Education Commons^™

The Usage And Impact Of Act 1240 Teacher Licensure Waivers In Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Policy Briefs

Act 1240 of 2015 allows Arkansas school districts to petition for waivers allowing for the employment of teachers who are not licensed under the standard procedures of the state. Since the program’s inception in the 2016-17 school year, the number of teachers employed under Act 1240 waivers has increased, with the Arkansas Department of Education reporting 836 teachers hired using Act 1240 waivers in 69 districts during the 2021-22 school year. This represents approximately one quarter of the districts within the state, but only approximately 2 percent of the nearly 40,000 teachers employed last year.

Using publicly available data from …

Exploration Of Motivations For Adopting A Four-Day School Week Or Year Round Calendars: Evidence From Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Kate Barnes

Policy Briefs

This brief provides an overview of the motivations for Arkansas school districts adopting a four-day school week or year-round calendar. In addition to examining these motivations, this brief provides an overview of the districts adopting non-traditional calendars and policy recommendations for districts and communities considering changing calendars.

We Wanted To Do Something Innovative: Exploring Motivations Of Arkansas Districts Adopting Four-Day School Weeks Or Year-Round Calendars, Kate Barnes, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

Recent legislation has allowed Arkansas school districts increased flexibility to adopt a non-traditional calendar. Act 688 introduced four calendar options for districts: a traditional calendar, a four day calendar, a year-round calendar, and an alternate calendar based on the number of instructional hours.

During the 2022-23 school year, 33 school districts throughout the state adopted new calendars. The motivations behind why districts adopted new calendars were unclear. This report aims to identify the rationale behind why these districts moved away from the traditional calendar.

This report uses data gathered from interviews with twenty-three superintendents in districts that selected non-traditional calendars …

Beating The Odds: High-Growth Schools Based On The Act Aspire Examinations, Serving Low-Income Communities, 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 2020-2021 academic year. For these awards, we consider schools where at least 66% of the student body is eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (FRL).

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 …

High-Growth Elementary Schools In Arkansas Based On Performance On The Act Aspire Examinations, Sarah C. Mckenzie

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 2022 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, …

National Assessment Of Educational Progress (Naep) Results 2022, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee

Policy Briefs

The National Center for Education Statistics has released this year’s NAEP results which measure nationwide student performance in 4th and 8th grade reading and math. NAEP is administered nationally to a representative sample of students from all 50 states, so acts as a standard measure of student performance across states and time. In this policy brief will examine Arkansas’ 2022 results and examine score gaps between student groups.

Local Norms And Gifted And Talented Identification In Arkansas: Can It Help Improve Student Diversity?, Bich Tran, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Jon Wai

Arkansas Education Reports

In the past decades, the gifted and talented (G/T) community has wrestled with an important question about improving equity: How can we best use research to increase student diversity in G/T education? There are many suggestions for answering this question but using local norms, where students are selected based on comparisons with others from a similar school context using traditional measures, has attracted much attention. In some districts, using local norms and universal screening has greatly improved student diversity, whereas, in other districts, the findings have been unclear. Thus it seems useful to study local contexts. In this study, we …

Arkansas Student Discipline Report, Kaitlin Anderson, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This report examines student discipline in the Arkansas public schools. Using ten years of de-identified student- and infraction-level data from 2011-12 to 2020-21, provided by the Arkansas Department of Education, our research identifies a number of key trends and outcomes related to student discipline in the Arkansas public schools. This work builds upon prior versions of this report.1 While the data are only limited to the infractions and consequences reported by schools, and while we do not estimate causal effects of any policies or programs, this work includes some key findings relevant for educators and policymakers in the state.

An …

Arkansas Parent Survey 2022, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

The Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas administered a survey on education topics to a representative sample of 500 Arkansas parents of school-aged children in late 2021 and addressed a variety of education-related topics.

Parent Survey 2022, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Charlene A. Reid

Arkansas Education Reports

In late 2021, the Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas administered a survey about education topics to a representative sample of 500 Arkansas parents of school-aged children. The students of these parents attended traditional public schools (66%), public charter schools (10%), public magnet schools (4%), and private schools (7%). Eleven percent of parents reported that their child was homeschooled, and 2% reported that their child attended school through a virtual platform.

Movin' On Up: An Examination Of Value-Added Growth During School Transition Years In Arkansas, Kathryn L. Barnes, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Charlene A. Reid

Arkansas Education Reports

This study assesses the impact school transitions have on grade-level value-added growth scores in Arkansas. Arkansas is unique in that the autonomy of setting building level transitions is left to individual districts. This distinction allows researchers to make comparisons between student groups that where students transitioned upward to a new building and those who did not. Using data covering five different school years, this study evaluates mathematics and English language-arts value-added growth scores of grade levels that transitioned to a new building and compared them to grade-level growth scores of buildings where students did not make a transition. Using regression …

Examination Of School Value-Added Growth By Student Population, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Charlene A. Reid

Policy Briefs

In this brief, we assess the relationship between Arkansas’ school-level value-added content growth scores for student racial and programmatic groups. We find that on average, African American students receive lower growth scores than other student groups, and that African American elementary students demonstrated large drops in growth since COVID

Beating The Odds: High-Growth Schools Based On The Act Aspire Examinations, Serving Low-Income Communities, 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 2020-2021 academic year. For these awards, we consider schools where at least 66% of the student body is eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (FRL).

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 …

High-Growth Elementary Schools In Arkansas Based On Performance On The Act Aspire Examinations, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie

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 2021 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, …

Academic Outcomes For English Language Learners In Arkansas Better Chance Public Pre-K, Emily M. Jordan, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

Analyses of large-scale public pre-Kindergarten programs in several U.S. states suggest that students with limited English proficiency differentially benefit from such pre-K programs, compared to their English-proficient peers. This analysis describes long-term outcomes of Arkansas public school students who participate in the Arkansas Better Chance (ABC) pre-K program. Specifically, we are interested in subgroup outcomes for students with limited English proficiency. We analyze three cohorts of students, those enrolling in Kindergarten in Arkansas public schools in the fall of 2011, 2012, and 2013. We identify whether students in each Kindergarten class attended ABC or not, and we follow their academic …

Early Access: Elementary School Outcomes For Arkansas Better Chance Public Pre-Kindergarten Participants, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Emily Jordan

Arkansas Education Reports

Public pre-Kindergarten programs are frequently promoted as promising early interventions for at-risk students, as they can equip 3- and 4-year-olds with the cognitive, behavioral, and social skills necessary for success in Kindergarten and beyond. The Arkansas Better Chance (ABC) program provides low-income and at-risk Arkansas students with tuition-free pre-K opportunities in school districts across the state. The current analysis describes the 3rd and 5th grade outcomes of students who enroll in ABC pre-K programs in Arkansas public schools. In an attempt to understand how well these programs are serving students, we follow four cohorts of program participants through elementary school, …

Early Access: Elementary School Outcomes For Arkansas Better Chance Pre-Kindergarten Participants, Sarah Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Emily Jordan, Charlene A. Reid

Policy Briefs

The Arkansas Better Chance (ABC) program has been providing low-income and at-risk Arkansas children with tuition-free pre-K since 1991. Enrollment in the state’s public pre-K programs has increased modestly over the last ten years. This brief reports the results of an analysis of the 3rd and 5th grade outcomes for students who attended ABC pre-K in the academic years of 2011-12 through 2014-15. We find that students who enroll in ABC programs in the year prior to starting Kindergarten outperform similar peers on math and reading state tests in 3rd grade, but these effects largely fadeout by 5th grade.

Investigating Outcomes For English Language Learners In Arkansas Better Chance (Abc) Pre-K, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Emily Jordan, Charlene A. Reid

Policy Briefs

Students with limited English proficiency face a number of educational challenges, and there are dramatic achievement gaps between these students and their English proficient peers. This brief describes the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade outcomes of English Language Learner (ELL) students who attend Arkansas Better Chance (ABC) pre-Kindergarten, a state-funded program that is free to income-eligible families. Results indicate that ABC has the potential to improve academic outcomes for ELL students in Arkansas.

2019 Pulaski County Education Report Card, Sarah Mckenzie

Education Report Card

Our goal is to help parents, school personnel, community members, and policy makers understand how effectively the students in their community are being served.

Pulaski students are demonstrating similar growth in achievement on the ACT Aspire as students in the state overall, but in achievement, graduation rates, and School Quality and Student Success, Pulaski County schools are performing below the state average.

This report card presents information about these key performance indicators for the districts in Pulaski counties. The Growth, Achievement, School Quality, and Overall scores of the four traditional districts are compared to the average for that group, and …

2019 Northwest Arkansas Education Report Card, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Education Report Card

Northwest Arkansas students are demonstrating greater growth in achievement and earning higher scores on the ACT Aspire than are the students in the state overall. Schools in NWA also have higher School Quality and Student Success scores, higher graduation rates, and are more likely to receive an “A” or “B” rating than are other schools across the state. . . This report card presents information about these key performance indicators for the districts in Benton and Washington counties. The Growth, Achievement, School Quality, and Overall scores of each 15 traditional districts are compared to the average scores of the regional …

K-2 Assessments And Later Student Outcomes, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee

Policy Briefs

In this brief we examine the characteristics of the districts that selected the various assessments and consider student outcomes both before and after the K-2 vendor selection to see what relationship, if any, exists between which assessment vendor was selected and students academic proficiency and growth.

Enrollment Trends In Northwest Arkansas Charter Schools, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee

Policy Briefs

Northwest Arkansas is home to nine public charter schools, with plans to open a new charter school for the 2020-21 school year. These schools, which serve unique missions, are some of the most highly ranked schools in the State of Arkansas. While critics argue that public charter schools segregate based on race or academic ability, national evidence finds that these claims are highly context specific. What conclusions can we draw about northwest Arkansas charter schools based on enrollment trends in recent years?

Charter Schools In Northwest Arkansas: Patterns In Enrollment And Characteristics Of Student Movers, Matthew H. Lee, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

Charter schools in northwest Arkansas are frequently praised for their academic performance and criticized for their lack of diversity. Using publicly available anonymized data from the Arkansas Department of Education, we use 11 years of enrollment trends in northwest Arkansas public schools, considering student demographic characteristics, free- or reduced-price lunch status, limited English proficiency status, special education status, and performance on state standardized reading and math assessments, to analyze enrollment trends in northwest Arkansas traditional public schools and charter schools, as well as the characteristics of students who voluntarily switch sectors. We find that northwest Arkansas charter schools are not …

Beating The Odds: High-Growth Schools Based On The Act Aspire Examinations, Serving Low-Income Communities, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This edition of the OEP Awards highlights schools in Arkansas based on student growth on the ACT Aspire exams in Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA). This is a departure from prior awards, which were based on student proficiency.

We choose to focus on student growth for these OEP awards because we think it is a better reflection than proficiency rates of how the school is impacting students. Growth is calculated at the student level, and essentially reflects how much a student improved his or her score from the prior year compared to what was predicted based on prior achievement …

High-Growth Elementary Schools In Arkansas Based On Performance On The Act Aspire Examinations, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

The mission of the Office for Education Policy is to examine educational issues through the lens of academic research and disseminate our findings to educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders around Arkansas. Annually, we highlight excellent schools around the state in our Outstanding Educational Performance Awards, or the OEP awards.

This edition of the OEP Awards highlights schools in Arkansas based on student growth on the ACT Aspire exams in Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA). This is a departure from prior awards, which were based on student proficiency.

2018 Pulaski County Education Report Card, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Education Report Card

Our goal is to help parents, school personnel, community members, and policy makers understand how effectively the students in their community are being served.

Pulaski students are demonstrating similar growth in achievement on the ACT Aspire as students in the state overall, but in achievement, graduation rates, and School Quality and Student Success, Pulaski County schools are performing below the state average.

2018 Northwest Arkansas Education Report Card, Sarah Mckenzie

Education Report Card

The Northwest Arkansas Report Card highlights how students in area schools are performing. Our goal is to help parents, school personnel, community members, and policy makers understand how effectively the students in their community are being served.

Northwest Arkansas students are demonstrating greater growth in achievement and earning higher scores on the ACT Aspire than are the students in the state overall. Schools in NWA also have higher School Quality and Student Success scores, higher graduation rates, and are more likely to receive an “A” or “B” rating than are other schools across the state.

High-Growth Elementary Schools In Arkansas Based On Performance On The Act Aspire Examinations, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie

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 2018 in Math and ELA courses which include English, Writing, and Reading.

Long-Term Outcomes Of Low-Achieving Third Grade Readers, Emily Jordan, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

Research shows that students who demonstrate low reading achievement in 3rd grade have trouble catching back up to grade level and being successful in school, compared to their peers who demonstrate early proficiency (Fiester 2010; Hernandez 2011; Juel 1988). This report seeks to investigate what happens to Arkansas public school students who demonstrate low achievement in reading in 3rd grade. Reading scores from three cohorts of students are followed from 3rd grade until high school, beginning with data from the 2008-09 school year and continuing through 2016-17. We examine the demographic characteristics of the low-achieving group, assess the extent to …

Long-Term Outcomes Of Low Achieving Third Grade Readers, Sarah Mckenzie, Emily Jordan, Charlene A. Reid

Policy Briefs

This brief examines long-term academic outcomes for students who demonstrate low reading achievement in third grade. Following three cohorts of students from third grade through early high school, we find that students who are behind in third grade are unlikely to ever read proficiently. Economically disadvantaged students, Black students, and male students demonstrate less improvement in reading achievement over time than other types of students.