Funding

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“We all have opinions. Think about that,” she said. “But if those opinions are not backed up with good statistics and good numbers, they’re just that: They’re opinions. And so what we realized is we had to cut the fluff. We talked too much about things. We would repeat ourselves, but at the end of a 10-minute conversation that should have taken 30 seconds, we still didn’t have a decision. When you pull those numbers in and you look at numbers, whether it’s attendance, achievement, or anything else in between, when you have good data, it takes all of those questions out of the way.”

The district also made a commitment to monitoring the results of its actions. District administrators did six-week rotations at buildings to support and, when necessary, correct the instructors there. Staff didn’t like it at first, but the administrators were able to learn what the various campuses needed, ranging from school safety improvements to trash cans.

A critical step was learning to follow the data and make decisions based on it. In one case, a third grade teacher moved in the summer but then moved back and applied to return to school. Her third grade slot had been filled, so she briefly was assigned to a fifth grade opening. However, the data showed her students had the best test scores in the third grade. When informed of that situation, the building principal noted that the new third grade teacher had already moved in and put up her bulletin board.

“We offered to change the bulletin board, moved the teacher where she needed to be and rocked on based on data,” Streeter said.

Tubbs, the school board member, said the district had begun focusing on SMART goals, the acronym standing for “Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timebound.” Without that guardrail, decision makers can get off base or look at things too broadly. The district is now accepting accountability for all students to learn at a high level, helping them improve weekly using data.

“If you can tell me why you need something, then you probably need it. And if you can tell me why, you’re probably going to get it,” he said.

In a panel discussion covering a range of topics, Division of Secondary and Elementary Education Deputy Commissioner Stacy Smith said important changes were occurring at the state level. She said the State Board of Education had adopted new math and English Language Arts standards that are clear and concise and have parent-friendly language. She said a side-by-side comparison of those standards with the previous ones made it clear how much better the new ones are.

Smith said this is the last year the state will be using the ACT Aspire as its end-of-year summative assessment for grades 3-10 after using the test starting in 2015. Next year, the state will be using a test developed by Cambium Assessment. Smith said Arkansas will have more control over this new assessment. The new math and ELA standards will match the test questions from the beginning. In the 2024-25 school year, the state hopes to have a K-2 assessment that’s more streamlined than what it currently has.

Attendees also got an unplanned visit from Arkansas Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva. In a brief speech, Oliva said he had committed himself to visiting every school superintendent. He had traveled more than 5,000 miles by road in an effort to gain a better understanding of the state’s education needs.