Beating the Odds: High-Growth Schools based on the ACT Aspire examinations, serving low-income communities

Authors

Charlene A. Reid
Sarah C. McKenzie, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

11-13-2019

Series Title

Arkansas Education Report

Series Number

Volume 17, Issue 1

Keywords

ACT Aspire; Performance; Elementary schools; Middle schools; High schools

Abstract

This edition of the OEP Awards highlights schools in Arkansas based on student growth on the ACT Aspire exams in Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA). This is a departure from prior awards, which were based on student proficiency.

We choose to focus on student growth for these OEP awards because we think it is a better reflection than proficiency rates of how the school is impacting students. Growth is calculated at the student level, and essentially reflects how much a student improved his or her score from the prior year compared to what was predicted based on prior achievement history. Proficiency rates, even those that move beyond the ‘percent proficient’ like our OEP GPA and Arkansas’ weighted achievement score, are more correlated with student demographics than growth scores. This means that schools can demonstrate high student growth regardless of the characteristics of the students that they serve.

In the 2018-19 academic year, ACT Aspire examinations were administered to students in grades 3 through 10 in Math, Reading, Writing, English and Science. For the purposes of this report, the scores obtained in Reading, Writing and English were combined to create a combined ELA score.

Comments

Outstanding Educational Performance Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Growth Arkansas Schools, 2019

Volume 17, Issue 1

Citation

Reid, C. A., & McKenzie, S. C. (2019). Beating the Odds: High-Growth Schools based on the ACT Aspire examinations, serving low-income communities. Arkansas Education Reports. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/oepreport/68