ADE Briefs

The Arkansas Department of Health and the Arkansas Department of Education have been working closely together in an effort to keep schools up-to-date with the latest guidance concerning H1N1 flu occurrances. The main points are:
* at this point, schools should remain open even if a student or staff member is diagnosed with H1N1
* anyone with flu like symptoms should be sent home and adviced to call his or her physician
* all students and staff should wash hands frequently, preferably with soap and warm water
* students and staff who are ill should remain home until they have been without fever for 24 hours

Posted by JJT.

The Arkansas Governor’s Council on Fitness has now opened registration for this year’s Great Arkansas Workout. The Great Arkansas Workout is designed to provide an opportunity for Arkansas elementary schools to learn new ways to develop and encourage healthy life styles, including physical activity and good nutrition as part of a daily routine. Online applications are available at
http://www.arkansasfitness.com
Posted by JJT.

Gov. Beebe was on hand today before a packed house at Parkview High School to congratulate the outstanding performance of the 10 Arkansas schools invovled with the Arkansas Advanced Math and Science Initiative, which is funded by a $13.2 million grant from the National Math and Science Initiative.

The AAIMS announcement included news that participating students at those schools posted a 30 percent increase in Advance Placement math, science, and English scores in the upper percentiles of 3 to 5. The most dramatic results showed an 81 percent increase in qualifying scores posted by black and Hispanic students. The qualifying scores of 3, 4, or 5 allow high school students to earn college credit.

“These results, after the first year of implementing AAIMS programs, show that increased educational opportunities are developing the future highly skilled, technical professionals to drive our 21st-century economy,” Gov. Mike Beebe said.
Posted by JJT.

Arkansas saw another increase in the number of public school students taking AP examinations in the 2008-2009 school year as well as an overall better performance on those tests, the College Board announced today. Those trends were most pronounced in African-American and Hispanic student populations.

“Arkansas has built a quality Advanced Placement system, and it works,” Dr. Diana Julian remarked about the 2009 results.

The College Board also released information concerning scores for the SAT Reasoning Test, which is used in the college admissions process and was taken by about 5% of the 2009 graduating class. (The majority of Arkansas students take the ACT for college admissions.) Both participation in the SAT and average SAT scores decreased slightly from the previous year.

Specifics regarding Advanced Placement include:
• The number of test takers increased by 8.2 percent to 18,437 in 2009
• The number of tests administered increased by 6.7 percent to 30,114
• The number of tests with scores of 3, 4 or 5 (on a scale of 1 to 5) increased by 8.1 percent to 8,654
• Of the 2,533 African-American students (13.7 percent of test takers) taking AP exams, 228 students scored a 3, 4 or 5 on 305 exams for a 45.2 percent increase since 2008
• Of the 930 Hispanic students (5 percent of test takers) taking AP exams, 324 students scored a 3, 4 or 5 on 427 exams for a 22 percent increase since 2008.

Posted by JJT.

Fourteen school districts in the state have received American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants ranging from $31,000 to $68,000 to aid in serving students who are homeless. These districts will be serving around 2,700 students.
The grants will be used for professional development as well as for any supplies needed for program development to enable districts to better identify and serve homeless students.
The school districts receiving grants are: Ashdown, $33,000; Fayetteville, $68,000; Fort Smith, $68,000; Hope, $33,000; Lakeside (Garland), $33,000; Little Rock, $68,000; Marion, $40,500; Mt. Vernon-Enola, $34,250; Nettleton, $33,000; North Little Rock, $68,000; Pulaski County Special, $68,000; Russellville, $33,500; Two Rivers, $33,000; Vilonia, $31,303.
Posted by JJT.

School district plans for using the funds provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) are now being listed by district at the Recovery.Arkansas Web site. These easy-to-read reports, which show exactly how each school district plans to spend its allotted stimulus money, can be found at the Arkansas’s ARRA Web site. By the end of next week, all plans that have been fully accepted by the Arkansas Department of Education should be on the site.
Posted by JJT.

Arkansas students in the graduating class of 2009 earned an average 20.6 composite score on the ACT to tie the average score earned the previous year. The showing also maintained the upward trend from 2005 when the state average composite score was 20.3. The maximum possible is 36.
Seventy-three percent of the 2009 seniors in the state took the ACT, making Arkansas one of the largest ‘ACT states’ in the nation. The highest average composite score for a state testing 70 percent or more of its students occurred in Nebraska, which tested 72 percent of its students for a 22.1 composite score. The national average composite score was 21.1, the same as it was last year.
“Because we are preparing students to be college- and career-ready and ACT is a good indicator of that level of preparation, we would have liked to have seen these scores climb again this year,” said Dr. Diana Julian, interim commissioner for the Arkansas Department of Education. “However, I do believe ACT scores and other college- and career-ready measures will continue to increase in years to come as more students benefit from the Smart Core curriculum and our educators continue to focus on raising achievement levels for all students.”
Arkansas’ graduating class of 2009 represented a more diverse set of test-takers for the state with a 15 percent increase in the Hispanic test-taking and 5 percent increase in African-American test takers.
The rest of the score are available by following this link.
Posted by JJT.

The Arkansas Forestry Commission wants to share with teachers that Project Learning Tree is currently accepting applications for their GreenWorks grants. The grants are available to K-12 teachers and are due October 31.
Posted by JJT.

The Arkansas State Board of Education approved the list of accredited schools presented to it by the Arkansas Department of Education at its August 10 meeting. Of the 1079 schools in Arkansas, 725 received full accreditation status, 278 received accredited-cited status and 76 received accredited-probationary status. Eighteen districts received accredited-cited status.
Posted by JJT.

The Arkansas State Board of Education denied an appeal by the Little Rock School Board regarding the probationary accreditation status of two of its schools. The Little Rock School District appeared before the Arkansas State Board of Education at its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, August 10. The Arkansas Department of Education had cited both the Hall and J.A. Fair high schools during the annual accreditation process for not teaching physics in the 2008-09 school year. Physics is one of the 38 courses required to be taught at every high school under Arkansas law in effort to guarantee access to the same education for all students in every school of the state, regardless of where they are enrolled. The vote was 4-2.