Education- Senate and House

Good morning everyone hello this meeting to order chair sees a quorum of some sort. This year's outside so we kind of finished up a long day yesterday missed one item and We're going to start back with that one this morning and and first thing we've got to grants for Mr Webb and so I'd be I don't see on your Schedule today so missed web you'll of state your name and who you're with you're welcome FOR C.. Thank you Mr chairman my name is David Webb I am an audit supervisor with Arkansas legislative audit. Each year Arkansas legislative audit prepares a summary of all the grants that are distributed by the Arkansas department of education Division of elementary and secondary education. This report is issued as required by Arkansas Code. And the fiscal year twenty one report summarizes the three point eight billion dollars that was provided as grants to school districts charter schools education cooperatives and other entities. This report as well as reports from prior years is available on our website. Grants are funded from state and federal sources during fiscal year twenty one two point nine billion dollars was provided from the Public School Fund. Eight hundred and thirty four million dollars was provided from federal funds and hundred fourteen million dollars was provided from other states sources. Overall the department distributed three hundred and thirty five million dollars more in fiscal year twenty one then was distributed in fiscal year twenty. The total amount that was distributed to each recipient such as school districts charter schools and others can be found on attachment one. On page three through eight of the exhibit C. dash to that you have in the binder in front of you. It also will indicate the total amount that was distributed to these districts and other recipients in prior years. The remaining attachments that are included in the report will display amounts that were distributed to each recipient from each grant during the fiscal year. And there are fifty four programs there are administered through the Public School Fund eleven programs are distributed from other state funds and twenty four programs were dispersed from federal funds. The program amounts to be distributed to each recipient for from just the Public School Fund are included on attachments two through four. Program announcmenet distributed from the other school other state funds to the school districts and others are included on attachment five. And then the amounts that were distributed to each recipient from federal funds are included on attachment six. Finally in the back of the report or attachments seven eight and nine these attachments will contain brief narratives and descriptions of each of the grant programs. No. Know what it procedures were performed at the recipient level regarding how the moneys were ultimately used this report is designed only to disclose how much money was distributed to the recipients by eighty E. T. E. S. C.. Thank you Mr chairman that concludes our presentation. Are there any questions. Robson Love. Thank you Mr chairman I just want to ask now. With the last thing that you made this report doesn't cover any hi how the money was used is there were it do we usually do on it our report on how the money is used for the recipient yes Sir okay. Annually school districts are audit by Arkansas legislative audit or by private companies the. In some form they will be audited annually and those audit reports are presented at a subcommittee meeting of the Legislative Joint audit okay all right thank you. I see no more questions thank you Sir thank you very much. All right our next group is moving in for the state federal accountability programs. Give them time to get and set up. We just whenever you're ready just state your name and. You can get started. Adrian back at the bureau of legislative research I want to clarify some of the accountability or that student achievement contract at the right. Port did she mention that without question mission that we're starting with or was it a county be handled first is Such title. It was yesterday but we got. What you wanted. Is your waist and ensure that the right presentation. You look back to see which one was. The correct. Well that gets pulled up so we're gonna separate student achievement so that I believe can be found under yesterday's date in your binder. I god she handout G. excuse me. We'll still be in the same place it was yesterday your binders. That is G. wanted to be on a Monday agenda. Great. So I also want before I get started I want to traded into the tracking sheet you should have in front of you in yellow that she's giving Decatur where we are in the adequacy process. So we're going to start today with student achievements. And that was C. as statutes this is made adequacy study statute because of the biennial study to assess evaluate and monitor the entire spectrum of public education as well as to violate the effectiveness of any program implemented by the school school district. The Cooper any cooperative eighty E. or the state board of education that same statute calls for review of the Arkansas educational support and accountability act in the state standing under the every student succeeds act known as sesta. So the Arkansas educational support added in accountability act calls for mandates Arkansas students be tested at the national assessment for educational progress known as Nate as well as the state summative assessment and known as ACT aspire to cover both of those today. There's a little discuss more detail here shortly the states as a plan includes a long term goal of having eighty percent of Arkansas students demonstrate grade level proficiency. The Addams because adequacy definition includes language that says the goal is to have all or all but the most severely disabled students perform at or above proficiency on the state assessments. So with that. We're gonna talk about students even in five different ways and I'm gonna know that this is gonna be fairly data have you today and for the second time I won't going to every single craft that's included in your report as we go through I'll make a note of raking find more expansive charts and tables and to go with it they were talking about their but we're gonna talk about Nate the results in the next assessment The Advanced Placement AP program results in the ACT college entrance exam State summative assessment ACT aspire results and then high school graduation rates. In for each section I'm going to provide you a brief overview of some of the terminology reference within each that will keep that to a minimum and additionally students with disabilities and English language learner students have an additional assessment for their specific population those results are covered last month we will be reviewing those again but those are in past reports for your reference. So with that we'll get started with the name. Assessment results. And as a reminder this is the nork largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what students in public schools in the US know and are able to do in various subjects it is congressionally mandated through the national Senator center for education statistics and allows for a common measure of student achievement across board of that allows for direct comparisons across states. The results are reported as scores and as percentages of students reaching name but she might levels legacy here that Senate Nate basic may profession and they've advanced. And results for comparison states can be found in your report and appendices a through D. beginning on page thirty four of the report. So to get started these are results in the twenty nineteen assessments is the most recently available data that we have so Arkansas is shown in pink the blue is the national average. You can see here Arkansas was below the national average and fourth in eighth grade reading and math assessments ranging from twenty seven percent at or above proficient eighth grade math. Thirty three percent in fourth grade math. So looking historically over time was honored earlier this is an assessment given every two years we have results from twenty fifteen twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen again Arkansas average is in Arkansas numbers are in pink nationalen bloom. You can see that both of Arkansas the national average or holding steady both just under thirty five percent at or above proficient though there was a slight decrease for both groups from twenty fifteen. Moving to fourth grade math. So we see just a slightly larger gap between the state and national average and a slight up tick for both Arkansas on the national average for the twenty fifteen year. For eighth grade reading see a slightly different trend here so both groups increased from twenty seven fifteen to twenty seventeen. Though the national percentage of students scoring at or above proficient dropped in twenty nineteen where there is an increase in Arkansas average the active average there isn't the percentage of students at or above proficient. So for eighth grade math the national average held steady at around thirty three percent at or above proficient compared to a slight increase in the Arkansas percentage in Iraq twenty seven percent at or above proficient in twenty nineteen. So we're these by race and ethnicity and we also have the scores broken out by age gender and those are included in your report but for the sake of time they're not included here. But you'll see here that we don't have every race ethnicity represented and that is because reporting standards weren't met for Nate for many that for the other racial ethnic groups and that could mean that the sample size wasn't large enough to allow for a reliable estimate as a reminder that's given that says was given to a sample of students every two years so that could account for that. But will start with fourth grade reading anti C. and. For this year all groups are under the national average with the exception of Hispanic students outperformed the national average at twenty seven percent at or above proficient and that thirty seven percent of white students scored at or above compared to fifteen percent of black students. Meeting on to fourth grade math we see the all three groups of students were all below the national average so I seen here and the remaining slice of the name assessments you'll see that the achievement gap between white black students and white Hispanic cents for smaller in Arkansas then compared to the national average for each of the tests shown here. So for eighth grade reading. Arkansas Hispanic students outperformed the national average at twenty nine percent at or above proficient. Eleven percent of black students scored at or above proficient Arkansas black students compared to thirty five percent of white Arkansas students. And then finally for eighth grade math again Arkansas Stanikzai as outperformed the national average at twenty three percent at or above proficient. Seven percent of Arkansas black students were at or above proficient compared to thirty five percent of Arkansas white students. So that brings us to the Advanced Placement or AP program. And this program is comma is designed to improve course offerings available to middle school junior high and high school students across the state by providing advanced educational courses that are easily accessible and will prepare students for admission to a success and a postsecondary education environment. Students can take the AP exam for each eighty course taken which provides them the opportunity to qualify for college or university level credit that's done with a score of three or higher on that assessment each of those. The Arkansas districts must provide high school students with the opportunity to enroll in at least one AP course in each of the four corners or areas English math science and social studies. So this table shows portion of twenty twenty school year which is the most recently available for that national comparison. You can see here the total number of students taking the exams versus the number of AP exams taken seated variances indicating that some students are taking more than one exam. So when compared nationally forty five percent of exams that were taken in Arkansas scoring three or a five forty five percent compared to sixty four percent nationally. Enventis store clean so that number has been growing for both Arkansas and nationally you can see there was a slightly bigger up tick for the Arkansas group from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty. And without will move on to the ACT this is the college entrance exam. And. This is a yes I said this is a national college entrance exam that's used across the United States it includes four subjects tested English math reading and science. And with that there's a scored with you know one in a thirty six for each of those as well as a composite encompassing all of those subjects. Within the A. C. T. they also provide college readiness benchmarks and these are defined to be certified as empirically derived descriptions of essential skills and knowledge students need to become ready or for college and career. So with that we'll take a look at some data from twenty twenty one. So this shows Arkansas performance compared to the national average so it's been discussed in past meetings with the a larger percentage of students in Arkansas being tested as a requirement for that that accounts for that that does make an impact how we look at those data. Heritability but you can see nationally on thirty five students are using. being tested with the ACT. And they are scoring the national averages are higher than the state average as well as the average composite score. Then looking at the Arkansas students only so this is the Arkansas graduating class of twenty twenty one this is a percent meeting those college college readiness benchmarks for each subject as well as those meeting all four of those readiness benchmarks you can see the largest group was an English at forty nine percent. And then fourteen percent of all graduating seniors Matt all four readiness benchmarks. And beginning on page nine of your report you can see how these rates have changed over the past five years as well as the House average composite scores for each of those and you also see table showing how that performance varies across the comparison states that we've included. So looking at that percentage of students meeting all four of those college readiness benchmarks at the school level we see that performance was higher in districts as well as an urban schools. And performance decrease with higher concentrations of free or reduced price lunch students. Moving on to districts size so we see that that percentage generally decreases as districts get smaller and performance was higher and the BLR Coalport schools. So that takes us to the ACT aspire. And as noted earlier this is the statewide summative assessment for students in grades three through ten at tests students in English reading writing math and science and average scores for English reading and writing are combined to form an English language arts or ELAS four that will include. So skills for that each grade level are combined in the forage email levels sides exceeding ready close in need of improvement. So those scores were considered. Ready or exceeding their considered and on target for college and readiness by the end of high school. So this takes a look at how scores of buried over time you can see in twenty twenty one the most recent year available. hello note that delays in paying the math scores are blue in there you can see that for the current year thirty seven percent of students are at are ready or exceeding excuse me and E. LA and then thirty six percent were in math and you'll see that there are no schools scores reported for twenty twenty so we know that students were not tested that year due to Kobe nineteen. And also add that that are not in the past reports there was a change in LA cut scores earlier that counts for some of the changes in the E. LA scores over time as well. So looking by grade level so again E. LA isn't paying math and blue. So we can see that performance in LA increases with the higher grades in the performance in math and decreases and the higher grades. And in your report you'll see third grade six and ninth grade performance in both the LA in math broken out no school level category groups seek if you want to see further how the performance of buried at the rate level. Still looking at scores over time for by race and ethnicity so we'll start with Elaine you can see that performance decrease for each of the groups over the past five years. And so in twenty twenty one Asian students had the largest percentage of students scoring ready or exceeding followed by white students. So in the current year forty five percent of white students scored ready or exceeding N. LA compared to seventeen percent of African American students. And management gap between white and African American students decreased by one percentage point since twenty seventeen and the achievement gap between white Hispanic students held steady for that for that time period. And then looking at math so we see some similar numbers and similar trends here again Asian students had the largest percentage of students scoring ready or exceeding followed by white students so twenty twenty one forty five forty four excuse me percent of white students were rated scoring ready or exceeding. to fourteen percent of African American students and then thirty one percent of Hispanic and Latino students so that is the main gap between white African American students increased by one percentage point over the past five years and the gap between white Hispanic Latino students held steady as well that time period. So looking at the scores by gender for the past five years so we can see there is a. That's been achievement gap between female and male students in English language arts that gap has decreased since twenty seventeen and then there. Holding there and even in terms of performance in math and twenty twenty one. So looking at the scores at the school level. So we can see starting with a LA we see that performance decreased with higher concentrations of free or reduced price lunch students. And actually there was a while there was some variants performance in schools with the highest concentrations of minority students for the had the lowest percentage ready or exceeding. And the other was been discussed I think in the past meeting we know there's an overlap between free or reduced price lunch students and minority students in the concentration of free or reduced price lunch students and is often more the driving factor in terms of impacting performance. Looking at the district level we see that performance again decreases with district size and performance is higher in the bill are code words schools. Moving on to mass so we see again performance decrease with higher concentrations of free or reduced price lunch students. And with districts size performance decrease as district got smaller in performance was higher in BLR covert schools. So the two regional trends and this is kind of a reminder of what those regional breakouts and look like more details about how those the details of how that's broken out are included in the methodologies are poor in cap five of your binder. And as a reminder some of the terminology we're gonna use in the next couple slides a LEDs the alternative learning environment students ELL his or English language learners free or reduced price lunch this is F. R. alle instead refers to students with disabilities and special education. So starting with your name so this shows the trends by student groups you can see general lane when it came to LA performance in northwest and north central regions typically have the highest percentage of students at ready or exceeding the lower delta was the lowest performing with the exception of ELL students. sees that. I do want to note that for the ELL student performance this is strictly only ELL students in the current programming does not include students are being formally monitored and in those typically those numbers would go up when that those students are included. And then looking at maths we see some similar trans again the northwest and north central regions typically have the highest percentage of students at a ready or exceeding the lower delta with the account exception of yellow students or the southwest region recognized me. To the mass forced southwest region had the highest performing. Hi it's percentages performing. So without will wrap it up with graduation rates so I won't go into the nitty gritty of how this calculation is made by that is included in your report but I also want to say that we as a four year graduation rates as required with the assess financial elementary and secondary Education Act that includes adjustments for students transferring in and out during that period. But our overall graduation rate Arkansas for twenty twenty one was eighty eight point five percent for all students. And these numbers come from does he and I have breakouts for different groups of students you can see that those numbers decrease with economically disadvantaged students knows defined as those receiving free or reduced price lunches. you'll see that female students actually exceeded the state average on the graduation rate. And then looking by race and ethnicity so we see that that percentage decreases with the exception of Asian Caucasian students in those rates exceed the national average and Hawaiian Pacific Islander students had the lowest graduation rates at seventy seven or seventy eight percent. Looking at those rates at the school level so we see the graduation rates were higher in districts and in rural schools. And a decrease with higher concentrations of free or reduced price lunch and minority students. And in five districts size again we see the graduation rates first local lowest in the smallest districts. And actually graduation rates were lower in the B. Alarko for schools. And then regional differences not a huge variance here between the hours The central region had the lowest eighty three percent and to see the northwest north central upper delta and southwest alright eighty eight percent so not a huge grants there. And then finally for national comparison so this shows up to twenty nineteen what is the most recently available we data we have for national comparison you can see get Arkansas's and paint our the national averages in lieu of the kind of hard to see because they're so close to each other the Arkansas actually exceeds the their graduation rate exceeds the national average just slightly. As of twenty nineteen. But with that I will take effect at happy take any questions. Mainboard listed. Senator just really recognize. Thank you Mr chair and ladies thank you so very much for your research in a report. I guess my heart is breaking because I'm finding out that sixty percent of Americans can't ring. According to Nate is that what I'm reading or I'm I'm not as deceiving the they don't read well enough that terms of what they're at a right the ready at or above proficient yes that would be. And we are lower than that. Correct. For was this yeah was this has this been going on for the last ten years. Do you think or if you just look back five years that's long enough to know that we're not doing well. What other states doing or did you research what other states are doing in order to be able to have a literate population. One we've done research in different areas we haven't done a comprehensive look at terms of all student achievement I think that would. We have we have to do that but I would cry take some time to really look at all of the factors that would be to include look at that. Thank you for that thank you miss your guess is we look at adequacy there's gotta be a greater emphasis somewhere. because. We lose when we don't read with understanding. Incomprehension. Thank you. President makes. Thank you Mr so the question I have is almost follow up to the senators. We're only scoring thirty thirty five percent proficient in these various areas yeah we're graduating eighty eight ninety percent of our kids so where's the disconnect there are we grants and not all this maybe more of a department question and then you all but. Are are we graduating a lot of students that. Aren't really ready. Thank god what what's the data show there hi how what we missing here that might be a question order for today I'm not sure I could speak to the exact way that graduation rates and how that. This happened I might be a district level type of okay that would be okay and then then my other question and you know may be able to answer this one is when we're setting these proficiency levels by you know Nate and ACT aspires who defines what that level is and is that something that can be compared to what's happening in other countries in the industrialized world are you know our our standards on levels what we see globally our standards more rigorous there for our students are scoring lower so if I took a student from Arkansas and compared them to. Other countries I don't you ever research that or not but how are we doing a who sets those standards and how those standards compared to. Other standards that we find across the globe. Sure so the neighbor named levels Nate the nationals that they they're the ones that set that they have some pretty clear I don't have that with me but they have some pretty clear processes for determining that the ACT aspire I think that's determined by ACT but does he may want to clarify exactly how those are set and I've not looked for a global comparison name as far as I'm aware only that's applied to data station under no territories so I'm not sure how that goes to a low level comparison ballot be happy to look into that and see if there is a way to measure across countries I'm not aware of any right now well I'm and it'll thirty percent seems does mall a lot of these numbers is failing on on any scale but I also see that as Americans were some of the most industrial you know. More the leading country in the world a lot of these areas so again seems like there's a potential disconnect there so I'd just be interested in that thank you Mr. Resentment. Thank you Mr chair of. I was. Going back to the it's our pages eight at the bottom of our page eight the looking at the the percentage of students meeting all ACT benchmarks a little bit surprised how the that fell out but anyway so that that was the other thing I did is. Comparing that chart to access charge that was twenty four this one the one comparing it to the four year graduation rate chart if you look at those numbers. It's a graduation percentage of graduation for your graduation goes up. Of that number. Meeting the benchmark goes down almost. Almost like that so I thought I was gonna be interesting so so if that the higher percentage that you graduated in four years the last page the last percentage of people that you had that met all. Of the ACT benchmarks. Here is there. It really is almost this state is. I can't exactly that but I mean they are measuring two different things I don't you know how well they I could say they could compare that myself but they are. Not sure what I would expect in being. Sort of in step with each other that but the opposite way you know the more people that are ready in meeting the ACT benchmarks you thanks they were progressed on graduated but this shows sort of the opposite effect that. So that was one issue that you might need that we talk about that later on but the other thing is. Looking at the bench mark Donnal data we can do this letter if if you want to is the look at whether the some of the schools that did It's a poor then does well right and some the other states did you see any variance and the categories of the A. C. T. like now maybe they did very well on a math portions but they did number that whether some correlations are there shall that there are certain sections of the ACT's in the schools three hundred fifty one five hundred that were you know maybe something pull down there were there were great and four and one of them pulled down or something like that like there's a height variance that might show it what a kneeling at here's it might show that some of the smaller schools maybe didn't have the resources to teach I have maybe struggle a bit with resources farce teaching and and and and classroom whatever to to be able to teach all levels of you have sought some of maybe I'm just guessing science programs and things like that or something like that but so I'd be interested enough to clear that is did the smaller schools where there are some things that look like that maybe they need additional resources are or something like that and that's why they're scores or as far as on all of the ACT benchmarks lower I'd be interested in dealing that a little bit farther then this correlation between this graduation rate and and the ACT meeting all the ACT is mark also backwards correlation. Of the day subject which. All right off line against the our go ahead I didn't dig into that level analysis but that that he might be able to speak better to that right now to if they're if they're aware of any trends on that. The cell any patterns like on that level. Thank you. First of all. Thank you Mr chair. I have maybe a two fold questions so do ya inter ACT or. Ask questions of the department of ed when you're doing these kind of. reports for us. It from it yes we do from time to time depending on the topic or the question of how much data we already have available how much is available online already but we do have conversations and they do review the reports before we publish we make sure that we're presenting accurate information okay because I would think that they would have a lot of information about this kind of thing this kind of reports and that's one of the reasons that I'm asking if you do confer with them and make sure that your report is at the child's reports surfacing that they do kind of show the same information because it's confusing to **** if you're telling us one thing the department is telling us something else and you all could actually have conversations to make sure that we are all on the same page and that what you're reporting is accurate information we do we this report was submitted to me had with today as a and they looked over the numbers and we made adjustments per their comments make sure if we had anything incorrect or missed any any extractions everything so they did review this report and gave everything we make all the changes as they noted so okay so may I have a follow up Sir so on page nine for you talk about the ACT aspire which this would be something I would think that the Department of ad would know quite a bit about the ins that they're kind of in charge of that right correct okay so on page nine for you talk about the percentage of students scoring ready or exceeding. So were you aware that there was a cut I cut score change in E. LA in two thousand and eighteen yes that's noted in the report I noted that earlier when I so where is that in the report there is a fight now for every time as ACT scores as a footnote saying that that there is a change in that you know like that scores. You will okay so and that's the and that's great I understand that but maybe do something here that tells us to go look there does that make sense what I'm saying like if I just look at this there's no notation that there was a cut made so it made me question is this accurate data did we use the data that was given to us by the Department of it had to come up with this. Graph does that make sense because the change in the graph may be due to the cuts not performance sure. So if there's a way for you all to even do an Asterix somewhere on the actual chart saying referred to page such and such in the because we're not going to know to go back and forth and I've been on here for three terms I mean that and unless you're telling me it's back there. Someone a designated here that I may miss that sure and I don't want people who are new to the committee to miss that also sure thank you. To reserve your free. Thank you Mr thank you so much ways I have a couple of questions and I'm afraid they may be assignments for your. Which I'm guilty of often that I think this data warrants a deeper dive I share it Senator Chesterfield heart rate I think some of these low achievement numbers. And I think we need to to really have a sense of urgency about policy solutions I'm a first just thinking and just kind of big picture literacy rates big picture. Opportunities for improvement at this literacy rates and and looking at and how we kind of live behind some of our peers nationwide I'm wondering first if you wouldn't mind looking at which states have either a very robust and accessible pre K. program or universal pre K. and what their literacy rates are like eight in comparison to ours and I'm sorry to give you so much homework. But I do think that's worth taking a look at S. attorney English and I are going to appreciate a session later today and I think that that as we talk about K. twelve literacy you know is looking out what's happening in early childhood would be very helpful in in just seeking all possible solutions for improvement the next question or assignment I have it's about outcomes for black students and I think you know we can feel alarmed as seeing the life achievement and for our black students and I'm curious If those scores can can kind of be disaggregated further by the level or the percentage of kind of racial bifurcation in schools there's been some research done about the more integrated the more racially integrated a school is that better outcomes are for for black students and other students as I'm curious to see these outcomes for our black students in Arkansas if we can also see just what those outcomes look like based on kind of the ethnic breakdown of the student population again I know that's a big payment and if you can't do it or don't have time to do it I understand and that's okay but I do think that's kind of an interesting thank you to look at and serve our communities across the state because they do you think there's been an interest in research about how integrated schools improve achievement for black students out I just would be curious about those two things I know you are a certain side of my life since I always want to know more but I'm incredibly grateful for your work and and think that we can't do our job as policy makers without. You know access to too much information and data as we can have so um this would just be that the kind of lingering questions I have thank you the be happy to work look into that and get that get back day and Mayo rash of course no rush but those are two things I'm pretty thank you thank you Mr. Senator. Senator Elliot. Thank you Mr chairman I think there's probably no doubt representative Godfrey that when we look that information the question you ask is going to show validation for your thought. Because in nineteen seventy when somebody said you really do have to get serious about school integration we did for a few years and we saw we saw improvement. And then we became a. Assiduously connected to we are not going to have integrated schools and you can see the evidence of that all over this state if you start right here in Pulaski County we have our schools so your schedule take your discussion out to the side please you're kind of disturbing the people around you on the other hand we have our schools so segregated ago that away and discuss please thank you by race in the Senate ethnicity is not just that is not to say that kids who are C. and all blacks who can't learn that is not it at the the bigger part of it is it's good for all kids and we just we we don't do it we see how in Pulaski County we have all kind of schools that grew up out west and they grew up for the purposes of making sure kids don't go to school together and it's a disservice to our kids Hi Mike my question has to do with that one that representative Meeks asked when we talked about when he ask about comparing us to other countries If you were to go to the OECD reports about how schools performer around the world that could give us a national perspective and I'm just wondering if you are aware of is the organization I'm not to remember all of OECD the organisation of the maybe economic I've forgotten all of what it stands for but this is the group that measures how countries do across the world and that would be a good place to look. For example if Massachusetts were a country Massachusetts will rank somewhere like a three or four in the world. So that's why it's not popular and I've said this since the time I've been here through democratic and Republican administrations. If we when we look at those we look at the the gap. And we have a love affair with adequacy if all we do is close that gap I want you all to really think about this if all we do is close the gaps that we keep seeing their. What are we done. Yes the constitution doesn't require us to hold ourselves static with each other that's the floor and so when you. When you look at these other countries I would ask that if you if you can find something and what they're doing that's consistent with just be an adequate as opposed to equitable and be in the world class. And. The other thing I would remind are committee up because people always say you always complain about this why don't you do something I want to remind you how long I've tried to do something with this in twenty twelve the NCSL to which we all belong the NCSL commission report when those OECD numbers came out and we are somewhere in the middle of while countries like Estonia that was a back backwater in the USSR thirty years ago and now they've been leading for the last twelve years. Thank you NCSL commission report to see because we was so alarmed once again. And they appointed an equal number of Democrats an equal number of Republicans to take a look at what is going on here. Why is it that we are not doing better in the world and I'm not saying the test is everything but we keep seeing stuff every time the report comes out. There is there's no excusing it because we know what other countries do. We can do it we did the report. And I was the democratic here at the time and and the senator from Wisconsin was the Republican chair. So it was a straight down the line and get rid of your thoughts about what you think you know and and learn something so we did that issued the report call no time to lose. To get back to our stage there of the report states doing something with it. I presented to the Education Committee and I think I got not a single question and one comment. I presented it to the department of education I think I got one. Comment. And we have done absolutely nothing was something that we could have used so. Mister I know this is not leading to this is not a question I realize that but it is folly to me first to keep beating up on folks and the department of education the state board it needs to get on board with this and and do more than just saying we're going to meet adequacy but there is nobody who needs get on board with this more than than legislators. Because we could we're not doing I don't know what the hell are we going to say to folks and we say adequacy is our measure and this is something good for kids can't read we have the science of reading because I finally decided I've got to do something and we're doing that. But not everybody's excited about it. We have this these other issues where we are our kids are not being prepared to compete in the world and we always want to look for something to say that this can't be right that can't be right but what's right is we are not doing what we need to do to make sure our kids have a world class education it is just wrong. And we keep one of the major things we say and that in in that report. Stop looking for silver bullets let's have this kind of question about kind of school and all we do when we do that is we scatter our economic resources to do some of every little thing. Except coming together and saying I don't how do we give our kids a world class education. How do we do it it's not hidden from us. We just break in are not doing it. And we can. There's no need to continue to see in places like a stone yep and Canada and we stated they are not like us Canada Toronto we looked at the top performing countries in the world to see what they're doing. And the same countries keep popping up even Vietnam. And we say we are not like them because we are so diverse. Canada the Alberta. And Toronto. Have the most especially Toronto the most diverse place in the world basically. Can we move on I'm going to I'm going to move on yes but I I just I I just think that I want to caution us. Don't be mad at the department of education. Be mad at us. And I'm one last question not related and I would apologize but I'm. Mr but I I don't feel the need to at this point. When we look at the eight piece course. I was trying to find a real quickly and I could. Do we do we have a break down of the folks to the AP exam. That those who actually took them by demographics. And how they did how they performed we might have that I'll just go back and look to see if it's that level on there I'm not quite sure if we do but I'll be happy to take a look to see if that's available. And unnecessary the Department of Education comes forward I would like if they can speak to. We change the language is one of the other ways that that we Set out to do something that we're going to stick with it because with regard to prepare kids And we check not the department of education we did. We change the language from offer for courses because those are rigorous courses that will help kids fall to compete in the world and to better in college I think we changed it for which changed from required to be offered. All right to take and we changed it to language to be offered numbers wondered how that's had an effect on the number of kids who are taking AP classes that's for the Department education Mr your work will come up now okay now would be great we have somebody back there I can't see behind the call to see who's here. I mean I know somebody records on it is so. There is he's I'm permitted to answer. Good morning you know the drill. Johnny key part of education. Senator we just had a report from College Board they came visited last week we have all that information we're happy to provide that staff I don't have the. Specific answers to to that question we we are seeing generally I can say increase participation and if the numbers. we are also seeing which I think is interesting given the information about the performance of Hispanic Latino students we're seeing a dramatic increase in the. Say dramatic it just participation and performance in our students of of Hispanic Latino origin. And but would credit our Arkansas has won the best E. L. programs support programs I believe in the kind in the nation and so students are coming our state they're getting immersed in a the support that they need to perform to improve to grow and academic so we'll we're happy to get that information by staff and because it's a very A very extensive report on Arkansas state okay I thank you for that Mister chair at the at the only the other question I had was do you do we have in a sense of. What schools are doing to me actually as the number of the test can go up and warned about the numbers of students and and where are our schools carrying out what they what we need by offering because this goes if it's another one of those you all calm things we know what happens so I just kind of want to know if you can find out of somebody we will look at that I will say though generally it does very greatly and quite frankly the. The issue with staffing and retaining recruiting retaining teachers is presents an ongoing challenge to that because of your A. P. teachers are typically those who have longevity and are so very solid. Be on solid in the content and R. as as the. Pipeline is she's continued to to challenge us that is continuing to be an issue many of our AP courses are offered virtually now we we have worked to the parts Arkansas organization provide some of those and that's how some of the the schools are meeting the requirement for teaching those courses but we'll get to the conference report and answer any other questions you have okay okay thank you Mr chair the last last thing I'll say about this is that in those other countries have been talking about they do not expect everything that a child needs to be successful to happen through the Education Committee. They take care of those other things like whether or not you have a home well the not your parents have worked. Everything is not done and full disclosure I want you to know that The there's a national group called the national center on education and the economy work that's study that is the role they studied the highest performers in the country. Along with my one of my colleagues from Australia I am the co chair of that committee that's why I know what I'm talking about and what I see and and and I don't want you to think I just pull up all of this out of the hat. I've been studying since two thousand twelve I didn't stop thank you Mr. Hello. Thank you Mr In nineteen on the share the frustrations that senator Elliots share because I'm looking at these night percentages So I'm not going. Go over a lot of things but I am gonna say in any one time and I'm and I'm just looking at that black numbers. I see seven percent. Eleven percent thirteen percent fifteen percent. And I'm I'm just. I don't even know what to say about that but I do want to enhance first of all how do we define proficiency. It depends what what which assessment I mean every assessment has. Got it will have a different definition a different and it's usually defined in by the cut score of that is established for that for that particular assessment so if there's really not a me for us the operating definition for us is that proficiency means that our students are showing that they can be our education standards higher learning standards for that subject matter okay so when I look at the next score for bye bye race eighth graders in math and I see seven percent. Yes proficiency I can assume that ninety three ninety three out of one hundred students. Cannot perform math functions on eighth grade level. Is that. We're talking about Nate hi yes they those that's the percentage of students that meet proficiency benchmark for that particular process. Now one thing I'll point out that I cannot stress enough mate. Is not the same and is not is is not easily comparable to weather was benchmark park ACT aspire or the new assessment because the process for may is far different. Hi on our state stand or state assessment under federal requirements ninety five percent of our students have to take that assessment Nate is a sample it's sample on the student level and it is sample on a school level so not every student the state of Arkansas takes the name exam every two years. Just wanna make sure the context is clear that that you know they're they're not apples to apples comparisons okay so what context should I put this in. So bad I mean I'm not saying it's it's it makes it eighty I'm better but it's still not where we want to okay I guess this is what I'm I'm trying to I'm trying to do because. I don't want to say that out of one hundred kids ninety three. Students cannot perform what I'm I'm just trying to put it into context so I just don't what level of madness should not be. You know because the thing about it is this is so alarming but I don't want to I don't want to just be alarming to the black legislative caucus I want to be alarming everybody but I do have to kind of frame it so that it's not displaced and say. And so that's what I'm asking you these questions are answered and put it on the on the spot I'm just as honest in it and the other thing I think representative to consider too is. These assessments test at different levels of wrecker. You know so the neighbors It is very challenging exam it's a very it it it is going to be typically more challenging than whether it's Arkansas's assessment for most other state assessment cities is going so you're looking at proficiency at a level that might be a step higher then proficiency on a state a state assessment okay and then also you know he mentioned the E. L. students and their performance when you start talking about E. il programming. One of the aspects the L. programming that we could possibly. Or is there any compared of programming for just say for instance we target African American students with since we looking at these rates or sand how will they are is there any compared of programming to the represent love that is exactly the same question I asked my team two weeks ago or so maybe three weeks ago when we saw the is two weeks we saw the A. P. results and I said why are we seeing the this level of performance. That is advancing at a greater rate than with some of our other to clear our our African American students so I've asked them. To look at what what are those things that are different about the L. programming the L. supports and yeah that's we what we are going to be looking closely at that because I agree with you that jumps out at me when I look at the data asset look we're saying these the students this population students growing we're saying this populations other populations students that are not growing at the levels we wanted to so we need to find out what why and what are the some more I have methodologies where the summer programming what is that we can do to get the same level of results for all students okay is this what I know I'm happy now don't get me wrong I'm happy that the email students are performing dance great but if we could find compared of programming that we can you can just target African Americans to spend. That that would be that would be great to if we can you know to improve some groups of love at the I think part of it starts with expectations to. Our expectations. For minority students for students students in the delta. As a state we frankly just don't have the same high level of expectations historically. I mean. That's not. That's not my fault it's not your fault it's not a governor's fault it's all of our fall collectively for decades we just have not had that same level of expectation in in John Hattie's research John Hattie is Australian researcher who's looked at thousands upon thousands upon thousands of studies and data points. And I will say something. When you look at the effect sizes. High expectations rank way up here. We K.. Is well below that so we can talk about universal pre K.. But until we start having the same level of expectations for all our students no matter what their poverty what their race what their family background matter what it is we're gonna have the same conversations every two years same conversations I had when I was sitting in that chair when I was in the house every time we come together for adequacy we have the same conversations we have to lift the expectations. And it can't be just in this room I mean our communities have to have higher expectations are teachers have to have our expectations we have to believe in our students. That's one of the reasons I believe you see the the growth in our Hispanic Latino students is because there is a belief. When those families come to this country when those families come to this state they have a belief that their future is going to be brighter because they're here. And we have too many students. In poverty too many students of and the delta to me as to whether where there is not that same level of hope. And. You know Mister chairman I. I'm Sturch Pregel but you know me I don't I don't do that but that that's that's where that's where a lot of the starts I think what we these is starts appeared what we expect I think you are you are correct in an aspect of of level of expectation but the local expectations also met with the level of resources and programs which persons can take advantage of the establishment and some that's what I'm I'm trying to get it resented it yes Sir it and I'm happy to talk about resources to because. We we don't have a shortage of resources if you talk about money it's how we spend that money is how we spend this. Thank you all right I make thank you Mister senator Elliots mention of we see the. Couple well two months ago Andreas a slasher is the director of OECD. he wrote a book about world class and I know some people when you when you. Senator when when we talk about world class. There's either fifty one point two reactions it's either yes or to here we go again. In that book some of the things that he talked about that he is seeing because he's traveled the world job embedded professional development for educators collaborative culture for educators element after element after element that he signed it. You know sometimes I wonder why we are so convinced that profession or any communities is the process for how we move forward. All the elements that are cited in his work in his book in his research are contained within professional learning communities process. And so just want to put that plug in there's a follow up from yesterday since that really didn't come up but there there are ways we can do that please we can get there and it starts with expectations it starts with a collaborative culture and empowering teachers with the tools that they need to do what they need to do. Manager. So if we raise our expectations and make it a policy decision that if you do not read. At a proficient level he did not advance to the next grade level. That's a high expectation. I'm just saying what I mean we're not. Leding we're graduating kids that are not proficient in reading that are not prepared to go beyond that it's just real simple. It is really that simple. That we not advance kids to the next grade level if they cannot. Read. And then you talked about PLC and I want to remind people Searcy County that I represent north central Arkansas has surpassed every single county in the delta as the poorest county in Arkansas. Yet when I look at the PLC map the big holes the desert's north senate Arkansas northeast Arkansas. Pour it is about poverty. It's about lack of jobs lack of economic development the emphasis that we put on economic development the state is not in those areas we are we're becoming the appellation a region of Arkansas in north central Arkansas and I don't see a focus. On those areas of the state. I think you have some areas in huge pockets in the river valley as well and that is not a racial issue is a poverty issue so I think we have to be you know careful. When we start talking about. Breaking everybody down. By the way they look for I'm sorry I'm not I'm trying to be fair across the board but. I think we have to have that conversation about that child no matter what that child looks like if the child is exceeding or not exceeding and we have to start focusing on the simplest basic the basics and teaching teaching the basics. Back to just reading arithmetic so. You know it's very very frustrating. I think for all of us but. How would you respond if we set our high expectations high expectation is this and this is a result of that And secondly it PLC is great networks why is that mandated that every school participate in it with a professional development. Great questions and worthy of a deep discussion. We don't graduate students based on their reading right to graduate the graduate based on the earnings credits. It's different. And yeah whatever it takes to earn a credit. For twenty four you know. Twenty two twenty four whatever that school has determined that it is for their school. I so that's how they determine graduation rates of expectations I think it's a policy decision expectations versus compliance you can have high expectations when that becomes a compliance issue what does that mean and I'm not saying that it shouldn't be but I'm saying that there are some implications of that that have to be considered carefully because some states have said well if you don't read proficiently by third grade you don't move on I mean there are some deep implications of that that would just we would need to work through. Our professional learning communities it's it's really the same thing if we. Under no child left behind we mandated a particular school improvement process. And it didn't work. I mean it simply means the same schools at the start of no child left behind that were struggling or the same schools that are struggling and that was after years of following a very rigid school improvement process far different from professional learning communities process but the the the successful. Implementation of professional learning communities. really happens at that building level and it really happens when everyone starts out with that believe that all students can learn at high levels. You can mandate that but if that's not a belief that in that school then. I will I'm afraid it would turn into what we had with no child left behind. And we would go back and look it so well that didn't work. And if you talk to any bills educators that were here yesterday I think they would all tell you. If I didn't believe. In my students and believe in my my colleagues. in this was a compliance issue then it would be doing something because the state said we had to do it or doing something because legislature said we had to do it so media you. It's it's a very delicate balance senator really is. Thank you a on the actually one the highlight for me and it's I think we can look at this is that kind of highlight that on page seven with the ACT score I'm actually surprised that our average composite score is a nineteen and the national average is twenty point three. When we have nearly a hundred percent students taking that test. So it's not a great scorer I mean but. It's not really that far off the mark and I think again a notation on that side is important that the ACT was mandated by legislation that we and that we give that we pay for that test I think it's important but for me that that is I would have expected it actually to be lower. Instead of a closer to the national average. So. That's kind of a take away because it shows to me that there's some really pretty high ACT scores in the state as well senator do you look at the twenty twenty adequacy report to the. This same report from two years ago and the chart shows many years of of data and it shows that point at which you know in the percentage of students that we're taking it the percentage of graduates and so that I think that's instructive to that it does show that when we went to one hundred percent what cost Census approach to the ACT a we saw pretty significant dip in the State composite average but you know it's not. We're not making any excuses it should be higher there are other states that are a hundred percent. census approach to the ACT and they're higher than we are we we have to get better. And it starts with reading I mean the. You senator Elliots Senator chest feel asked earlier about. If this is is this just happened in the last five years in the the answer's no absolutely not it's he's been an issue for number of years and previous reports come shows more of a of the long term trends. But Our our nature scores have not been reflective of the of the State after of the national averages. But that's what triggered in two thousand eleven two thousand thirteen two thousand fifteen two thousand seventeen two thousand nineteen I think I think we've had reading legislation in almost every session maybe since two thousand nine. And we keep building on that we can't back up we can't back off of that we can't back off signs reading can't back off of the things we've done thank our results would have been much better today had we not had the two years of code interruptions and I would just ask of this this body to stick with the group the steps for we've taken on dyslexia and on science reading and on a demanding excellence in our. In our at prep programs that's something that that is still we still need to get better at hi read a red prep programs of preparing teachers to teach reading of but if we stick with that. We're going to turn it these numbers around. Senator Hammer. Thank you Mr the up and that this may be far staff but John I got a question for you feel so type please do we have the ability to go into the district districts specifically and down even to the classroom level to identify the students that are below reading proficiency or can't read at all can we take it that low. So we have student level data it's not. Class necessarily but we have we can go down at the student level divide student characteristics but in terms of. Analyzing groups of classrooms if that's what you're asking I don't think we have that happy does it capability but we don't have that capability other than student level analysis. And I wonder were working off percentages and identifying certain pockets until we know exactly where the deficiencies are to where we could put the concentrated efforts into those specific areas down to the level of the building within the district I know we want to a universal application to get everybody caught up for where we are right now if we want to do a concentrated effort to focus on right down to that individual student how would we go about doing that or or is that doable. Districts have that capacity now so the reports that they receive on their state assessment they they can identify a student performance and at the. All down the classroom level I believe in yeah classroom level so that that capacity is available for districts to be able to use as a matter of fact Legislative the legislation that was passed and I can't remember which session but it defines the percentage of students that are not reading at proficiency and of those schools are subject to. Right levels of support from the department so for everyone of those schools that hit that particular mark they are getting level three or level four support from R. T. now how they do that on the student by student basis again back to the professional metes process part of that process is looking a student data student by student skill by skill so they know which student mess this particular component and it's not just affected or can't be effective if they only use the state assessment they have to use those through the year assessments those formative assessment to really understand what the students need so that has to be is available and is implemented at different levels. In different districts across the state okay and is that in any of our paperwork this binder that we have. I don't know about that. And I'm not sure if you're trying to the classroom level. And now says that's not something that's included in this report okay I'd like to I'd like to get that if it's possible or get that assembled to have to be able to get down to the to the specific levels and identify where the hot spots are it is that doable or not John. Bits on how low how How refined the data is I mean we we have to be careful that we don't cross boundaries of us to privacy data but we can get with you and find out exactly what it is you need I mean if you're asking for. Every elementary school in this state I mean that may be some remains of paper what we'll see what we have available through our we have my school info that looks at it at the school level and we have insights that breaks it down a little bit more if you could let us follow up with you and see exactly what what you're looking for what we'll try to do that all right I'll do that and then one other quick question from a Mister let me just remind of non members that if you ask for something you need to go through in the committee or just contact them directly for that information but when you're sitting in this meeting it really needs come to a committee member and sold and I'm gonna tell the ones that are opposed in non members are not going to get speak on this because we have got to move on so if you've got your bottle it up I'm going here senator of full for an adjustment of like I said it might have close name will hear him then we'll move to the next item. Go ahead. Thank you Mr I'll make that request to the chair of. On the on the A. L. E. environment one of the C. couple stories I've heard or you know students come in there like two weeks before the end of the school year within a matter two three weeks they get full credit course what you got a student sitting in the classroom somewhere that's gone through the whole semester and they get that equal credit are you familiar with things like that happening across the state or would that be an isolated situation and how tightly do we monitor that especially like attendance for those that are in those classes thank you Mr we monitor on the program level so they only program itself the district's submits what they're a only program will be a part of those programs will address credit recovery I mean I I think what you describe sounds like a credit recovery type of a situation where and in that scenario you know you can assess where a student is in determined what else they need which could accelerate their time that they actually spend so if they don't need everything in geometry maybe they're getting isolated of of the skills that they need support and so I without knowing more details I am familiar that there are xcelerated pathways within alternative learning environments the help students get the credits that they need. And often often the students are our behind so you know they're working with them to try to get caught up thank you Mr circle. Thank you Mr chairman. The Secretary keys said you were preaching a little bit should taking up an offering after some of what you said teacher salary proposal is out there so. You could consider that an offer so moved I have a question for the staff or thank the staff for preparing this report and the Secretary key thank you for taking questions were we able to identify how much funding per student was allocated whatever we've broadened our scope to other countries and to the two other states whatever we were collecting data compared Arkansas. So for this report we strictly look at achievement but in past reports we have looked at funding and spending by state different comparison state so we haven't compared at don't we have that now says right here with the funding compared to spending or the spending versus treatment but we have provided we do have standing in achievement or spending and funding date in that state hello what does that look like government how are we compared to other states in past research. I don't have that with me but I was certainly happy to get that back back to the okay in and did I hear correctly that we compared to other countries as well. I doubt we did not include that in this report to other countries we strictly look at state to state how about the previous reports. I'm not aware of that but I would have to look back at all the reports I'm not aware of us including that measure that's not something that's included most of these measures come from the original Lakeview decision and that's and that didn't include any I am not international comparisons. It in the comparisons it in Hey this is the sum of those informations of troubling when you look at it In and I would I would like to see the data that we have from the other states in other countries if we can obtain that because I think that gives us a broader picture of what we're doing right what we might be doing wrong in and also I know I saw the charter schools and public schools are in here do we have any date on private schools or home schools with their graduation rate or what their levels are. We don't have that data okay nothing we don't either senator we don't collect data on the private schools and I think yesterday whatever we talk about safety we we we mentioned that in order to achieve that that safety level everything needed to be on the table in the discussion and I think it in comparison if we're if we're going to be serious about trying to achieve the highest levels we need to see what these other countries are doing what other states are doing and even what other types of schools are doing if we really want to get to the heart of the issue but Secretary kia thank you hit on something earlier about environments and and and society and our communities unfortunately education is the bottom of the funnel of of a lot of the of the things that go on in our society and what the sad part of that is is up almost one or more people in our community these children who sometimes their environments that that are not thriving which has an impact on the education status as well some of these numbers and so even though we're here to discuss education as legislators we also ought to realize that some of the decisions that we make in other parts of our state have a direct effect in it filters down into this education which is most vulnerable people in our society so I think everything has to be on the table in comparison and I think I think the reason we're comparing is because we want to see how can we improve. Never really looking to see how we can improve of the comparisons to everything needs to be on the table but I do appreciate the report and with that I'm all. Referred back to the chairman. All right thank you we're going to move on to the next report. And we are running way behind so after missing one yesterday and adding it to the schedule please hang with this if you can. We've got a long day. And just for no to speed things up if you are a non member I will not be taking any more questions for me all you need to talk to someone else to get your questions answered because we're we're going to slow today. Does your questions. Okay. All right what. I thank you Mr chair and Elizabeth fine and with the bureau can you all hear me I know I'm here okay I'm I'm Elizabeth my name and eighteen back is still with me and we're here today and to talk about accountability and their poor a copy of the report the written report and a copy of that power point in at your binder and today's date they are behind your audit report and that is a lengthy reports and that they're in that binder and and and the gene seven tax. Okay we'll start with I read in this light is showing you what we're going to cover today AT ITS can is Haak about special education and those are federal as special education measures hi he's been on the committee before you'll remember that you may notice that this is at a different organization as many of our ports in this cycle has been at that all of this information except school choice is information that is required under the adequacy statute so so all of these things are things that we've heard topics that we presented to you in the past school choice is included for two reasons first because we've received some questions from members of the committee and secondly because there are a couple of the school choice provisions that relate to you some of our accountability measures. Okay we'll service academic accountability and and here you can see we're gonna cover a few things an academic utility we're gonna start with the federal every student succeeds act we'll get to the Arkansas educational support and accountability act at you may know this better is at nine thirty and twenty seventeen we'll talk about the letter grade rating system and then we'll talk a little about reward schools and schools and then the of and these are does the classifications and school is based and growth and performance. Okay we'll start with the every student succeeds act. This is federal act passed in twenty fifteen and this is what replaces the No child left behind act. And I'm here for this is asset as is designed to provide flexibility to the states every state is different every state has different needs and so I under SS states create their own accountability program tailored to their state lands and they submit a state plan to the federal department of education at for approval by that department I have a nine nine thirty and twenty seventeen and is the life that codified Arkansas as as a plan and repealed acts happy which was our previous state accountability system. Okay there's several big areas and aspects we're going to look at the first four we're not gonna get school funding today because that etcetera fanning and that's dedicated to specific purposes. Okay civil standards in assessment and states messed it up challenging statewide academic content standards in achievement standards and then have assessments that are aligned with those standards and their requirements for at when states atomized Hester reading math and science and states are free to test other subjects states must have standards for English language proficiency and there is a requirement that states has at least ninety five percent of their students each year. Okay talk about accountability estate mess have a statewide accountability system based on academic standards and Mrs Abbas long term goals for all students and each subgroup of students and you can see as three of the areas in which states are required to use that goals. Okay season is established at system for meeting your E. differentiating public schools in this state and then and a process where aides in a finding comprehensive support and improvement schools targeted support and improvement schools and international targeted supports laws and the comprehensive schools are and hi friends is a port is title one schools in the lowest performing five percent and title one schools in this state and then our high schools that fail to graduate as third or more at their seats at targeted support and improvement schools are schools that are consistently under performing for one or more student grades and any additional targeted support and improvement schools or schools if for any of those student subgroups needs at the criteria for being in the lowest performing five percent and title one schools in this state over all. Okay is that the system requires multiple indicators that has to be an academic achievement indicator at based on proficiency on the state assessments I have another academic indicator for high schools that's graduation rate and an English proficiency indicator and at least one other indicator as school quality or student success and when we talk about Arkansas's plan we'll talk about and more specifically about Arkansas's indicator under Arkansas as as a plan goals are set over a twelve year period these are long term goals and as a dentist classical at for Arkansas in R. as the plan is to have eighty percent is seeking sexual proficiency. Let's have that public at reporting and statements describing the bility systems how you explain to people what we're reading at least this was identified for supporting improvements and and include results of assessments graduation rate and other indicators and which you can see some of which you can see on your screen. As as a crime it's about public teachers that state plans must include and measures to ensure that low income and minority students are not tied at a disproportionate rate by ineffective at a field or any experience features. Okay now let's have had had the Arkansas educational support and accountability acts. In. This is at nine thirty and twenty seventeen and this is this state system and providing support to districts so they can as the schools and improving student performance and does he is responsible for developing and implementing that accounted accountability program and they're acting. Okay so there's several questions this is while we're not gonna take it academic standards at because Julie have read that in the learning expectation reports at in may and we're gonna talk a little bit assessment I'm obviously not going to go into great detail about that his aging gave you have information that just now. Okay SSS read this state is this SS men and masking tame statement themes and developmentally appropriate measures or assessments and for kindergarten through grade two and literacy math and assessments measure English language arts math and science is identified by the school board assessments the English language proficiency and to measure how and career readiness as we're very much aware at now it doesn't happen in twenty twenty to take have a nineteen I'm in this state had a waiver from the federal department of education and so that they did not have seeking to access that assessment year have an as we narrow at the ACT aspire is I heard one of our methods of assessment that is at no longer going to be produced in twenty twenty as of twenty twenty three in this state has contracted with I can be an assessment to develop a new assessment and I'm not going to go into details about that because you heard airport at from the Department and that yesterday. Okay I levels of support and disease may receive one of five levels of support from daisy and does he listed a number of teams and to determine what level of support districts in need from the Department and districts may request you receive a level support said just taking state department we we like to receive more support. Okay this issuing you add the numbers of districts in support and there's a very important note here this is based on assessment information from twenty nineteen as we just talked about we don't have assessment information for twenty twenty and so the districts and that where at this year's are classified into these levels based and twenty nineteen assessment information as a level one is the most general level support and and then level five is the most and the most support and that requires the approval of the state board and in this levels of where it is where dad does he creates a district improvement plan an exit plan in consultation with the district and this is where activity in the state board of education can take additional measures and like remitting the school superintendent I meeting at school at school. And Hey Act at ten eighty two U. twenty nineteen at mandated certain levels of support and added the massive port at level three provide level three support to district in which forty percent or more and they just a student square in need of support and the prior year assessment for reading and level for support to districts in which has been fifty percent or more the district Seaton square in need of support and the prior year sentence asking for reading. We're gonna look at and some survey results about the levels of assessment he's a friend is next year from our superintendent survey hi as a reminder this information about the surveys in your binder in tabs four and at four eight is going to be the superintendent information on the first page of that report is going to give you the specifics about when we conducted that survey but I know that we had a one hundred percent response rate from superintendents and the directors at open enrollment charter schools in our state as so we ask first do you know what level of support your district as an and that that thirty one percent said no. And thirty four percent said their level one and it's actually about sixty nine percent I just a centers seating currently receiving Reverend support based on that twenty this twenty eighteen assessment is. Okay next we asked them and I did the methods of support and which one in which of the following did you district use thank you districts are asset tag superintendents were asked to check all of the all of the methods of support that they utilize you can see the most common and was like trying to change electronic trading seventy four percent a distaste indicated that they used as the electronic chains. Since then asking about support again we ask how useful is the support your district receives friend franchisee and and you can see if those percentages there. NXNE finds you school improvement plans and district improvement plans so all schools develop school improvement plans and as a required he has been on the school websites and then in most years just receiving levels he support or hire develop a district plan a district level plan and support and then districts in levels you submit those to the Department and at their house to the Commissioner and districts and level three four and five are required to submit those at DC covid in the twenty one school year two hundred and fifty eight districts at Senate district level support plans and as part of their sponsored COVID and the Department at ready to learn initiative all districts were asked to submit industry support and outlining and in part how they were going to respond to carry it in their districts this. Okay so what is the survey results either from the principal survey at the principal survey information is intact for be a your finder at but we had a seventy four percent response rate for and and on our principal survey with the Senate to operate schools in this state and face the Aston how useful is your school level and prevent hand in helping your slow brain strategies for improving student achievements and and you can see. This state at schools are also required at high school students are required to have a student success plan by the end of the eighth grade this is a requirement as of the twenty eighteen nineteen at school year and that this is developed by the school personality conflicts in consultation and with the parents in this to you and this can include at pathways to graduation xcelerated learning opportunities contrast academic at deficits in interventions like tearing or mediation and contains college and career planning or. So we ask principles some questions about the student success plans and only hate we these are limited only to you principles that actually had eighth graders and a five at their school and and so you can see these are some of the elements that are included in season six ask means and then for president indicated either and those responses included at resumes self awareness here surveys whether this is this is he complete our concentrator club participation balance here serve access service hours and assessment scores. We also ask you who creates instance excessively or who is involved and at your school and there's mines is to you and they're here and the most common response was a career coach of the responses also included instructional facilitators student mentors and if the student was receiving therapy like speech therapy or occupational therapy the therapist can. Including. Hey we also asked and what percentage of your students have a student success and you can see that forty one percent said all their students dead and forty three sat at least seventy five percent of their students had a student success and. Yes a couple of questions about the impact of this unisex S. lands how we ask that the impact on students and you can see those or sciences there. And then we asked about the impacts and school personnel and what's the impact and school personnel officiating students six plans. Hey at was how can I educator excellence the state board and may promulgate rules to promote the goal and providing Arkansas public school students the qualified effective educators about the districts are responsible for your heating hiring retaining and developing teachers and and leaders easing her answer added right as eat which increase and tasks are teacher evaluation system and leaves this state at initiation system. Okay the final part of the education support educational support and capability act is the data reporting and and does he has multiple multiple methods as communicating this data and to the public into you at the schools and and one method is the annual school report card and you can see there that that includes and number of data points about each school interstate. Okay now let's talk about the letter grade system. At school rating system again it's a multiple and measures approach you can see some of those measures there and includes all of those measures and wine at their indicator which was high combatants. Okay city figure a letter grades at does he uses the access school in tax and service contains and the following indicators at shipments and school grades placing wish learner growth and graduation rate in the school quality and student success indicator which will look at in just a minute. Hey at this is sharing and the first pirates at this school locality and success indicator and so you can see that we're looking at a number of measures at after five father spoke yesterday in the PLC presentation as you see here at a session talks about the importance of using multiple indicators in seeking C. they were looking at as didn't engagement sciences human science growth reading at grade level and at the ACC scorers. Baths it also includes from. And ACT reading dispensed brick at GPA community service cleaning credit I intend credits computer science course credits and and AP and Advanced Placement International Baccalaureate and concurrent Chris it's. At seven zero six IST more quality and success indicator is calculated. And then this is showing you how at the as the school index is calculated and so the last side issuing you has calculated aggregate for elementary schools and junior and middle schools and then the right side of that graph is showing you how it's calculated for high schools as in high schools include graduation rate is a little bit different calculation and and so this is used to come up with a number. And then diseases this chart to translate that number into you a letter grade. Okay so for a twenty twenty minute there now it's asking. And at the federal department of education and Arkansas waiver from assessments that with the state did not have to conduct assessments at the state also received a waiver from the U. S. department of education and from accountability and reporting reporting requirements and their assets for the twenty twenty school year as to their no there were no as a school and a squeeze calculated for twenty twenty will and and no schools since this letter grades are based on this as a calculations and no schools received any letter grades for that year at so we know that we did conducting that assessment in the twenty one school year and and does he calculated as as the scores at baseline and that based I and add the federal requirements and that adds eighty nine and twenty twenty land suspended the requirements for letter grades for chest what one year and so in compliance with that life does he did not issue any letter grades for twenty twenty right now. Okay so we ask principles about the letter grade system and we ask for is how does it affect morale and things staff at the school and you can see at this percentage is there. And then we asked at highs at the end of fact kind of letter grades effects at morale among students at schools. Yes yes first. Hey everyone meet Hines here reward schools. And this is the Arkansas school recognition program and this provides financial words to school if the school is experiencing Huyssteen performance and helps you will correct this so this is a hundred dollars for sequels for schools in the top five percent of performance as and at fifty dollars for students and for those that are between the schools between six and ten percent and then have the public schools in this state. S. the twenty twenty one school year at a hundred and one reward schools based on performance and ninety nine based on growth in the total of where it was on a seven million dollars awards can be distributed on a pro rata basis based on available funding and at any tendencies a reporter if you're queer you can find a list of all of the schools and districts and other words schools for twenty twenty one. Hey so we let ads and thirty eight SSNs measure ready a seating in this first current edition you on the last all third graders tested in twenty twenty rankings and then you can see the numbers for the LRP L. R. covert schools and for reward performance schools and for every worried great school is in the White issuing you English language arts and the matter of the red edition year. And finally an academic achievement schools under mayor. And this is the primary program as celebrating schools that are showing improvement and state and federal accountability or every missile say **** squares issuance squares and credit scores and in twenty twenty one and there is now identification based on letter grades because there were no letter grades and bad and summary of these laws is also in the appendices and here. When at eleven need everyday Adrian for special education. Great so as we discussed last month in the special education report federal and state law guarantee a free appropriate public education to each child with a disability in Arkansas in this portion of the presentation will focus on the federal law the individuals with disabilities act known as idea so part B. of that law relates to the provisions of services in federal funding for states to provide that free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment for children disabilities ages three to twenty one to the US department of education annually assesses whether each state meets the requirements of part B. of idea initiative term by looking at two primary things so first educational results and educate is a functional outcomes of students with disabilities and compliance and we'll get those indicators here shortly. So these are the indicators that are used to that term and the results portion of this assessment second seed a looking at St seven assessment results ACT aspire results in the nape assessment drop out rates and graduation rates and this is all strictly to students with disabilities population. And for this your performance was based on the twenty twenty school year so since students were not tested during that year duty COVID nineteen these elements were excluded from that assessment. In these are the compliance indicators. And these are included in your report as well with more and kind of detailed descriptions on some of these as well as results for each of these key indicators and their results indicators you can see the different measures that are used. For this part of the assessment compliance assessment. So each of these indicators is given a score between zero and a hundred percent and then the room compile to make up a result score and I compliance force you can see how these. Measures have been the results over the past five years for both results and compliance. And then based on those two scores will calculate a overall score and a corresponding determination and these are the four determinations that US department of education will give and. With the exception of the first one shown meeting their requirements and purposes of ideas each of these can include some sort of technical assistance or enforcement action taken by the US department of education and that depends on how to link the time within each of those determinations. Additionally NO stay or entity received a determination of needing intervention due solely to data impacted by COVID nineteen. So if not these are the final scores and determinations made for Arkansas for the past five years. You can see in twenty twenty one Arkansas had an overall percentage of seventy percent with the determination of needing assistance. And then for a comparison states so we start with our top in eight states. And you can see here that all of these met the requirements with the exception of Vermont that was noted to have needing assistance in there and I for one year at that point. For the top S. three B. states these are the determinations maintains the a little bit more variants so in twenty twenty one half of the state's Matt requirements and the other half were report determined to need assistance in two of those were in that category for at least two or more years. And then finally we have a contiguous states. Of the seven here three Matt requirements and for received a determination needing assistance three of those four two or more consecutive years with that I'll pass it back. Okay Nestor can look at fiscal distress. So this program is the fiscal distress this will give a physical assessment and accountability or working and they history is in your history records at which is in your binder and that this is existed in some form since nineteen ninety five and the most recent changes there and they're at nine twenty nine at twenty nineteen at which married center this changes need to the academic accountability or her grand in at nine thirty at twenty seventeen. So there's a couple different parts to fiscal distress and we'll go briefly through that and then we'll talk about districts in fiscal distress. Okay. This is an early warning keeping here is nine ministerial indicators and fiscal distress this is sending its not yet directly jeopardizing the fiscal integrity the school district that has the potential to pay the district in distress District in distress are required to report if they have two or more at nine material indicators of fiscal distress to the department the department also reports the same to the districts and the district has an early warning checklist that districts say the department has an early warning checklist that distracts me fill out and to help them assess if they have any of these nine Mister pairs and their ire at five justice currently in or early morning this or black full for a city hell in a hand selling. Hey an express has their next step in the process is identification and classification at does he identifies districts in distress and notifies the district at the state board of mess that you classify that districts and distracts investors can appeal to the state board. And there are and. There and number if fiscal distress indicators and you can see at their first you on your screen that first Senate inclining balance determined is jeopardized the fiscal integrity and a district is one of the more frequently cited indicator. Yes the next five. Few more advising. And next sanctions and corrective actions so once the district is classified in distress they have certain responsibilities the agency I miss green and filing an improvement plan to the department and in hearing and recommendations from the Department and receiving assistance and does in this state board have the option to take action in their districts. When the district is in fiscal distress and decide in the next five eight hour showing some of the actions that does the and the state board I can take Wednesday district is classified in fiscal distress. And there's if you're if you're recognized. Sections. I had finally remains low and in order to be renewed at the state board does have to that you meet is issued from physical distress at this estate mast show and apartment is concerned that the district has removed all causes a fiscal distress and not experienced any other indicators and fiscal distress if the district is not able to be removed from this list rest within five years and the state board is required to vote to annex consolidate or reconstitute the districts at the state board and may find that the district was unable to be removed to conditions beyond its control and allowed district early allow a district additional. Now I can't districts in distress and you can see there five there on your screen the three involved are still in fiscal distress and we're we're looking at all of the districts that have been in distress at since the report was last get and so all of the districts that have been in distress during this adequacy cycle and you see that IRA and as we are we're was in a state I am license active July first of last year and and Marlene had was made from fiscal distress and we at three districts still in distress. We're gonna go briefly through these testers the first is our way and Taylor was first classified in April twenty sixteen and they were already at that point in what was then academic distress in later scenes to being a district in lead and level five support and based on at nine thirty they are classified teach you to credit balances and the tail light it findings and as we talked about had a where the discharge ways at any step behind life affective July twenty twenty one and because they had been in state takeover an an academic distress level five after five years. Next Earl Earl has been a fiscal distress since August of twenty seventeen for material added exceptions and an active violations determined to jeopardize the fiscal integrity the district at they were also placed in state takeover in November twenty seventeen and they are currently receiving level five support at their highest at the district and the Department and with the approval of this state for an education. Next we have the county and they were classified in may twenty nineteen for a declining finances and material added exceptions and at that point they were already in states he or her act as of March twenty nineteen and for being on probationary status for Accreditation. At my valley lane was classified in April twenty nineteen and then you see it says use of the contact at the district business manager the business manager between add July twenty fourteen and December twenty eighteen I have read about ninety tax on those at five hundred thousand dollars to herself and so she was unions and and so that decisions are made furnish asked in September twenty twenty one and will continue to be monitored and right as you for three years after that remains on. And I last this section is stresses and laugh at their classified in September twenty nineteen and at that time placed in state takeover and you can see their reasons on your screen including declining transparency is at the destruction was also as classified in need of level five support in November twenty eighteen at and is a tax that they it now and the district nine cleaves at the former tolerate District. Yes programs facilities distress. This is an account since two thousand five and this is the method of ensuring that scored that districts are providing adequate facilities. As to their number of ways and compiling facilities information and this is and. One way is M. and announcements actions and language fiscal distress different tenants are required to report if they have two or more at nine material indicators at this at this lady's distress and in school districts are required to use at a computerized maintenance management system which is also known as school do you add to check means wreck into a meeting schedules and documents maintenance work at. Okay so there's a couple price if this lady's distress the first as early intervention and again as a fiscal distress and this is about at your merry nine is he'll indicators as the Salukis distress. And then added a physician classifications the Division of public school academic facilities and transportation I recommend that facilities be classified and then the commission at four at the public school academic facilities and transportation classifies as district or school at any facilities distress. And this site is sharing you seven has indicators and facilities distress. All at once it is to disclose classified at the district missed the net and improvement plan and the Division may provide at a distance you districts or school districts or schools can apply for a loan friend the division of academic facilities I have a vision and how is and at their sanctions. And for facilities those include at requiring a special election for middle age and but it can also include aber meeting this evening ten dairy meeting the school board. And finally removal at a school in this state mass correct all the issues that cause it to be in facilities distress and the Division my certify that date that the district or school and state and the Commission mess that you're means the district or score and again and they just eight or school cannot be removed within five years and must be consolidated annexed reconstituted unless the state board and decides to conduct a state election time for factors beyond making child. Hey Senate committee any individual schools classified and facilities distress in the heritage school district is the only at this state that has been and facilities distress and they replaced in distress in two thousand eight and remains in two thousand. Hi Asa I find a section on school choice. At your point in history on school choice and not getting out into all of it at the current version of wire public school choice is ACT five a five sixty and twenty fifteen and this allows I can sustenance she attended school in in nine resident state I just as I required to participate unless they're and they're at federal desegregation order or plan in districts are required to submit those plans or orders to this Department and there's a list on the department website and currently there in nine districts that are not required to fully participate and and it's limited to three percent of its districts amount. In this tradition you had the public school system and the student parties since he participated by race and ethnicity for the twenty twenty twenty twenty one school year. In this edition year and the same students at broken down by gender. All. The opportunity public school choice and this began in two thousand three the latest major changes were made and ninety seven fifty four and twenty nineteen and hi this is where we intercepted accountability where school choice and her sex if they haven't already this last season's and extending a school and intestate's classified as being in need of level five support or public school if the rating an asset to transfer to district not in the leaner not in need of level five support or school that it does not have an operating again school districts must participate unless their and their etcetera desegregation order or in. And this chart is showing at resistance very race and this after the city yes this is a much smaller number a student. And then you can see the student's breaking down by gender. Finally we have accessibility school choice and student attending a district or school that is and facilities which police are allowed to transfer to a different states and and we don't currently have any students participating in that program because we dower currently have any facilities and at any districts or schools and facilities district. And with that I will be happy to take questions. Thank you back on page eight under the accountability system and. Level of support. It's under Arkansas educational support and accountability act Page eight you have a graph where the question is the accountability system assigns quote levels of support to school districts do you know which level of support yours your district is considered to be in. And thirty one percent I guess of the superintendent said no they they don't know. I think that is very odd to me that a superintendent would not know what level of support the district would be considered to be considered in. And I went back and read your note and then there really wasn't much more explanation why when they know. I think that's probably a better question at hand from the Department I'm not aware of how they can communicate that form about their level of support groups. Okay. Because every is that every school has a level of support as does every school have a level of support every school has a lot of every size so there really shouldn't even be. They would they would fall into one two three four five yes. Okay well I guess for the departments that would be a question I'd like to the answer to I would think that they would know if they were level one to level five. I don't understand that at all and. And then for the staff on page fifteen under the letter grade information. I'm not sure about the way you asked that question about morale I mean clearly if your school is receiving an **** you know or if I received an after I'm not gonna feel good about it that I need to know that I need to improve. So I'm not really sure how I use that information from a policy perspective. Is there another way perhaps we could have asked a question about the letter grades that might be more of a. And. Not about morale that about. You know. How do you how do you view this. And is it helpful for. An indicator that you might need to improve your school. We can certainly think asking that in a different way and medication is that the is that and that's the way we asked if he is adequacy cycles and so we like to use and the same question so we can see how asking integration universe claims and that's definitely something that came out in the comments that and principal said This positively affects nearly a principal saying that things is positively affects morale and because we have very Eads industry and principal Saint Louis negatively affects the case we don't have. Right I am I understand thank you for that answer again I just think about well yeah I mean it's I mean clearly there's a reason why we put this legislation in place and there's policy behind that the decision behind that. You know I would hope that you know it would be viewed. Together with we need to improve our school. And and your morale moralis a more of an emotional words versus policy. Question does that make sense it does Julie helped not just have a little bit this rights and the question about morale we are actually asked in the last set of adequacy study meetings to look for research on raids letter grades and morale and there was no research available so and that's why we added the question in that way we don't and as listed said we to have a comparison that we sometimes try to repeat her questions but sure we're not you know we do not have to ask that way well I I mean I I I understand consistency and that's probably a good idea however I would probably just add maybe another question about you know how how how how is this helpful for you you know it might be a written or response back versus a percentage or defined that way but. To me that we I think. That was maybe somewhere we can. Delve in a little bit more okay thank you for your. Resume makes. Thank you Mr I'm just wondering or with your permission if the department can give us an update on the three schools that are fiscal distress for the rat and what the prognosis is towards getting that resolved and getting them back on their feet. Due to time could we have them to send that out to us because that's probably something we need to we've got one more. What we need to get out of here because we're gonna lose our money eleven thirty. If we don't launch is quickly approaching yet as soon as our own reserve just kind of send up the Committee a report on where are you know personally I don't see how the names of all these fit into adequacy but we'll figure that out and get that done okay the running. Thank you. And I'll just follow up to if the if the if the department wants to send me that answer to that question about. And the superintendent not knowing what level of support maybe just process how how these people how superintendents are informed. Thank you. All right. See no more questions let's move on to our final succeeds Scholarship report. And hopefully we can get everybody out here alleged. Okay we'll meet online and to the sixtieth collection report and copies of this report in the powerpoint should be on your desk they're not in your adequacy finder and there's a reason for that this is not an adequacy report at this report is required and Act eight twenty seven and twenty eighteen and we've been asked by this year's two percent less than three or. Hey at least for part since you are poor this morning and will we have an introduction we're going to give you the basics of the program and the report or any talk about process participating students Katie sentiment graphic information and some other information about the student's Adrian Casey he's a student performance Antestor salts and Stephen curry Phileas and then we'll have some brief information about the participating private schools. Okay Sir is gonna lead at five themes that you see on your screen. And we'll get started with ACT eight twenty seven and twenty nineteen so this assets out there requirement for the biennial report and members of the committee received their report in your email friend Michelle Nelson on March first and therefore has specific requirements for how the data is collected and for the contents of the report and other more into that and the methodology and just a minute that everything the organization is required by statute to be an airport said that a number of data points and all of those are required data means and and Act eight twenty seven NO here that like adequacy were looking at that twenty twenty twenty twenty one school year at because this is the most recent year after it's complete data is available. Okay we'll start methodology at we have two main sources of data in this report and the statute specifies who provides the data he collects it and certifies that the bureau works in consultation with the division of elementary and secondary education and add there's a cost likes in in the Hey if you're or if you'd like more information about how the data is collected at the first at method static questions are questions areas and these are questions years at the pure is involved in consultation with the Division that they sent out by jazzy they were sent out November thirtieth twenty twenty one out with the request your turn this before a December tenth twenty twenty one and there's a return to daisy the final results and we're received on January twenty seventh and twenty twenty and the other process beer staff need about AS in about sixty emails and made about thirty phone calls to private schools and asking them to please her other questionnaires are getting clarification from mine about their is Wednesday so that we can be sure we have an accurate and the less is schools at private schools they are eligible is in the appendices of your report and the private schools were asked not to question years one form for this school getting his information at the private school and one form for each participating. And that was that provided at information students in graphics seen performance in the information about the private schools and a forty four eligible schools thirty eight had students participating in the twenty one school year and we receive questionnaires ten thirty three in time for inclusion in their reports. At means that is at the date the information contained in a spreadsheet and this adds House last about students previous school experience in the number of students participating in the program. I have no idea every program overview and this is a program to provide state funded scholarships to the private school of choice the students with disabilities students in foster care and after twenty twenty one at six eighty nine and twenty as willing as teams who are members as are who are children of a member of the uniformed services at the maximum amount for this scholarship is add the carrot foundation funding insurance every twenty twenty one that was seven thousand eighteen dollars at does he or its designees at disperses this payment from monthly at so the reform alliance and nonprofit group is disease does equal they may add disburse payments those are checked actually made out to the parents or guardians and the students these payments go to the private schools and the private schools are responsible for having at the parents can endorses over so this can be cast by the private school. And as you can see at the bottom there's limitations on where where this thing comes back. Okay Senate intelligibility and in this edition you eligibility for the twenty twenty twenty twenty one school year so the students that we're gonna be looking at I'm the next level discussing changes and in may and in twenty twenty one and medicine can be eligible if they and if they are in foster care and been in foster care a couple of important notes about this after purposes in this section you foster here is defined as being in a group home or a twenty four hour facility and at the number of foster care scholarships is limited to twenty I'm asking can be eligible if they have an individual education programs individualized service plan or been medically diagnosed as a child with a disability and students messaging currently enrolled in or must be currently enrolled in a public school or an attended a public school for at least one full academic year at the sessions said that and the superintendent of their resident states can waive that requirement and that payment does not apply to children who are children as a member of the uniformed services and finally unless been accepted into the private school and provided notice you there to extract. Okay to student eligibility changes in the twenty twenty one session and the General Assembly at examination of a student with a disability says this season has been identified by a public school district is having an disability consistent with the federal individuals with disabilities Education Act or seeing has been medically diagnosed by a licensed physician as having a disability consistently acts and at six eighty nine and expands eligibility to children who are dependents and a member of the uniformed services that the students can only be found dead after all other eligible students who received a scholarship. Now we'll look at private school or high maintenance at this is the first requirement and this is basically the private school may be a credited by any page organization or working toward accreditation and we'll talk about the private school accreditation and at the end of the presentation. And then the next two slides have adicional requirements for participating public schools and requirements set out in fiscal operations complying with other parts of the United and and if you're requirements about and there you teaching staff. Okay moving in a section and now let's talk about participating students so for every point that we have will show you This Is initiated statutorily required information and I tiebreaks and then we'll give you the information that relates to that requirements and so this is that when you're really keep the number of students participating and this is one of the only places where our data is coming and Fran a data source other than teenager data sourced as I'm in the question working it's as easy as the provided as quarterly statements from there for the lands at that show the number of students participating each mine and so that's what the chart and your screen is sharing year and equating to the statements and is a total of four hundred ninety three students and the way this works and as we as we have to of where this scholarship is limited to the foundation funding amount and so as a student withdraws from the program or is dismissed from the program that scholarship committee can be used for another season at the same private school or a different private school and so that's how you get a very ation and Manson. And so quitting as as species is a total of four hundred ninety three students participating looking at that does is that it says that five hundred and three seasons recreation purchase a paid in the twenty one school year the does he said does the spreadsheet showing all students approved and it's possible for students to be approved that the night actually I enrolled at a private school and use the scholarship. So the next section we'll get into is the demographic information for the participating students so you can see here the statutory language stating that private schools report demographic data about the students receiving this scholarship including the geographic location of the students. With that we'll go ahead and take a look at that data so we'll start with grade level so this graph here shows that nearly half of the participating students wearing K. through fifth grades in the remaining students are relatively split between the six through eight and then nine through twelfth grades. Looking at city and city or town of residence private schools reported sixty different towns and cities of residence for four hundred and fifty three of the total four hundred fifty seven students group reported these are the top five authorized making up the largest proportion with a hundred and twelve students due to low numbers of students from most of the other towns and they are not included in this report due to privacy concerns. But we can show you with this map that shows the participating schools as demonstrated with the stars and the circles that show concentrations of students and this can be found on page five of your report if you want to see that in more detail more slide seventeen of the power points. But the circus circus of concentrations of students with the larger circles representing larger concentrations an additional one hundred and twenty students and fifty other Arkansas cities and towns are not represent on this map and this is again due to privacy concerns so this report limits data provided about student groups fewer than ten in order to ensure that no personally identifiable information cannot be traced back to a particular student so while the federal family educational rights and privacy act notice for fun does not provide specific guidance in terms of the cut off number that is considered too small for reporting data this report is employed methods to ensure that no date are linked or linkable toward participating to present to a particular student excuse me so but that cut off at ten for the purposes of this analysis. And then looking at gender so this shows and private schools provided agenda for four hundred and fifty one students you can see here that there are more male students in the program that amongst all public school students in this over representation may reflect the over representation among male students among the special education population generally in twenty twenty one St male students made up about sixty five percent of all students disabilities and Arkansas. Hey Nick say like a race and ethnicity and this is information from the private participating private schools race and ethnicity was provided for four hundred and thirty four seasons out of the four hundred and fifty seven students at private schools report end. And this site is sharing year at race and ethnicity information for all public school students and that and that is for and daisies my school and hello which increases available on your website. At next if free and reduced price lunch status at so private schools are afforded free reduced lunch status for two hundred and fifty nine of the four hundred and fifty seven students they reported you can see that at twenty six percent and this Union fifty nine were eligible for free or reduced price lands and the percentage statewide here eligible is that sixty percent. Hey next a look at previous public school experience so where where were these kids in school the students and school before it did they attend educational public school. And this is information from and from the day the spreadsheet and they're handing feistiness had an Arkansas Public School list and and thirty one and as amended an open enrollment charter infer Hendren seven students there is no national public school listed and but I also know no at the moment charter at a state school. And then we look at the numbers since leaving that programs and the number of students that are dismissed that are asked to leave and the number that voluntarily return to private school. And and the four hundred and fifty seven seasons recorded by private schools seventeen were dismissed thirty one voluntarily retains a traditional public school. And our bed as as student information and the number of children in foster care who had exited the program. Acidentes attaches fourteen foster care students participating in this twenty one school year this was reported at fifteen foster care students as they discussed earlier this is at foster care is defined as being in a group home or a twenty four hour facility and does he did let us know that if a student would qualify both based on a disability you and being in foster care The designation and is qualifying and for that disability and so that may explain and the difference in numbers. So that brings us to student performance so this is the statutory language regarding participating student performance data includes results from nationally recognized norm referenced test. The state law requires private schools participating in the succeed scholarship program to administer annually or make provisions for students to take a nationally recognized norm referenced test as established by the state board of education this table shows a list of those approved test in the state board of education. And then the next table shows the actual assessments that were administered to recipients and the twenty one school year the Asterix indicates that this is on the previous state of port St approved assessment last. Table on pages eleven and twelve of the report thirty slash thirteen arguments like thirty Page ten eleven report shall the assessments used by each school you can see here that for several assessments use there are less than ten tests and students tested so those numbers are redacted in cannot be analyzed we are a we were able to analyze test scores for the remaining assessments with a couple of exceptions to the Stanford ten and Iowa assessments. So for the Stanford ten BLR needed additional clarification for the schools using this assessment to accurately analyze test score data but we weren't able to receive that information from one of the schools so that students in that school are student pole fell below ten so going weren't able to analyze those due to privacy reasons. And then for the iOS assessments so the Iowa test replace the I. T. B. S. and me I T. E. D. that were previously listed on the approved list and the remote and there are some issues that we ran into analyzing those results so schools provided a mix of different score types so that can include national percentile ranking scale scores achievement levels and then the way score to categorize whether they're considered proficient or not proficient back in a very school to school that made compared ability not feasible for this part for this analysis. Additionally I'm gonna note a couple of things before I get into the test score data so and for even for the tests that were given a larger numbers of students those student does test assess students across a variety of grade and age levels additionally when asked to provide scores schools provided a mix of multiple score types as I noted earlier that could be a raw score that skills for it could be a percentile ranking so for so there is a lot of very ability in those I'm responses additionally state statute specifies the student test score data must be provided entity identified format meaning the individual students individual test scores and public schools cannot be linked with their test scores while in private school. Even if we were able to link those scores compared ability would be hindered by the differences in the types of tests that were administered in additionally COVID nineteen closures and other limitations like a lack of social distancing impacted whether students were tested or data was even provided through these questionnaires. With that we'll take a look at the results for and some of these assessments here so we'll start with ACT aspire and I want to know that this state it comes from private schools in the number of tests taken for each subject very and there's General variability in the subjects tested so for example in some assessments the massport may represent the total amount composite score or it may represent a subset mass subset score so we group those together to give a sense of how those massport's compared. Generally so the ACT aspire again this is this this is the same so that assessment that is you statewide. And scores are categorized by those meeting ready nation's readiness benchmarks and those that were below readiness benchmarks between sixteen and nineteen student test scores were provided in each subject the majority of those test scores were below the readiness benchmark. For the KT eighty three assessment scores were grouped by very low low low average an average or above average and these are provided for math reading and re writing a written expression more than three quarters of those scores are provided were considered very low lower below average and then less than twenty five percent were considered average or above average for each subject. For the NWEA. So this is the northwest education association assessment scores are grouped into three categories low low average average and high average high. And scores available for three subjects math reading and language usage. Just over a third of those scores are considered high average or high. And between eighteen and twenty six workers considered average and then between thirty six and forty two percent or consider low or low average. Finally in a W. J. I. V. assessment scores are considered very low low low average an average or very superior now provided for math reading and spelling. More than three quarters of the scores provided were considered very low or low low average across all subjects. So some participating students were able to be exempt from standardized testing and then so you can see here a hundred and three students remarked exempt and those questionnaires of the hundred eighty three students excuse that projects in response. So a hundred eighty three students from mark exempt as shown here and of those seventy four percent still took a standardized test as reported by the private schools. And then moving on to student portfolios vacancy here the statutory language on these which include typically includes a compilation this proposed are typically compilation of student work so for the questionnaire this year at the private schools or ask for a general summary of the information provided and no student portfolios so during the twenty twenty report version of this report private schools were initially asked to provide a copy of each of those portfolios at that time one school had noted that some of those purple is consisted of up to seventy five a hundred pages per student including artwork that wasn't easily copied so at the time this concern was brought to the chairs of the education committees to be consulted in a determination was made that private schools would not be required to provide actual copies of those portfolios and extended termination was made again for the twenty twenty to report. With that these were private schools reported developing portfolios for sixty five students of the sixty five students forty two were also marked exam. Private schools respond to this question a couple different ways so forty six provided a list of elements that were included in these descriptions including like Cessna scores were photographs are and certificates things along those lines as you can see here on the screen. And then the other way that this was addressed was some included a general summary of the students work and so summaries are shown here on the next page though in your report you can see a full list of those and that is on index ET which begins on page twenty five of the report. Of the thirty three private schools that responded to our questionnaire fourteen school submitted no test scores of pork belly information for thirty one students. Three schools and noted that those hoping nineteen played a part in that two schools on the timing of student enrollment on and roll meant impact of that in the for nine schools there is no additional clarification provided. I know it's cheap it's of information we're looking at private the private schools themselves dissipating private schools will at first Senate credit ation at participating private schools are required to be accredited or be working toward accreditation. The state board of education recognizes three private school and heading bodies. And and the thirty three schools that responded here it to the question here at twenty eight are fully indicated that they are fully accredited and five have either applied for accreditation or are associate members of an accrediting organization an associate member is a member and he's working toward accreditation at schools must be accredited within four years or they have an eligible to participate in the program. And finally at the private schools or ask your query at any administrative costs you implement the program. So thirteen at the thirty three schools that responded listed dollar amounts for an at about twenty one dollars to you one thousand seven hundred thirty dollars at the questionnaire asked about categories of class and you can see that but keeping time where is the one of the most schools indicated and if you the schools indicated more than wine and category of Christ. And with that we'll be happy to take any questions. Richard brown you're recognized. Thank you Mr chair back on. Page elevens slide. Let it slide forty two. Any help that the scores for the students in the private schools that are participating in this program they seem kind of low And so I was just wondering do we have any comparison of how the rest of the students in that school we're doing or we just have their scores do we know. What I'm trying to determine is. Were there scores. Abnormally low compared to the other students. We were not we don't we don't have that data that. The statute only asked us to collect data on student service stating the programs we don't have any comparative data for each of the private schools in the program. Well I think that. I know for my own information maybe others to I'd like to know that the school was doing well with their other students before we. Allow students to go there before it's included in the program I'd just like to know that the school was doing well with their students. We don't have that data we have other requirements that schools have to me and does he may want to speak some of those more specifically but I can't speak to the performance that's not something that's included in the requirements for that. The program. Thank you I'm in and it might be that you know it takes. The students a little while to get up to speed if they've not been doing well in their original school. Thank you. Represent Godfrey. Thank you Mr changes very quickly you may not have that that that's not and mandated information but I'm winning if you have the numbers of how many students don't have an ID peer and I ask the. I'm not sure if we. We might House it. I'd love to know absolutely I just know that we have expanded that requirement of having an and I'm here and I ask you to known not needing one you could have an eye doctors confirmation of a disability that I I'd like to know how many students do not have a nice beer nine eighty eight that's readily available will take a look and get back to you thank you thank you Mr. At questions remember that isn't on the committee that when a when a student is at a private school under the succeed scholarship arrangement the student needs services special services like O. T. speech therapy. Is that costs paid by the school he's receiving the funding or. OR this school that's receiving public funding. I know that the school is receiving for each student is paying they can receive. The scholarship provides up to the total amount of foundation funding which is a seven thousand dollar amount beyond that I'm not sure exist you know what that what those costs are that's funding is going towards within and outside the school level I believe I think. Thank you they receive. Medicaid funding or if they're on Medicaid or they. I think they have to file for at the school level but that's a question maybe the department has and then and as required identification of the specific student or numerical identification only. To know what was that again I'm Paul and does it require DO it doesn't require identification of this I don't I think it's just identifying the student by number or specific this school or the program itself I think the school I'll follow up share. Thank you. All right seeing no other questions thank you ladies thank you for everybody for hanging with us today and yesterday a couple long meetings we have a few the state. Anyway we will not have a meeting in July hello there are conferences to go to so hard to schedule all of the different committees that month so we will go back to August I believe the eight. Okay eighth of August we are meeting our night somewhere around there we'll get you something out on that so of without any objection we are adjourned.