NEWS RELEASE
Nov. 19, 2012
Rogers Focuses on Helping All Achieve, Grow & Graduate
ROGERS, Ark. – The Arkansas Department of Education announced as part of its statewide report that Rogers Public Schools met their achievement goals in helping students reach proficiency in most areas as well as noted any areas in need of improvement.
Overall, the district has very high achievement with 85 to 90 percent of students exceeding proficiency on state Benchmark tests at most grade levels. In addition, the district is making progress in closing the achievement gap for targeted at-risk students. Though the district achievement is high, there is still an expectation that each district and school continue to grow their student achievement.
Under the new accountability model introduced this year, the district and each school must by 2017 cut the percentage of students who are not proficient or advanced in half and cut the percentage of students not making expected growth toward proficiency. Most schools in the district met their Annual Measurable Objectives (AMOs) to achieve their goals by 2017. They are Bellview, Eastside, Garfield, Bonnie Grimes, Grace Hill, Russell D. Jones, Lowell, Mathias, Old Wire Road, Reagan and Frank Tillery elementaries as well as Elmwood and Greer Lingle middle schools.
However, several schools need to improve at a higher rate in math including:
· Northside Elementary (91.4 percent of students are proficient or advanced in math but the school needed to increase to 94.2 percent in the combined population/ 86.5 percent of targeted at-risk students, officially known as the Targeted Achievement Gap Group, were proficient or advanced but 91.2 percent was its goal. Plus, the school needed to increase the percentage of students making expected growth by 11 percent for all students and 5 percent for the targeted at-risk students.)
· Tucker Elementary (92.6 percent of students are proficient or advanced in math but the school needed to reach 94.4 percent in the combined population/ 87.1 percent of targeted at-risk students were proficient or advanced but 91 percent was its goal. In addition, a 9 percent increase in growth for the general population and 11 percent for at-risk students was needed to meet its targets.)
· Westside Elementary (90 percent of students are proficient or advanced in math but the school needed to reach 91.3 percent in the combined population/ 86.1 percent of at-risk students were proficient or advanced but 87.64 percent was its goal. Plus, it needed to increase growth by 2 percent. )
· Kirksey Middle School (84.5 percent of students are proficient or advanced in math but the school needed to reach 87.8 percent in the combined population/ 74.82 percent of at-risk students were proficient or advanced but 79.96 percent was its goal. In addition, an increase in growth by 4 percent was needed for the general population and 6 percent for at-risk students.)
· Oakdale Middle School (78.5 percent of students are proficient or advanced in math but the school needed to reach 81 percent in the combined population/72.4 percent of at-risk students were proficient or advanced but 76.4 percent was its goal. Plus, the school needed to increase growth for the general population by 3 percent and for targeted at-risk students by 5 percent.)
· Rogers Heritage High School (The school needed to improve the percentage of the combined population and the targeted at-risk group who were proficient or advanced in math by approximately 3 percent.)
The new accountability system also identified graduation rates as an area of improvement for both high schools. The district saw a decrease in its graduation rate under the new formula likely due to a longer tracking period and the difficulty of tracking mobile students. Both high schools need to increase their graduation rates by about 3 percent for the combined population and targeted at-risk students.
All of the Rogers schools are committed to helping each student achieve and to meeting all of the objectives in the new accountability plan. The state Benchmark assessments and the accountability report help schools identify where they have areas to improve and plan how they can better meet the needs of every student. In the Rogers School District, many plans are in place to target those areas in need of improvement.
“Students come first in our district,” said Dr. Janie Darr, district superintendent. “Every child deserves to reach his or her potential, and we are committed to helping each student graduate college and career ready.”
As the district looks to further improve math achievement, it continues to expand the use of approaches that teach higher-level thinking skills and provide students with a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts. That approach dovetails with the district’s transition to the Common Core curriculum, which will also focus on increasing students’ depth of knowledge.
Besides focusing on teaching higher-level thinking skills, the district continues to enhance classroom instruction to meet the individual needs of students. Year by year, the district is growing the number of teachers trained by a nationally renowned educational consultant, Dr. Jane Pollock, on ways to improve instruction. Each school also has academic facilitators, who identify effective teaching strategies and best practices and coach teachers in using them.
Improving the graduation rate, in particular, is a top priority for the district. This year, staff went to the homes of all high school students who didn’t return to school to encourage them to come back. The schools have also placed a high priority on helping freshmen successfully transition into high school through a student mentoring program. Overall, the drop-out rate has been decreasing thanks in part to the NovaNet credit recovery program and research-based software programs to help struggling students make the gains they need or earn credits.
Through credit recovery, mentoring, early interventions, individual attention, and professional development, the district is trying to keep every student on track K-12 to graduate.
For more information, please contact Phil Eickstaedt, executive director of secondary curriculum and instruction; Dr. Virginia Abernathy, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction; or Ashley Kelley Siwiec; district communications director, at 479-636-3910.
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* The Targeted Achievement Gap Group includes special education, limited English proficient, and low-income students.