By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
Not a single secondary school in Jacksonville, Sherwood and Beebe has reached federal and state guidelines for educating students and remain on the state’s school improvement list.
Most Cabot and Searcy schools continue to do well.
In a report released Thursday, the state placed 480 schools, or 45 percent of all public schools, on the list, including 22 schools in the area. Another six are on alert.
The state used benchmark and end-of-course test scores to determine if a school was reaching the required goals.
Depending on the scores, schools are considered achieving if they meet their goals; on alert if they miss their goals for the first time, or they go on the school improvement list and are ordered to make target improvements, whole school improvements, targeted intensive improvements, whole school intensive improvements or fall under state direction.
Sylvan Hills Middle School made the dreaded list for the ninth year in a row and was in the state- directed category, which is one of the reasons Pulaski County Special School District closed that facility at the end of the 2010-2011 school year and opened a new $60 million Sylvan Hills Middle School campus this year.
The district won’t know if the new building, improved classrooms and added technology will improve test scores until results are reported in late June or early July.
Both Jacksonville and North Pulaski high schools are now in year eight of school improvement and are under some form of state monitoring or oversight. Jacksonville High School brought in its third principal in less than three years to help stymie the academic bleeding.
Northwood Middle School made the list again for the eighth straight year and is also under state monitoring.
Sylvan Hills High School is also under state oversight and has entered its seventh year on the school improvement list.
Beebe’s middle school and junior high are on the list for the third year in a row and are in the targeted improvement category.
The high school has also been placed in the targeted improvement category by the state and is in the second year of school improvement.
The best of the worst is Jacksonville Middle School, which is in its first year of school improvement, under its current configuration, and has been placed in the whole school improvement category. The school formerly had separate campuses for the boys and girls.
Schools under state direction must take steps like replacing the principal or hire a school improvement specialist to assist the principal. Other state required actions could include replacing at least half the staff, closing the facility or converting it to a charter school.
For the 2010-2011 school year, an elementary school had to have about 78 percent of its students score proficient or advanced on the math and literacy portions of the benchmark, meaning those students are at or above grade level. Similar levels are required for algebra and geometry end-of-course exams as well as the high school literacy exam.
Federal guidelines from the No Child Left Behind Act dictate that all students will be on grade level by the end of the 2013-2014 school year.
PCSSD
At the elementary level, schools in PCSSD that are on the improvement list are Harris and Oakbrooke elementary schools and both are in year three of school improvement or in the whole school improvement category.
Clinton and Sherwood elementary schools are in the first year of school improvement, or what the state calls targeted improvement.
Warren Dupree and Cato elementary schools are in alert status, meaning they failed to reach the required threshold this year, and if they fail next year, they will be placed on the list.
Murrell Taylor Elementary, which is in its fifth year of school improvement, or whole school intensive improvement, did make its goals in the 2010-2011 school year. However a school must hit the mark two years in a row before it can come off the school improvement list.
Elementary schools doing well include Bayou Meto, Tolleson, Sylvan Hills, Pinewood, Arnold Drive and the since-closed Jacksonville Elementary.
CABOT
In Cabot, the only two schools on the improvement list are Cabot Middle School North and the Academic Center for Excellence. The middle school, which has been on the school improvement list and is considered to be in the state’s targeted improvement category, made its goals last school year, but must go one more year to get off the list. The ACE is in year one of school improvement and is in the whole school improvement category.
Three schools, Cabot Learning Academy and both junior highs, are on alert status, meaning they didn’t meet all the test score goals in 2010-2011.
The remaining 11 schools in Cabot are all listed as “achieving,” meaning they are doing well.
BEEBE
The two elementary schools in Beebe are achieving, but the others aren’t. The middle school and the junior high are both in their third year of school improvement and also in the targeted improvement category. The high school is also under targeted improvement and is in the second year of improvement.
SEARCY
The city’s two elementary schools and its high school are meeting test score goals and achieving.
Southwest Middle School has been placed on alert and Ahlf Junior High is on the school improvement list in the targeted improvement category even though it met goals in 2010-2011.
LONOKE
All four of Lonoke’s schools are on the state improvement list.
The high school, elementary school and primary school are all on the list for the fourth year and are under whole school intensive improvement. The middle school is on the list for the first year and is in the targeted instruction category.
OTHERS
Jacksonville Lighthouse Aca-demy and Lisa Academy North were placed on alert status for failing to meet all the test score thresholds in 2010-2011. Carlisle Elementary School was placed on alert status while the high school was placed in year one of school improvement and the whole school improvement category.
