LITTLE ROCK – According to the accountability reports released today by the Arkansas Department of Education, 86.9 percent of schools earned the same letter grade or a higher grade in 2023. Letter grades reflect a school’s overall performance.
Compared to 2022, 72.4 percent (728 schools) earned the same grade, with 14.5 percent (148 schools) earning a higher grade. A total of 144 schools (14.1 percent) earned a lower grade.
“The letter grades are of significant importance to families, as they serve as an easy-to-understand metric for how schools are performing,” ADE Secretary Jacob Oliva said. “While we are pleased that a majority of schools’ grades held steady or improved, we still have a lot of work ahead to ensure all students are reading on grade level and are prepared for college, career, and life. We are confident that the implementation of LEARNS will bring improved results this next school year.”
Letter grades are part of the state accountability reports. With the exception of letter grades in the state report, both the state and federal reports mirror each other in many ways and include data about student achievement and growth, graduation rates, and other indicators that measure student learning.
The reports, which are available on the department’s My School Info website https://myschoolinfo.arkansas.gov/, reflect trend data for multiple years, as well as data for student subgroups. To learn more about how to access the reports for each school, visit the 2023 ESSA School Index Public Release video at bit.ly/2023ESSASchoolIndex. Also, to see schools highlighted in this year's Schools on the Move campaign, visit https://dese.link/schools-on-the-move.
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