By Devin Sherrill, Bryant School District Director of Communications
The EVERY STUDENT SUCCEEDS ACT (ESSA) replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Instead of the same accountability system for all states, ESSA gives individual states flexibility to develop systems that best measure student success in their respective states.
Arkansas’ new ESSA plan focuses on improvement and opportunity for all students by targeting Academic Standards and Assessments; Accountability; School Support, English Learners, and Teacher Effectiveness. This new plan attempts to integrate accountability at the federal and state levels.
Arkansas’ ESSA plan provides a transparent reporting system through the School Performance Reports focusing on growth and achievement for all students. On April 11, the Arkansas Department of Education released the 2017 Arkansas School Performance Reports. Each school is assigned an ESSA Overall Index Score based on indicators that measure achievement, growth, school quality and student success, and graduation rate for high school. Schools are assigned a letter grade (A, B, C, D, F) to correlate with the Overall Index Score.
Here are the results in the Bryant School District:
Collegeville Elementary School: A
Salem Elementary School: A
Springhill Elementary School: A
Bethel Middle School: A
Bryant Middle School: A
Bryant Elementary School: B
Davis Elementary School: B
Hill Farm Elementary School: B
Hurricane Creek Elementary School: B
Bryant High School: B
“While we are extremely proud of these scores and the growth our schools have made, we recognize room for continual improvement,” said Superintendent Karen Walters. “Teachers and staff will continue implementing the goals in Our Strategic Plan for Success, focusing on academic and personal growth for each student, leading Bryant toward becoming the state’s premier provider of educational services.”
