Academic Growth (a.k.a. Value-Added or VAM) is a measure of how much students’ scores on state assessments in English Language Arts and Math improved over the school year compared to students across the state with similar prior assessment histories (up to 4 years!). Here at OEP, we think growth is the best indicator of how effectively schools are educating their students.
Over the past two weeks, we have awarded schools throughout the state Outstanding Educational Progress (OEP) awards- you can see which schools demonstrated the highest growth here. This week it is time to highlight the school districts across the state where GT students are demonstrating Outstanding Educational Progress, OEP is excited to announce the second annual GT Growth awards!
Overall, high-achieving students demonstrate the same academic growth as other students because growth isn’t associated with student characteristics, it is just about the quality of instruction happening in classrooms. Even students who score at the highest levels on state assessments can still demonstrate increased performance the following year. High-achieving students are compared to other similarly high-achieving students, and we find that some students grow more than average, and some grow less than average over the course of a year.
Not all students identified as Gifted and Talented (GT) are high-achieving on state assessments, but it is critically important that districts work to ensure that GT students are continuing to grow academically even though they may already be performing above grade level
These OEP Awards are based on the overall value-added growth of GT students in 2023-24, and are awarded to the top three districts in the small, medium, and large enrollment groups used for selecting districts for Act 56 awards. We suggest that the Advisory Council on Gifted and Talented Education should consider the demonstrated academic growth of GT students in selecting Act 56 award recipients. We were thrilled to be able to present these awards at AGATE in Hot Springs last week.
Districts receiving OEP GT Awards for 2024 are listed below, along with their award-winning overall growth score!
Small Districts (<=1,000)
- Lee County School District 86.47
- Exalt Academy Of Southwest Little Rock 86.43
- White County Central School District 86.42
Medium Districts (1,001 – 3,000 students)
- Forrest City School District 86.56
- Prairie Grove School District 86.03
- Warren School District 84.21
Large Districts (>3,000 students)
- LISA Academy 84.23 (also was #1 last year!)
- Texarkana School District 83.68
- Hot Springs School District 83.62
Congratulations to these districts where GT students demonstrated high growth! All students can grow!! If you want to see how YOUR district’s Gifted and Talented students have been growing, check out our new datasets with school- and district-level growth percentiles for GT growth in ELA and Math from 2017-18 through 2022-24, or you can check just the most recent year here. We made them easier to interpret by assigning percentile ranks (among all schools or districts) in the state.
In addition, we were SO excited to receive some awards ourselves!
EDRE student Ashley Rieske was presented with the Martha Ann Jones-Norton Award for out standing service to AGATE, and our research partner Dustin Seaton from Rogers was presented with the AGATE Special Presidential Award recognizing his powerful influence in gifted education across the state. The AGATE Award of Excellence for promoting excellence in education, particularly as it relates to gifted and talented youth in Arkansas, was awarded to EDRE’s Jon Wai and OEP’s Sarah McKenzie for their research into GT in the state. See here and here for examples of the work.
If you would like to learn more about GT students and their academic growth, or using local norms for GT identification, reach out to us at oep@uark.edu.