By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
This is the third in a series of three articles focusing on the 2009 Arkansas School Performance Report Card.
Lonoke High School’s remediation rate is almost as high as the school’s graduation rate. The remediation rate is 64.8 percent, while the graduation rate is 73.7 percent.
Beebe High School, on the other hand, has one of the highest graduation rates in the area at 85.5 percent.
These are just some of the highlights on the district’s 2009 Arkansas School Performance Report Card being mailed out to district families this week.
The annual report is prepared for every school and district in the state. “We send this information to each student’s home in order to empower parents and community leaders to become more involved in helping local schools provide quality education for students,” said Dr. Charity Smith, assistant commissioner of public-school academic accountability for the state education department.
BEEBE
The Beebe School District has one of the highest graduation rates in the area and also the lowest dropout rate, all while spending about $800 less per student than the state average.
The performance report for the Beebe School District shows that out of the district’s five schools, three have been cited with accreditation problems.
Under the improvement school ratings (gains model), one Beebe school garnered top ratings as a school of excellence for improvement, two were listed as meeting standards and two were approaching improvement standards and were on alert status.
Looking at the No Child left Behind’s adequate yearly progress, the district had none achieving standards.
It had one in “the first year not to make standards” which means alert status, two in “year one of targeted school improvement” and two in “year two of targeted school improvement.”
The 3,123-student district had a graduation rate of 85.5 percent (17 points higher than the state average), a dropout rate of just 2 percent and an attendance rate of 92 percent for the 2008-2009 school year.
The district has a minuscule grade inflation rate of 2.4 percent (anything more than 20 percent is considered a problem) and a remedial rate of 39.6 percent, about 30 points under the district average.
It spent $7,563 per student in 2008-2009 compared to the state average of $8,308.
Teacher salaries averaged $45,208, about $600 below the state average.
The district’s 2009 report card shows that 21 first-graders (8.6 percent) were retained, four second-graders (1.6 percent), two third-graders (0.9 percent) and two fourth graders (0.8 percent) were retained.
The district reported no expulsions or major disciplinary problems.
Almost 43 percent of the district’s students were eligible for free or reduced lunch.
Beebe Elementary is a school whose accreditation has been cited, meaning there are problems with teacher licenses, improper class sizes or a failure to turn in required reports.
Based on NCLB guidelines, the school is also in “year one of targeted school improvement.”
The school, with 764 students, has an attendance rate of 92.8 percent.
The school retained only one second-grader (0.4 percent) at the end of the 2008-2009 school year.
The school reported no expulsions or major discipline problems.
About 49 percent of the students were eligible for free or reduced lunch.
Beebe’s Intermediate School is listed in the top category, a “school of excellence for improvement” under the gains model, but is in year one of targeted school improvement under NCLB.
Also, the school’s accreditation has been cited for problems.
The school, with 490 students, has an attendance rate of 92.5 percent.
It retained two third-graders (0.9 percent) and two fourth-graders (0.8 percent) last year.
The school reported no expulsions or major discipline problems.
About 44 percent of the students were eligible for free or reduced lunch.
Beebe Middle School is an accredited school for fifth and sixth graders. Under the gains model, the school is meeting improvement standards. But, under the NCLB parameters, the school is in year two of targeted school improvement.
The school, with 485 students, has an attendance rate of 92.2 percent. It retained no students at the end of the 2008-2009 school year, and reported no expulsions or major discipline problems.
Almost 46 percent of the students were eligible for free or reduced lunch, close to ten points lower than the state average of 55.9 percent.
Beebe Junior High is an accredited school that is approaching standards (alert status) based on the gains model and is in year two of targeted school improvement under the NCLB parameters.
The school, with 470 students, has an attendance rate of 93.6 percent. It retained no students during the 2008-2009 school year.
It reported no expulsions, but weapons incidents did make up 0.2 percent of the major discipline problems.
Forty percent of the school’s students were eligible for free or reduced lunch.
The high school’s accreditation has been cited and the school is listed as “first year not meeting standards,” meaning it is on alert status under NCLB.
The improvement ratings under the gains model do not apply to high schools.
The school, with 889 students, had an attendance rating of 89.3 percent.
Its graduation rate was 85.5 percent, with a dropout rate of 3 percent. The school had a grade-inflation rate of 2.4 percent.
(Anything over 20 percent is reason for concern.) The school’s remediation rate was at 39.6 percent, about 5 percent lower than the previous year.
There were no reported expulsions or major discipline concerns.
About 31 percent of the students were eligible for free or reduced lunch.
LONOKE
The Lonoke School District, like Beebe, has problems with school accreditation—three of its four schools have been cited for concerns.
But the district does have one school exceeding improvement standards, the top level under the state’s improvement ratings guidelines, or gains model.
The district also has one school achieving standards under the No Child Left Behind parameters.
The 1,866-student district has a graduation rate of 73.7 percent (the state average is 68 percent), a dropout rate of 3 percent, a grade-inflation rate of 8.2 percent (anything over 20 percent is considered a problem) and an attendance rate of 95.3 percent.
The district had a remediation rate of 64.8 percent, about 15 points above the state average. The remedial rate is a projection, meaning that out of every 100 Lonoke students going to college, about 65 of them will have to take remedial classes.
The district spent $7,709 per student in the 2008-2009 school year compared to the state average of $8,308. The average teacher salary in the district is $41,883, almost $4,000 below the state average.
The performance report card showed that the district retained 11 first-graders (7.5 percent), three second-graders (2.3 percent), three third-graders (2.1 percent) and one fifth-grader (0.7 percent).
Expulsions for the year were at 0.4 percent, weapons incidents at 0.3 percent and student assaults at 0.2 percent.
About 53 percent of the district’s students were on free or reduced lunch.
Lonoke Primary is a K-2 accredited school that is in need of targeted corrective action under the NCLB guidelines. The ratings under the gains model don’t apply since the school does not go up to at least third grade.
The school, with 423 students, has an attendance rate of 93.9 percent.
In the 2008-2009 school year, 11 first-graders (7.5 percent) and three second-graders (2.3 percent) were retained.
The school reported no expulsion or major disciplinary problems.
More than 63 percent of the students are eligible for free or reduced lunch, higher than the state average of 55.9 percent.
Lonoke Elementary is meeting improvement standards under the gains model, but its accreditation has been cited and the school is four rungs down from the top according to NCLB parameters. It is in need of targeted corrective action.
The school, with 435 students, had a 94.6 percent attendance rate.
It retained three third-graders (2.1 percent) and one fifth-grader (0.7 percent).
The school reported no expulsions or major discipline problems.
Almost 59 percent of the students are on free or reduced lunch.
Lonoke Middle School’s accreditation was cited last year, yet the school is listed as exceeding improvement standards under the gains model and as achieving standards under NCLB.
The school, with 461 students, has an attendance rate of 96 percent and a dropout rate of 1 percent.
The school had no retentions. The expulsion rate was at 0.9 percent and weapons incidents accounted for 0.4 percent of the major discipline problems.
About 48 percent of the students were eligible for free or reduced lunch, lower than the state average of 55.9 percent or the national rate of 49.2 percent.
Lonoke High School is much closer to the bottom than the top of the rankings under NCLB. The school is at the 10th level–whole school corrective action–out of 13 levels.
The school’s accreditation was also cited last year, meaning it had problems with teacher licenses, improper class sizes or not turning in required reports in a timely fashion.
The school did have more teachers with master’s degrees than bachelor’s degrees.
The report showed 63 percent with master’s and 37 percent with bachelor’s degrees.
The school, with 547 students, had a 98 percent attendance rate, a 73.7 percent graduation rate, a 4 percent dropout rate, a remediation rate of 64.6 percent and a grade-inflation rate of 8.2 percent (over 20 percent causes concerns).
The school’s expulsion rate for the 2008-2009 school year was 0.5 percent. Weapons incidents accounted for 0.7 percent of the major discipline problems and students assaults came in at 0.5 percent.
About 45 percent of the students were eligible for free or reduced lunch.