El Dorado Promise Said To Raise Test Scores

A study says the El Dorado Promise, the program sponsored by Murphy Oil offering scholarships to students of the El Dorado School District, has had a positive effect on junior high students’ test scores.

According to a news release by the Promise, the University of Arkansas’ Office of Education Policy followed through their eighth grade years four cohorts of students who were in the third through sixth grades in the 2005-06 school year. Their scores on the state’s benchmark exams were compared with students of similar backgrounds in other south Arkansas districts.

Test scores were about the same in the third through sixth grades, but seventh-grade scores at El Dorado were higher. El Dorado eighth-graders outscored their comparison schools 743-725 in math and 790-765 in literacy.

In the release, Sylvia Thompson, El Dorado Promise Director, said, “The Promise helped to foster a ‘college-going’ culture throughout the school district, motivating students to work harder and energizing our schools to provide the best possible education to our students.”

The program, announced with much fanfare in 2007, has provided scholarships to 1,239 students to date. More than 90 percent of scholarship-eligible members of the Class of 2012 enrolled in college, and 91 percent of all Promise college freshmen are completing at least one year of college. Twenty-seven percent of the initial Class of 2007 had graduated college in five years or less, compared to state averages of 19.7 percent graduating in four years and 38.7 percent graduating in six years.

For 2012-13, the Promise would pay up to $7,332 in tuition and mandatory fees for a student taking 30 credit hours per year. The amount is based on the number of years attended in the district. A student who has attended all 13 years in the district is eligible for 100 percent of the tuition; a student who attended school in the ninth through the 12 grades is eligible for 65 percent.

The Promise can be used to attend any accredited school in the country. Eighty-five percent of recipients have attended school in state, the report said.