Two years after enactment, SB752 (Act 696), To Clarify for Parents the Public School Rating System on Annual School Report Cards, has been implemented.
The measure, sponsored by Senator Jim Hendren, provides A-F grades for each public school in Arkansas, and its genesis can be traced back to Act 35 of 2004.
While Alternative Learning Environment (ALE) schools are exempt, 1,050 Arkanas public schools received the following grades, including 33 open-enrollment public charter school schools:
- A – 162 (15%)
- B – 322 (31%)
- C – 365 (35%)
- D – 158 (15%)
- F – 43 (4%)
To help Arkansans understand the new grading system, the Arkansas Department of Education issued Arkansas School Grading System Talking Points, accompanied by a video. Unfortunately and inexplicably, a system intended to better inform parents is not parent/user-friendly. So…
To see the cumulative grades for a district (unassociated with specific schools):
- Click here: https://adesrc.arkansas.gov
- Click the desired district or charter school
- Click the View District Report Card or Download District Report Card PDF icon at the far right
- Scroll to page headed ‘INDICATOR: School Performance‘
- Look down left column, to middle of page at heading: School Rating
- Look eight columns to the right, see Cumulative Grades for district, charter’s schools
To see the grades for specific schools:
- Click here: https://adesrc.arkansas.gov
- Click the desired district or charter school
- Click the desired school in the drop down
- Click the View School Report Card or Download School Report Card PDF icon at the far right
- Scroll to page headed ‘INDICATOR: School Performance‘
- Look down left column, to middle of page at heading: School Rating
- Look seven columns to the right, see the Letter Grade, with the Score underneath
A list of school grades and scores, unfortunately sorted by LEA numbers instead of alphabetically, may be found here.
Thirty-three open-enrollment public charter school campuses and virtual schools received the following grades:
- A – 8 (24%)
- B – 7 (21%)
- C – 8 (24%)
- D – 1 (3%)
- F – 9 (27%)
Total grades and scores (on a 300 point scale), are as follows:
Open-enrollment Public Charter Schools
*Alternative Learning Environment (ALE) Schools are exempt from the grading system. Prior to enactment of Act 1272 in the 90th General Assembly, open-enrollment public charter schools serving a drop-out recovery population have not been allowed an ALE designation.