Academy at the Jones Center was in the top spot for math at 88.25. Students at Arkansas School for the Blind High demonstrated the highest growth in ELA at 85.55.

 

Below we list the Top 20 Elementary, Middle/ Junior High, and High Schools for 2023.  We include the percentage of students eligible for Free and Reduced-Price Lunch (% FRL) and the recently assigned school letter grades.  *Asterisks indicate how many times the school has been in the top 20 for overall growth in the prior 5 years of OEP awards.*

The 20 elementary schools with the highest overall content growth are:

 

    • Pottsville Elementary, Pottsville (41% FRL)  Letter Grade: A****

    • Emerson Elementary, Emerson-Taylor-Bradley (49% FRL)  Letter Grade: A

    • Genoa Central Elementary, Genoa Central (40% FRL)  Letter Grade: A**

    • Parkview Elementary, Van Buren (54% FRL)  Letter Grade: A**

    • Mountain Springs Elementary, Cabot (29% FRL)  Letter Grade: A

    • Stagecoach Elementary, Cabot (45% FRL)  Letter Grade: B***

    • Root Elementary, Fayetteville (13% FRL)  Letter Grade: A*

    • Vilonia Primary, Vilonia (51% FRL)  Letter Grade: B

    • Don Roberts Elementary, Little Rock (23% FRL)  Letter Grade: A**

    • Green Forest Elementary, Green Forest (83% FRL)  Letter Grade: B***

    • John Tyson Elementary, Springdale (71% FRL)  Letter Grade: A***

    • Center Valley Elementary, Russellville (48% FRL)  Letter Grade: A**

    • Apple Glen Elementary, Bentonville (21% FRL)  Letter Grade: A

    • S.C. Tucker Elementary, Danville (76% FRL)  Letter Grade: A*

    • Vilonia Elementary, Vilonia (43% FRL)  Letter Grade: A

    • Maumelle Charter Elementary, Academics Plus Public Charter Schools (25% FRL)  Letter Grade: A

    • Carolyn Lewis Elementary, Conway (51% FRL)  Letter Grade: A***

    • Hunt Elementary, Springdale (54% FRL)  Letter Grade: A*****

    • Ward Central Elementary, Cabot (68% FRL)  Letter Grade: B**

    • Chenal Elementary, Pulaski County Special (23% FRL)  Letter Grade: A

    • Westside Elementary, Cabot (68% FRL)  Letter Grade: B**

    • Washington Elementary, Fayetteville (51% FRL)  Letter Grade: B

The 20 middle/junior high schools with the highest overall content growth are:

 

    • Lincoln Junior High, Bentonville (22% FRL) Letter Grade: A*****

    • Washington Junior High, Bentonville (25% FRL) Letter Grade: A***

    • LISA Academy Rogers-Bentonville Middle School, LISA Academy (26% FRL) Letter Grade: A

    • Vilonia Middle, Vilonia (47% FRL) Letter Grade: A**

    • L. A. Chaffin Middle, Fort Smith (54% FRL) Letter Grade: A***

    • LISA Academy North Middle, Lisa Academy (60% FRL) Letter Grade: B***

    • Woodland Junior High, Fayetteville (26% FRL) Letter Grade: A*

    • Forrest City Junior High, Forrest City (80% FRL) Letter Grade: D

    • eStem Junior High, eStem Public Charter (68% FRL) Letter Grade: C*

    • Valley Springs Middle, Valley Springs (44% FRL) Letter Grade: A****

    • Gravette Middle, Gravette (35% FRL) Letter Grade: A****

    • Atkins Middle, Atkins (66% FRL) Letter Grade: B*

    • eStem East Village Junior High, eStem Public Charter School (72% FRL) Letter Grade: C*

    • Bright Field Middle, Bentonville (9% FRL) Letter Grade: A**

    • LISA Academy Springdale, LISA Academy (66% FRL) Letter Grade: B*

    • Pea Ridge Middle, Pea Ridge (34% FRL) Letter Grade: B*

    • KIPP Delta College Preparatory School, KIPP Delta Public Schools (92% FRL) Letter Grade: C

    • Quitman Middle, Quitman (51% FRL) Letter Grade: B

    • Hope Academy Of Public Service, Hope (84% FRL) Letter Grade: B

    • Ray/Phyllis Simon Middle, Conway (64% FRL) Letter Grade: B*

The 20 high schools with the highest overall content growth are:

 

    • Haas Hall Bentonville, Haas Hall Academy (4% FRL)  Letter Grade: A*****

    • Haas Hall Academy Jones Center, Haas Hall Academy (17 % FRL)  Letter Grade: A**

    • Rural Special High, Mountain View  (67 % FRL)  Letter Grade: A**

    • Star City High, Star City  (62% FRL)  Letter Grade: C

    • Haas Hall Academy At The Lane, Haas Hall Academy (15% FRL)  Letter Grade: A****

    • Drew Central High, Drew Central  (65% FRL)  Letter Grade: C

    • Berryville High, Berryville  (69% FRL)  Letter Grade: C

    • Decatur High, Decatur  (71% FRL)  Letter Grade: C

    • Southside Charter High, Southside  (Independence) (51% FRL)  Letter Grade: B*

    • Cave City High Career & Collegiate Preparatory School, Cave City  (72 % FRL)  Letter Grade: B*

    • Booneville High, Booneville  (67% FRL)  Letter Grade: C*

    • Concord High, Concord  (51% FRL)  Letter Grade: B****

    • Conway Junior High, Conway  (56% FRL)  Letter Grade: A*

    • Malvern High, Malvern  (66% FRL)  Letter Grade: C*

    • Dardanelle High, Dardanelle  (64% FRL)  Letter Grade: B***

    • Dermott High, Dermott  (94% FRL)  Letter Grade: D

    • Waldron High, Waldron  (66 % FRL)  Letter Grade: C

    • Greenland High, Greenland  (67% FRL)  Letter Grade: C

    • Arkansas School For The Blind High, Ark. School For The Blind (40% FRL)  Letter Grade: Not Assigned*

    • Oark High, Jasper  (85% FRL)  Letter Grade: C*

    • Jasper High, Jasper  (61% FRL)  Letter Grade: B**

    • Walnut Ridge High, Lawrence County  (45% FRL)  Letter Grade: C

Three of these top 20 schools have been on our list every year since 2017, indicating that students in these schools are persistently demonstrating the highest levels of improvement year after year. Forty-three have been our top 20 list at least once before. We celebrate the 19 schools on the list that are newcomers – showing that growth scores can improve over time. These schools, and others included in the full report, are growing student’s academic performance at the very highest levels. Way to go!

If your school wasn’t on this list, you can see how they stack up in our letter grades data visualization or a downloadable dataset for all schools in the state.

Congratulations to all our schools demonstrating Outstanding Educational Performance.

 

—————Stay tuned to learn about more OEP Award Winners!————–

On October 10th we will release the 2023 awards for high growth schools serving high poverty populations, those who are “Beating the Odds!”

2023 Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting Arkansas Schools Demonstrating High Student Growth

Oct 3, 2023 | ,

Volume 20, Issue 5 October 5, 2023 This report is the OEP awards for the 2022-23 academic year, highlighting the schools around the state where students are demonstrating the greatest academic growth based on the 2023 ACT Aspire assessments.

Coming Soon: School Letter Grades!

Sep 27, 2023 | , ,

School letter grades will be released soon, and here at OEP we wanted to share some information about what is included in the school letter grades, and what they mean for Arkansas’s schools and students.

Why are schools assigned letter grades?

A-F letter grades are intended to provide an indicator of school quality that is easy for parents and other stakeholders to understand. Letter grades were first assigned to Arkansas’s public schools in the 2014-15 school year. The grading system was updated for the 2016-17 school year when it was aligned to the state’s federal accountability systems.

What is included in the letter grade calculation?

Letter grades are based on a school’s overall score, which includes three main components: Growth, Achievement, and School Quality.

Here at OEP, we think the Growth Score is the most important measure of school quality. Growth Scores measure how much individual students at the school increase their achievement scores from year to year. Using growth as a measure of school success levels the playing field because all students are evaluated by the extent to which they grow from their own starting point; thus, students facing socioeconomic barriers to achievement have the same opportunity for growth as do their peers from advantaged backgrounds. Students who are well above grades level can also continue to grow their learning. Each and every student can grow their understanding, and we should expect all schools to foster student growth, regardless of family income, first language, or learning needs.

The Achievement Score is a familiar measure of student performance that
reflects how well students score on the state’s annual exams. Schools serving more advantaged students typically receive “good” scores because a high percentage of their students passed, while schools serving a larger percentage of students who lived in poverty, participated in special education, or were learning English often receive lower scores because a higher percentage of their students were unable to pass the test. While meeting grade-level standards is important, the clear connection between Achievement Scores and student demographics suggests that point-in-time test scores are not a good measure of how well a school is educating students, but rather a reflection of the wealth of the community being served by the school.

The School Quality/ Student Success Indicator Score includes a variety of measures, like student attendance, the percentage of students reading at grade level, and student achievement and growth on the annual science assessment. In addition to the measures used for elementary and middle level schools, high school scores also reflect student enrollment in advanced courses, computer science courses, and community service learning as well as student performance on the ACT college-readiness exam and student GPA.

If a school serves 12th grade students, the percentage of students who graduate from high school is also included in the calculation of the overall scores used to assign the letter grade.

What percentage of schools get “A”s? What Percentage get “F”s?

The figure below indicates the percentage of schools statewide that received each letter grade from 2016-17 through 2021-22. Due to COVID-related school closures in the 2019-20 school year, statewide assessments were not given to students and no letter grades were assigned. In 2020-21, although the state did not assign letter grades to schools, all needed data were available so OEP calculated what letter grade each school would have been assigned. The 2020-21 letter grades are marked with an asterisk* for this reason.

As presented in the figure below, prior to COVID, about 16% of Arkansas schools received an “A” letter grade, and 4% received an”F”. Post- COVID, only 7% of schools received an “A” grade, while 9% received an “F” in 2021-22. These trends in letter grades are due to state- and nation-wide declines in student achievement after COVID. While these changes do not reflect a post-COVID drop in the quality of schools in the state, they do highlight how much state letter grades are reflective of student achievement.

Figure 1. Arkansas’s School Letter Grades, 2016-17 through 2021-22.

What does a school’s letter grade mean for parents?

Starting this school year, parents or guardians of students who had attending an “F” rated school the prior year could exercise the option to use and Education Freedom Account to send their student to private school. Next year, that option will be available to parents or guardians of students who had attending a “D” or “F” rated school.

Stay Tuned to OEP to find out when the new letter grades are released and how your school performed! Next up: OEP Awards for high growth schools!

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