The school rating system assigns a letter grade to each school and gives an overview under the “Every Student Succeeds Act.” The data gathered is from growth scores, graduation rates, school quality, and student success indicators among other things.
Five school districts are under state control for either academic or fiscal distress. The five school districts include Dollarway, Pine Bluff, Lee County, Earle, and Little Rock.
According to this data collected, the Little Rock School District has 8 failing schools.
The Little Rock School District is under academic distress and the state is now figuring out a way to get it back under local control. “In the D and F schools that’s where we really want parents to jump in and ask how could we be apart and what can we do to be more engaged both at home and at school,” says Micheal Poore the Little Rock Superintendent. Poore says that the results are surprising, but it’s not all about the letter grade. He looks at the growth score and how well the student did in class from the first day of school until the last.
Former Little Rock Superintendent and school board member Baker Kurrus says that this is not an appropriate way to grade schools. “I see that they measure school failure based on the wrong things. There are a lot of kids in those schools who work hard and do well,” says Kurrus. “It’s homelessness, it’s abject poverty, it’s the inability to speak English. Those are the determining factors. Those are the variables that make the biggest difference. Labeling a school is the wrong approach.”
To view the report cards visit: dese.ade.arkansas.gov
