ADE Briefs

A recent article in eSchool News highlights the fact that all 264 school districts and charter schools in Arkansas now have access to geographic information system (GIS) technology. While the state’s EAST Lab students have been able to learn how to use this mapping and data analysis software, not until the state engaged in a [...]

Last week, the White House and the U.S. Department of Education announced the Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge and are inviting public schools across the country to compete to have President Obama speak at their graduation this spring. Link to www.whitehouse.gov/commencement for more information as well as a video message from the [...]

Link here to Dr. Kimbrell’s address this week in which he talks about improving the charter school application and monitoring process, getting ready for the Benchmarks and the state’s School Improvement Grants. Posted by JJT.

The Pulaski County Special School District will hold a career fair to recruit certified teachers, paraprofessionals, substitute teachers, adult education staff, food service staff, transportation staff and custodial staff from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, February 27 in the Campus Center of Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock. For more information about the [...]

Little Rock School District presented a proposal to convert Cloverdale Middle School to the Cloverdale Aerospace Technology Conversion Charter Middle School. The proposal follows the state’s Smart Accountability plan for turning around failing schools. New leadership was put in place at the school this past year and all teachers will be required to reapply for [...]

John Bacon, executive director of e-STEM schools in Little Rock, presented a report to the State Board outlining the current status of the three schools. The enrollment of the high school (grades 9 and 10) is 187 students with 42 percent white, 58 percent nonwhite and 30 percent economically disadvantaged, The middle school has 396 [...]

Arkansas Commissioner Dr. Tom Kimbrell announced at the Arkansas State Board of Education meeting today that the Arkansas Department of Education has received a grant to develop a new process for approving and reviewing charter school applications and progress. With the grant, ADE will work with a national group to develop a rubric to evaluate [...]

The Arkansas State Board of Education is meeting this morning to resume consideration of the items it did not get to when it met on February 8. That meeting was cut short due to heavy snow fall in Little Rock. Today’s items concern a request to raise the caps for all three open enrollement e-STEM [...]

If you haven’t already, check out the February 10 issue of Education Week. Conway School District and the state of Arkansas are highlighted in “State’s Fiscal Stability Allows for Long View,” an article included so far in special section looking at the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Here’s a quote from the [...]

On Monday evening, Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom W. Kimbrell announced the appointment of Tommy Arant to serve as superintendent of the Twin Rivers School District for the remainder of the 2009-2010 school year. Arant has worked in Arkansas as an education administrator at the school, educational service cooperative and state levels. “I believe Mr. Arant [...]