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- Accountability to the public; Rating system (1)
- Consolidation; Student assessment; School accountability (1)
- Education system; Performance standards (1)
- Educational data; Adequacy; Equity (1)
- Equal curriculum; Equal educational equipment (1)
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- Less-advantaged students (1)
- No child left behind act (1)
- No child left behind act; Student achievement; Academic performance levels; Math; Reading (1)
- Quality education (1)
- School district consolidation (1)
- School financial litigation; Educational adequacy (1)
- Strategic plan; Grade-level standards (1)
- Strong verbal and math skills; Certified; Content knowledge (1)
- Student health report; Body mass index (1)
Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Education
Public Opinion About Measuring And Reporting Of Student Body Mass Index, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Public Opinion About Measuring And Reporting Of Student Body Mass Index, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
In response to growing public concern about childhood obesity, the 2003 Arkansas General Assembly passed a measure requiring that school officials measure and report to parents each student’s body mass index (BMI) annually (§20-7- 135). Beginning in the 2003-2004 school year, schools were required to do the following: • include as a part of a student health report to parents an annual body mass index percentile by age for each student; and • to annually provide parents with an explanation of the possible health effects of body mass index, nutrition, and physical activity. This measure was one element of a …
Interview With Dr. Charles Watson, Arkansas Department Of Education, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Interview With Dr. Charles Watson, Arkansas Department Of Education, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
No abstract provided.
Interview With Dr. Ken James, Arkansas Department Of Education, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Interview With Dr. Ken James, Arkansas Department Of Education, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
No abstract provided.
School Finance Litigation And Adequacy Studies, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
School Finance Litigation And Adequacy Studies, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
The adequacy approach to challenging school funding systems has proven the most successful of the waves of finance litigation, and the approach serves as the foundation for new or ongoing litigation and reform in many states today, including Arkansas. The standards reform movement has provided courts with a way to measure plaintiffs’ claims that school finance systems do not provide for an adequate education, and many courts have found school funding formulae unconstitutional. In this paper, we review the history of school finance litigation across the United States and focus specifically on cases related to educational adequacy. In the final …
No Child Left Behind And Act 35, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
No Child Left Behind And Act 35, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
The Student Assessment and Educational Accountability Act or Arkansas Act 35 represents an ambitious attempt to develop and articulate a strategic plan for ensuring that all students in Arkansas are meeting grade-level standards in reading and math. The legislation describes the types of testing schools must implement each year, how schools and districts should report data, how data should be used to inform staff development, and the sanctions students and schools will face if they fail to meet state standards.
No Child Left Behind Act Of 2001: An Overview, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
No Child Left Behind Act Of 2001: An Overview, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, the cornerstone of the Bush Administration’s plan to reform K-12 education, strengthens significantly the federal role in education through sweeping reforms to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The stated legislative intent of the NCLB Act is “to close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child is left behind” (PL-107-110 [20 U.S.C. §6301, et seq.], 2001). Key provisions of the measure, for both Title I and non-Title I schools, are as follows: • accountability for education results through annual standardized testing and through additional standards …
Understanding Adequate Yearly Progress, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Understanding Adequate Yearly Progress, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates that all states develop an accountability system that measures student achievement every year. The method states must use to measure achievement is Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). States must agree to bring all students to proficient academic performance levels in reading and math by 2014 in order to continue receiving Title I funds, a federal funding program that commits $12 billion per year to help lower-income children. In Arkansas, the Arkansas Comprehensive Testing Assessment and Accountability Program (ACTAAP) serves as the basis for determining AYP and incorporates the mandates of NCLB.1 According to a 2004 …
Highly Qualified Teachers, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Highly Qualified Teachers, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
One of the key features of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 is a requirement that all teachers in core academic areas be “highly qualified” before the 2005-2006 school year. Even more quickly, by the end of the 2002-2003 school year, all newly hired teachers in Title I schools had to be highly qualified. The core academic areas— which must be taught by a “highly qualified” teacher—are English, reading or language arts, math, science, arts and foreign language, economics, geography, civics or government, and history. Teachers of special education and English language learner students are not required …
Placing Arkansas School Funding Data In The National Context, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Placing Arkansas School Funding Data In The National Context, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
In November 2002, the Arkansas Supreme Court found the Arkansas school funding system to be unconstitutional. The decade long court battle, Lake View v Huckabee, concluded when the Supreme Court determined that the state needed to develop a new system to provide a “general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools equally available to all" as called for by the Arkansas Constitution (Article 14, § 1). Arkansas, however, is not alone in being taken to court over the equity and adequacy of its school funding system. Since 1960, over 40 states’ educational funding systems have been legally challenged. Since …
Effective School Reform, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Effective School Reform, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
At the forefront of education research and policy agendas is an effort to ensure that all children, especially those in low performing, high-poverty schools, get a quality education. The question of which programs and strategies are most effective in reforming K-12 education is complex. School administrators and policymakers throughout the nation are seeking strategies that will help all students to achieve mastery of basic grade-level academic skills as measured by standardized tests. This brief summarizes current research on the characteristics of effective schools and effective teachers. Also, we highlight several comprehensive school reform models with evidence of effectiveness in improving …
Special Masters’ Report, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Special Masters’ Report, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
The final ruling in the 1992 Lake View School District case was upheld by the State Supreme Court in November 2002 in a decision known as “Lake View III.” The ruling found that the school system for Arkansas failed to meet the mandate in the Arkansas Constitution requiring that the State provide a “general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools equally available to all" (Article 14, § 1) and required that the legislature develop remedies by January 1, 2004. The Arkansas General Assembly convened in a Special Session from December 8, 2003 to February 6, 2004 to address …
Understanding The Achievement Gap, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Understanding The Achievement Gap, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
Educators across Arkansas and the nation are sharpening their focus on “achievement gaps,” or those areas in which less-advantaged students perform poorly compared to their more advantaged peers. The No Child Left Behind Act, nationally, and the Lake View case, in Arkansas, are driving state and local education policymakers to address these achievement gaps to ensure that all student subgroups perform at high standards. Reducing these achievement gaps can have myriad social benefits, not the least of which is reducing racial inequality in educational achievement and future inequality in employment and earnings.
School Consolidation: Making Sense Of The Consolidation Debate, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
School Consolidation: Making Sense Of The Consolidation Debate, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
Much scholarly and public debate has centered on whether consolidation of small schools is positive, negative, or neutral for student academic achievement, student social development, and funding efficiency. In an attempt to derive lessons from the research on this issue, we investigated evidence related to: (1) school district consolidation and school size, and (2) spending and academic performance data for schools and districts in Arkansas.
Defining Educational Adequacy, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Defining Educational Adequacy, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter
Policy Briefs
In his 2001 ruling of the Lake View case, Judge Kilgore ordered, “an adequacy study is necessary and must be conducted forthwith.” In November 2002, the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the lower court ruling and mandated that the General Assembly begin an “adequacy study.” Consequently, Act 94 of 2003 created the Arkansas Joint Legislative Committee on Educational Adequacy, which was given primary responsibility for fulfilling the Court’s mandate. The Committee contracted with the national consulting firm of Lawrence O. Picus and Associates to conduct a statewide adequacy study and report the findings to the Committee in the Fall of 2003. …