Updated Analysis of Racial Segregation in Pulaski County Charter and Traditional Public Schools

In September of 2009, the Office for Education Policy (OEP) released a report titled “An Analysis of Charter Schools on Desegregation Efforts in Little Rock, Arkansas.” In this report, we presented data from the 2005 to 2009 schools years for students who transferred to open-enrollment charter schools in Pulaski County from the Little Rock School District (LRSD). The aim of this report was to show what impacts – if any – these transfers were having on the desegregation efforts of the LRSD. The motivation for this report was an ongoing legal debate about how charter schools impact desegregation, in which critics of charter schools argued that these schools lead to greater segregation, whereas charter proponents suggested that there was no necessary link between charters and segregation

The Value of Value-Added Measures

The concept of value-added measures of teacher or school effectiveness is prompting a great deal of discussion in K-12 Education policy circles. This debate reached a boiling point last year when the Los Angeles Times published a database of the value-added scores for all teachers in the nation\u27s second largest school district. Proponents argue value-added measures provide important information on school and teacher effectiveness. Opponents argue value-added measures are imprecise instruments which measure student background instead of teacher or school quality. The purpose of this policy brief is to provide the reader with a general understanding of the concept of a valueadded measure as well as the potential benefits and perils of more widespread use of such value-added measure

Big Changes in How Students are Tested

For the past decade, school accountability has relied on tests for which the essential format has remained unchanged. Educators are familiar with the yearly testing routine: schools are given curriculum frameworks, teachers use the frameworks to guide instruction, students take one big test at year’s end which relies heavily upon multiple-choice bubble items, and then school leaders wait anxiously to find out whether enough of their students scored at or above proficiency to meet state standards. All this will change with the adoption of Common Core standards. Testing and accountability aren’t going away. Instead, they are developing and expanding in ways that aim to address many of the present shortcomings of state testing routines. Most importantly, these new tests will be computer-based. As such, they will potentially shorten testing time, increase tests’ precision, and provide immediate feedback to students and teachers

Quality Counts 2011

On January 11, Education Week released its 15 th annual Quality Counts report. Since 1997, Education Week has been releasing yearly report cards for each state and the nation as a whole. These report cards attempt to measure educational progress and success in several areas as well as assign an overall letter grade to each state. Some of the grades assigned in the report cards measure the strength of states’ policies, while others measure educational inputs (school funding, job markets) or outputs (K-12 achievement

Act 35, New School Performance Ratings, and School Choice

Act 35 was a product of the Lakeview v Huckabee case and the related Extraordinary Legislative Session. The law § 6-15-2101 of the Arkansas code required the establishment of three school ratings: a rating of the school’s current academic performance (or status), a rating of the school’s academic improvement (see the OEP policy brief on the new improvement rating) 1 , and a rating based on the school’s fiscal practices. The first set of improvement scores were reported based on the standardized tests administered in spring of 2007 and 2008. The first ratings based on current academic performance are to be based on the 2009-2010 school year, but these ratings have not yet been released to the schools or public as of this writing. In this policy brief, we describe the guidelines shaping this new school rating

An Analysis of the Impact of Charter Schools on Desegregation Efforts in Little Rock, Arkansas

The aim of this report is to address the challenge by the Little Rock School District (LRSD) that open-enrollment charter schools in Pulaski County (PC) are impeding the efforts of the three PC school districts (Little Rock, North Little Rock (NLRSD), and Pulaski County Special (PCSSD)) to become racially integrated. A key motivation for this analysis is the ongoing debate about how expanded school choice, in this case charter schools, impacts racial segregation. Critics of charter schools argue that these schools lead to greater racial segregation, whereas proponents of charter schools suggest that there is no necessary link between racial segregation and the existence of charter schools. Indeed, some charter advocates contend that charters and parental choice can actually lead to more racial integration for students

2009 NAEP Reading Results

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as “the Nation’s Report Card,” is a national assessment of what students in each state know in various subjects. The grade 4 and 8 mathematics and reading portions of the NAEP were administered in 2009. We highlighted the math results, which were released last fall, in the 2009 Arkansas Report Card (http://www.uark.edu/ua/oep/report_cards/2009_Report Card.pdf). The 2009 reading scores were released at the end of March, 2010. This policy brief highlights the recent NAEP reading results and demonstrates, bluntly, that growth has stagnated both in the U.S. and Arkansas

Recognizing the Accomplishments of ADE Commissioner Ken James

This summer, Dr. Ken James announced his resignation as Education Commissioner at the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE). Dr. James’ last day was June 30, 2009 and Diana Julian stepped in as interim commissioner. Today, Governor Mike Beebe announced Tom Kimbrell as his choice for the next commissioner. As we await the official appointment of the new commissioner, the OEP felt it was appropriate to highlight Dr. James’ contributions to Arkansas education

High School End-of-Course Exams Show Proficiency Gains for 2010

In July, the ADE released results for the 2009-10 end-ofcourse (EOC) exams given in Algebra I, Geometry, and Biology administered in April 2010. These results followed the Grade 11 Literacy results released in June. First, we present statewide 2010 results compared to last year. Second, test scores are examined across the state by districts\u27 region, poverty level, and size. Third, we consider the performance of Arkansas students on other assessments to see if these results are consistent with EOC results

Recognizing the Accomplishments of ADE Commissioner Ken James

This summer, Dr. Ken James announced his resignation as Education Commissioner at the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE). Dr. James’ last day was June 30, 2009 and Diana Julian stepped in as interim commissioner. Today, Governor Mike Beebe announced Tom Kimbrell as his choice for the next commissioner. As we await the official appointment of the new commissioner, the OEP felt it was appropriate to highlight Dr. James’ contributions to Arkansas education