IN SHORT: Lonoke and Beebe also do well on mandated examinations.
By Rick Kron
Leader staff writer
The state education commissioner Tom Kimbrell was pleased that state scores on the annually mandated Benchmark test went up, but the Cabot School Superintendent Tony Thurman is probably more proud that his district blew by all the state averages.
The annual testing measures students’ ability to accomplish grade-level work.
The No Child Left Behind Act requires all students to score proficient or advance in the areas of math and literacy by the end of the 2013-2014 school year.
To reach that goal, most schools need to be at or above what the state calls the adequate yearly progress rate, which is near 70 percent proficient or advanced.
Not only did Cabot do well, so did Beebe, Lonoke and the Lisa Academy North Charter School.
Jacksonville’s first new school in more than two decades, the Lighthouse Charter School, failed to beat the Pulaski County Special School District average in most grade levels, and all the PCSSD averages are below the state average (see related story at right).
Not only were the Cabot scores above the state average, but there wasn’t a big gap of scores between the schools like in some other area districts.
When the Benchmark scores were released Tuesday, Kimbrell said, “When you have the achievement gap closing while scores of each student subgroup improve, you know that the system is working together to produce the right results. You can’t ask for a much better trend than that.”
Beebe
On the math portion of the Benchmark exam, Badger and Beebe elementary school third-graders scored 84 percent proficient or advanced, one point above the state average of 83 percent.
In literacy, the state average was 71 percent and at Badger Elementary, third-graders were 66 percent proficient or better. At Beebe Elementary, 71 percent reached the goal of proficient or better.
Among fourth graders at Badger Elementary, 84 percent were proficient or better on the math portion and at Beebe Elementary, 90 percent made the grade. The state average was 80 percent.
In literacy, the Badger fourth- graders were 85 percent proficient or better and Beebe Elementary had 84 percent make the grade. The state average was 77 percent.
On the math test, fifth-graders at Beebe Middle School were 77 percent proficient or better. The state average was 74 percent.
In literacy, the fifth-graders were 83 percent proficient or better, nine points better than the state average.
Beebe Middle School sixth- graders were 82 percent proficient or better on the math portion of the Benchmark, compared to the state average of 75 percent. In literacy, the sixth-graders were 75 proficient or better. The state average was 71 percent.
Among seventh-graders, 77 percent were proficient or better on the math portion, which was two points higher than the statewide average. In literacy, 74 percent were proficient or advanced. The state average was 68 percent.
At Beebe Junior High, 66 percent of the eighth-graders were proficient or better in math and at the Badger Academy, just 17 percent made the cut. The state math average was 63 percent. In literacy, 77 percent made the cut at Beebe Junior High and 67 percent did so at Badger Academy. The state average in literacy was 76 percent.
Cabot
The district average for third- graders on the math portion of the Benchmark was 91 percent proficient of advanced, nine points above the state average. In literacy, 79 percent of the third-graders were proficient or better. Statewide, the average was 71 percent.
At Stagecoach, 95 percent of the third-graders were proficient or better in math and 84 percent did the same in literacy. Ward Central saw 86 percent of its students make the grade in math and 65 percent in literacy. At Magness Creek, 96 percent were proficient or better in math and 90 percent did the same in literacy.
Among Westside third-graders, 84 percent were proficient or better in math and 70 made the cut in literacy. Northside had 90 percent make the cut in math and 72 percent score proficient or better in literacy.
Eastside had 91 percent of its students score proficient or above in math and 82 percent did the same in literacy. At Southside, 94 percent made the cut in math and 83 percent did the same in literacy.
Central Elementary saw 90 percent of its students score proficient or higher in math and 86 percent also in literacy.
At the fourth-grade level, the district average in math was 89 percent, nine points higher than the state average, and in literacy it was 86 percent, again nine points higher than the state.
At Eastside, 86 percent of the fourth-graders scored proficient or advanced on the math portion of the benchmark and 80 percent did the same in literacy.
Among Northside students, 91 percent made the cut in math and 80 percent were proficient or better in literacy. At Magness Creek, 94 percent were proficient or above in math and 88 percent did the same in literacy. While at Central Elementary, 81 percent were proficient or better in math and 79 percent made the grade in literacy.
Among Westside fourth-graders, 85 percent were proficient or advanced in math and 86 percent did so in literacy. Ward Central had 76 percent of its students score proficient or better in math and 78 percent did the same in literacy.
Stagecoach saw 97 percent of its fourth-graders make the cut in math and 94 percent did so in literacy.
At Southside, 88 percent scored proficient or advanced in math and the same percent did so in literacy.
At the fifth-grade level, the state average was 74 percent proficient or better in math and 72 percent in literacy. Cabot averaged 84 percent in both math and literacy.
Among fifth-graders at Cabot Middle School South, 81 percent were proficient or advanced in math and 82 percent did the same in literacy. Middle School North had 85 percent of its fifth-graders make the cut in math and 86 percent scored proficient or advanced in literacy.
At the sixth-grade level, the district averaged 87 proficient or better in math, 12 points better than the state average. On the literacy portion of the test, the district average was 83 percent proficient or better, also 12 points better than the state.
At Cabot Middle School South, 85 percent of the sixth-graders scored proficient or better in math and 85 percent also did so in literacy.
Among Cabot Middle School North students, 88 percent made the cut in math and 82 percent did the same in literacy.
Among seventh-graders statewide, the average was 75 percent proficient or better in math and 68 percent did equally well in literacy. The district beat the state math average by four percentage points and the literacy average by 10 points.
Seventh-graders at Cabot Junior High South had 83 percent of its students score proficient or better in math and 76 percent do the same in literacy. At Cabot Junior High North, 78 percent made the grade in math and 79 percent were proficient or advanced in literacy. At the Academic Center for Excellence, 73 percent were proficient or better in math and 54 percent made the cut in literacy.
In eighth-grade, the district average for scoring proficient or advanced in math was 75 percent, 12 points better than the state average. In literacy, the district average was 89 percent, 14 points over the state average.
At Cabot Junior High North, 78 percent of the eighth-graders were proficient or better in math and 89 percent did the same in literacy. Among eighth-graders at Cabot Junior High South, 74 percent made the grade in math and 89 percent did so in literacy.
Lighthouse Charter
In its first year, the Jacksonville Lighthouse Charter School, which is in the Pulaski County Special School District attendance zone, did not do as well as the district average at most grade levels.
Among the school’s third-graders, 80 percent were proficient or advanced in math, compared to the PCSSD average of 81 percent. In literacy, 70 percent of the charter students were proficient or better. The district’s average was 66 percent.
In fourth-grade, 70 percent of the students were proficient or better in math. The district average was 77 percent. In literacy, 72 percent made the cut compared to 76 percent in PCSSD.
Among fifth-graders, 65 percent were proficient or advanced in math and 65 percent did the same in literacy. The district’s average was 66 percent in math and 73 percent in literacy.
On the sixth-grader math portion of the benchmark, 59 percent of the students were proficient or advanced. The district average was 63 percent. In literacy, 67 percent made the cut compared to the district average of 71 percent.
Lisa Academy North
Lisa Academy North is a charter school that occupies the old Best Buy off Hwy. 67/167 and Wildwood Avenue that is in the PCSSD attendance zone and did beat the district average at most grade levels.
Among the academy’s third- graders, 76 were proficient or advanced in math. The PCSSD average was 81 percent. In literacy, 88 percent were proficient or better, compared to a district average of 66 percent.
In fourth-grade, 92 percent of the students were proficient or better in math and 96 percent in literacy.
The averages were 77 percent in math and 76 percent in literacy.
On the math portion of the test, 80 percent of the fifth-graders made the cut, 14 points above the state average. In literacy, 80 percent were proficient or advanced. The district average was 73 percent.
Sixth-graders were 82 percent proficient or better on the math portion of the benchmark, 19 points above the district average. In literacy, 84 percent were proficient or better, compared to a district average of 71 percent.
Among seventh graders, 83 percent were proficient or better in math and 80 percent made the cut in literacy. The district average was 67 percent in math and 59 percent in literacy.
In the eighth-grade, 84 percent of the academy students scored proficient or better in math and 85 percent did as well in literacy. At the district level the averages were 49 percent in math and 67 percent in literacy.
Lonoke
Lonoke third-graders were 82 percent proficient or advanced on the math portion of the benchmark and scored 62 percent proficient or better in literacy. The state average was 83 percent in math and 71 percent in literacy.
Fourth-graders were 78 percent proficient or better on the math exam, compared to the state average of 80 percent. In literacy, 77 percent made the grade. The state average in literacy was also 77 percent.
Among fifth-graders in Lonoke, 77 percent were proficient or better in math and 84 percent did the same in literacy. The state average was 74 percent in both math and literacy.
On the math portion, sixth- graders were 79 percent proficient or advanced, four points over the state average. In literacy, 72 percent were proficient or better. The state average was 71 percent.
On the seventh-grade math portion, 75 percent of the students were proficient or better and 73 percent did the same in literacy. The state average in math was 75 percent and it was 68 percent in literacy.
Among eighth-graders, 68 percent were proficient or better in math.
The state average was 63 percent. In literacy the eighth-graders were 79 percent proficient or better. The state average was 76 percent.
