Arkansas releases benchmark test scores

Greenwood and Van Buren students were just a few of the area students scoring higher than the state average on the Grade 11 Literacy Exam, according to results released Tuesday (June 15) by the Arkansas Department of Education.

The results from the 2010 Arkansas Augmented Benchmark Exams and the Grade 11 Literacy Exam showed more students scored proficient and advanced for another annual increase in math and literacy performance. Also, according to the ADE release, for the fourth year in a row the achievement gap between white students and students of color continued to narrow.

“When you have the achievement gap closing while scores of each student subgroup improve, you know that the system is working together to produce the right results. You can’t ask for a much better trend than that,” Tom Kimbrell, Arkansas commissioner of education, said in a statement.

Key points of improvements mentioned by the state include:
• The largest percentage of proficient and advanced scores – 84% – occurred on the third grade mathematics benchmark;
• The largest increase of proficient and advanced scores – 7 percentage points – occurred on the seventh-grade mathematics benchmark, with 75% scoring at those levels in 2010;
• Three-quarters or more of students scored proficient or advanced on six of the 12 literacy and mathematics benchmark exams — third-grade math at 84%; fourth grade math at 80%, sixth grade math at 75%; seventh-grade math at 75% and eighth-grade literacy at 76%; and,
• The percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced on the Grade 11 Literacy Exam increased to 60% in 2010 from 57% in 2009.

State officials in 2008 began to conduct science benchmark exams in fifth and seventh grades. The scores are not part of the “adequate yearly progress calculations.” Fifth-graders’ scores improved with 59% scoring proficient and advanced in 2010 as opposed to 43% in 2009 and 37& in 2008. The seventh-grade scores saw 33% scoring at the proficient and advanced levels in both 2010 and 2009 and 32% in 2008.

“All of these results, plus those from the Algebra I and Geometry End-of-Course exams, are used to calculate adequate yearly progress for schools and districts, which in turn determines the improvement status of schools and districts under the federal No Child Left Behind laws,” according to the ADE statement.

Of the 10 Fort Smith area (Crawford, Franklin, Logan and Sebastian counties) schools who tested more than 50 students on the Grade 11 literacy test, only four schools posted a 60% (state average) or better of students with proficient scores  — Charleston (73), Greenwood (76), Lavaca (76), and Mansfield (68). The schools not besting the state average are Alma (57), Booneville (59), Cedarville (52), Fort Smith (54), Ozark (58), and Van Buren (57). (See list below.)

Of the four big school districts in the area, Greenwood eighth-grade students had the highest number of proficient and advanced math and literacy test scores as part of the Augmented Benchmark Exams. Alma was a close second.

• Augmented Benchmark Exams: 2010
(Eighth-grade students)
Alma
Math: 46% proficient; 23% advanced proficiency
Literacy: 68% proficient; 15% advanced proficiency

Fort Smith
Math: 41% proficient; 21% advanced proficiency
Literacy: 47% proficient; 28% advanced proficiency

Greenwood
Math: 44% proficient; 33% advanced proficiency
Literacy: 50% proficient; 35% advanced proficiency

Van Buren
Math: 41% proficient; 15% advanced proficiency
Literacy: 47% proficient; 27% advanced proficiency

• Grade 11 Literacy Exams 2010-2009
Scores for Fort Smith area schools testing more than 50 students
(Arkansas average in 2010: 60)
Alma
2010: 243 students tested — average score: 57
2009: 226 students tested — average score: 55

Booneville
2010: 87 students tested — average score: 59
2009: 106 students tested — average score: 57

Cedarville
2010: 79 students tested — average score: 52
2009: 64 students tested — average score: 63

Charleston
2010: 70 students tested — average score: 73
2009: 68 students tested — average score: 56

Fort Smith
2010: 881 students tested — average score: 57
2009: 961 students tested — average score: 54

Greenwood
2010: 231 students tested — average score: 76
2009: 242 students tested — average score: 76

Lavaca
2010: 66 students tested — average score: 76
2009: 60 students tested — average score: 65

Mansfield
2010: 77 students tested — average score: 68
2009: 69 students tested — average score: 54

Ozark
2010: 104 students tested — average score: 58
2009: 131 students tested — average score: 59

Van Buren
2010: 397 students tested — average score: 57
2009: 262 students tested — average score: 64