Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Gifted Education In Arkansas: A Longitudinal Study Of Gifted Status And Academic Growth, Bich Tran, Jonathan Wai, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This study assesses the effectiveness of gifted programs in Arkansas by leveraging student-level achievement and demographic data of students who scored at or above the 95th percentile on state assessments in third grade. We follow five independent cohorts of these high-achieving students through eighth grade and examine the difference between the longer-term academic performance of the students that were exposed to gifted and talented services compared to similarly high achieving peers that were not identified as gifted. Using regression analyses controlling for student and district characteristics, we find that students who received gifted services demonstrated statistically significantly greater academic growth …

The Effect Of School District Consolidation On Student Achievement: Evidence From Arkansas, Josh B. Mcgee, Jonathan N. Mills, Jessica Goldstein

Arkansas Education Reports

School district consolidation is one of the most widespread education reforms of the last century, but surprisingly little research has directly investigated its effectiveness. To examine the impact of consolidation on student achievement, this study takes advantage of a policy that requires the consolidation of all Arkansas school districts with enrollment of fewer than 350 students for two consecutive school years. Using a regression discontinuity model, we find that consolidation has either null or small positive impacts on student achievement in math and English Language Arts (ELA). We do not find evidence that consolidation in Arkansas results in positive economies …

Arkansas High School Graduation Rates: 2013/14-2017/18, Martha Bradley-Dorsey, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This report examines trends in high school graduation rates for the state of Arkansas. Graduation rates are evaluated at the school level for students overall and for students who face economic disadvantages. Earlier research by the Office for Education Policy (2014) found that larger high schools and schools serving more economically-disadvantaged students have lower graduation rates. We update the report by examining graduation rate trends across the five-year period of 2013-14 through 2017-18. We consider the relationship between graduation rate and variables of interest including school-level indicators of geographic region, achievement in literacy and math, proportion of racial minority and …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Growth Arkansas Schools, 2017, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights high-growth schools across Arkansas based on the ACT Aspire examinations in Math and English Language Arts (ELA) for the 2016-2017 academic year. For these awards, we consider schools that serve free or reduced lunch to at least 66% of the student body. High-poverty schools are ranked by school level (Elementary, Middle, or High) based on Overall Growth (Math and ELA combined), as well as for growth in each content area independently. High-poverty schools are also ranked within each region of the state. Tables include the region in which the school is located, the number of test takers, …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Growth Arkansas, Schools, 2017, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights [high] schools across the state whose students demonstrated high growth on the Arkansas ACT Aspire exams. The ACT Aspire was administered to students in grades [7] through [12] in April 2017 in Math and ELA courses which include English, Writing, and Reading.

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Growth Arkansas Schools, 2017, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights elementary schools across the state whose students demonstrated high growth on the Arkansas ACT Aspire exams. The ACT Aspire was administered to students in grades 3 through 10 in April 2017 in Math and ELA courses which include English, Writing, and Reading. Each table in this section presents the Top 20 schools for the noted subject area and school level. In addition, these tables include the region in which the schools are located, the grades served at the school, the weighted achievement score, and the content growth score in that particular subject. The level of the schools, …

State-Level Fiscal Impact Of The Succeed Scholarship Program 2017-2018, Julie R. Trivitt, Corey A. Deangelis

Arkansas Education Reports

Arkansas created the Succeed Scholarship Program in the spring 2015 legislative session when House Bill 1552 was passed. This program allows students with disabilities to receive state funding for private school tuition up to the foundation funding amount determined by the matrix funding system used in Arkansas.

Comprehensive Analysis Of Arkansas Teacher Salaries: State, Region, And District, Katherine M. Kopotic, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

School funding has been an area of contention in the courts of nearly every state. Many of these court cases have challenged the constitutionality of state funding formulas, arguing the funding system was inadequate or inequitable because poor urban or rural districts often faced a disadvantage in garnering tax dollars for education. Specific to Arkansas, in the 1983 decision Dupree v. Alma School District, the Arkansas Supreme Court declared the state’s funding system was not meeting its constitutional requirements.

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Growth Arkansas Schools, 2017, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights [middle] schools across the state whose students demonstrated high growth on the Arkansas ACT Aspire exams. The ACT Aspire was administered to students in grades [5] through [8] in April 2017 in Math and ELA courses which include English, Writing, and Reading. Each table in this section presents the Top 20 schools for the noted subject area and school level. In addition, these tables include the region in which the schools are located, the grades served at the school, the weighted achievement score, and the content growth score in that particular subject. The level of the schools, …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2016, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights high-achieving schools across Arkansas based on the ACT Aspire examinations in Math, English Language Arts (ELA) and Science for the 20115-16 academic year. For these awards, we consider schools that serve free or reduced lunch to at least 66% of the student body.

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2016, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights high-achieving schools across Arkansas based on the ACT Aspire Math, ELA and Science examinations for the 2015-16 academic year. These are the schools that serve primarily 9th through 12th graders.

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2016, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights high-performing Middle schools across the state based on the Arkansas ACT Aspire exams. The ACT Aspire examinations in Math, Reading, Writing, English and Science were administered to students in grades 3 through 10 in April 2016.

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2016, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights high-achieving junior high schools across Arkansas based on the ACT Aspire Math, ELA (which includes Reading, Writing and English exams) and Science examinations of the 2015-16 academic year.

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2016, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights high-performing elementary schools across the state based on the Arkansas ACT Aspire exams. The ACT Aspire was administered to students in grades 3 through 10 in April 2016 in Math, ELA courses (which includes English, Writing and Reading) and Science.

Integration In Little Rock, Part 2: Racial And Socioeconomic Integration In Little Rock Metro Area Public Schools, Elise Swanson, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This report is a continuation of our analysis of racial and socioeconomic integration and segregation in the Little Rock Area between 2008-09 and 2014-15. The Little Rock Metropolitan Area is characterized by a variety of schooling options for students and families, including traditional public schools, public charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling. In this report, we focus on the current level of racial and socioeconomic integration in traditional public schools and charter schools, as well how student moves into and out of public schools in the Little Rock Area affect levels of integration in the schools they choose to leave …

Integration In Little Rock, Part 1: Patterns Of Enrollment And Characteristics Of Student Movers, Elise Swanson, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This report examines trends in racial and socioeconomic composition of public schools in the Little Rock area between 2008-09 and 2014-15. The Little Rock metropolitan area is characterized by a variety of schooling options for students and families, including multiple traditional public school districts, public charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling. We examine the demographics of each public sector in the area, and whether students who move are representative of the sector they choose to exit. This report is structured around two main research questions.

Graduation Rates In Arkansas: An Updated Analysis, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

High school graduation rate has become an increasingly important measure of school performance over the past fifteen years. Graduation is an important event, as studies have shown that failing to graduate from high school is associated with several negative consequences including lower lifetime wages, poorer health, and an increased likelihood of incarceration. This paper examines several district- and school-level variables that may impact the high school graduation rate in a given school, district or region.

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2015, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

As promised, with the release of the PARCC results at the school and district level, the spring edition of the OEP Awards will highlight high-performing schools in Arkansas based on their performance in the Math and Literacy exams at the Elementary, Middle, Junior High and High School level.

The State Of Education In Arkansas 2015 – How Much Are Arkansas’ Schools Spending?, Elise Swanson, Gary W. Ritter, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

When considering the quality of an education system, it is important to understand the resources available to students. Without proper resources, schools are unable to provide a quality educational experience, and students leave school unprepared to be fulfilled, productive members of society. School funding is therefore an important, and often controversial, topic in education policy. Arkansas’ public education system first ran into constitutional trouble over school funding in 1983 when the Supreme Court decided in Dupree v. Alma that the school funding formula was unconstitutional because it was based on valuations of the local tax base, not on the needs …

Second Year Results From Razor C.O.A.C.H., Sarah Moore, Josh Raney, Gary W. Ritter, Kristin K. Higgins

Arkansas Education Reports

In this paper, we present the results of a random assignment evaluation on the Razor C.O.A.C.H. (Creating Opportunities for Arkansan’s Career Hopes) program. As the program started in the 2012-13 school year, this evaluation analyzes the impact of the program in its second year of operation and includes two cohorts of students. The focus of the comprehensive evaluation is the impacts of the program on students’ academic outcomes, short-term noncognitive outcomes, short-term college and career readiness outcomes, and post-secondary outcomes.

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2015, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

In this report, we are presenting a list of the top 25 schools in each area. In some cases, these “top 25 lists” will contain more than 25 schools as some schools’ GPA scores will be identical. This is not a new phenomenon, as we also exceeded 25 schools in previous reports when using the percent proficient and advanced metric as an indicator for student achievement; however, there are fewer ties using the more precise GPA measure.

Science exams were only administered in grades 5, 7, and to students completing Biology. There are very different performance patterns by grade: Fifth …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2015, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

In this report, we are presenting a list of the top 25 schools in each area. In some cases, these “top 25 lists” will contain more than 25 schools as some schools’ GPA scores will be identical. This is not a new phenomenon, as we also exceeded 25 schools in previous reports when using the percent proficient and advanced metric as an indicator for student achievement; however, there are fewer ties using the more precise GPA measure.

Science exams were only administered in grades 5, 7, and to students completing Biology. There are very different performance patterns by grade: Fifth …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2015, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

In this report, we are presenting a list of the top 25 schools in each area. In some cases, these “top 25 lists” will contain more than 25 schools as some schools’ GPA scores will be identical. This is not a new phenomenon, as we also exceeded 25 schools in previous reports when using the percent proficient and advanced metric as an indicator for student achievement; however, there are fewer ties using the more precise GPA measure.

Science exams were only administered in grades 5, 7, and to students completing Biology. There are very different performance patterns by grade: Fifth …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2015, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

In this report, we are presenting a list of the top 25 schools in each area. In some cases, these “top 25 lists” will contain more than 25 schools as some schools’ GPA scores will be identical. This is not a new phenomenon, as we also exceeded 25 schools in previous reports when using the percent proficient and advanced metric as an indicator for student achievement; however, there are fewer ties using the more precise GPA measure.

Science exams were only administered in grades 5, 7, and to students completing Biology. There are very different performance patterns by grade: Fifth …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2015, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

In this report, we are presenting a list of the top 25 schools in each area. In some cases, these “top 25 lists” will contain more than 25 schools as some schools’ GPA scores will be identical. This is not a new phenomenon, as we also exceeded 25 schools in previous reports when using the percent proficient and advanced metric as an indicator for student achievement; however, there are fewer ties using the more precise GPA measure.

Science exams were only administered in grades 5, 7, and to students completing Biology. There are very different performance patterns by grade: Fifth …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2014, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

The GPA measure, we believe, is a better representation of student achievement on statewide standardized exams. In this report, we are presenting a list of the top 25 schools in each area. In some cases, these "top 25 lists" will contain more than 25 schools as some schools' GPA scores will be identical. This is not a new phenomenon, as we also exceeded 25 schools in previous reports when using the percent proficient and advanced metric as an indicator for student achievement; however, there are fewer ties using the more precise GPA measure.

After we present our overall snapshot of …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2014, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

The GPA measure, we believe, is a better representation of student achievement on statewide standardized exams. In this report, we are presenting a list of the top 25 schools in each area. In some cases, these "top 25 lists" will contain more than 25 schools as some schools' GPA scores will be identical. This is not a new phenomenon, as we also exceeded 25 schools in previous reports when using the percent proficient and advanced metric as an indicator for student achievement; however, there are fewer ties using the more precise GPA measure.

After we present our overall snapshot of …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2014, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

The GPA measure, we believe, is a better representation of student achievement on statewide standardized exams. In this report, we are presenting a list of the top 25 schools in each area. In some cases, these "top 25 lists" will contain more than 25 schools as some schools' GPA scores will be identical. This is not a new phenomenon, as we also exceeded 25 schools in previous reports when using the percent proficient and advanced metric as an indicator for student achievement; however, there are fewer ties using the more precise GPA measure.

After we present our overall snapshot of …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2014, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

The GPA measure, we believe, is a better representation of student achievement on statewide standardized exams. In this report, we are presenting a list of the top 25 schools in each area. In some cases, these "top 25 lists" will contain more than 25 schools as some schools' GPA scores will be identical. This is not a new phenomenon, as we also exceeded 25 schools in previous reports when using the percent proficient and advanced metric as an indicator for student achievement; however, there are fewer ties using the more precise GPA measure.

After we present our overall snapshot of …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2014, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

The GPA measure, we believe, is a better representation of student achievement on statewide standardized exams. In this report, we are presenting a list of the top 25 schools in each area. In some cases, these "top 25 lists" will contain more than 25 schools as some schools' GPA scores will be identical. This is not a new phenomenon, as we also exceeded 25 schools in previous reports when using the percent proficient and advanced metric as an indicator for student achievement; however, there are fewer ties using the more precise GPA measure.

After we present our overall snapshot of …