§ 6-15-419 - Definitions. - Arkansas Statutes

6-15-419. Definitions.

The following definitions shall apply in this subchapter and in 6-15-2001 et seq., 6-15-2101 et seq., 6-15-2301, 6-15-2401, and 6-18-227:

(1) "ACT" means the ACT assessment for college placement administered by ACT, Inc.;

(2) "Academic content standards" means standards that are approved by the State Board of Education and that set the skills to be taught and mastery level for each grade and content area;

(3) (A) "Academic improvement plan" means a plan detailing supplemental or intervention and remedial instruction, or both, in deficient academic areas for any student who is not proficient on a portion or portions of the state-mandated Arkansas Comprehensive Assessment Program.

(B) (i) Such a plan shall be created and implemented by appropriate teachers, counselors, and any other pertinent school personnel.

(ii) All academic improvement plans shall be reviewed annually and revised to ensure an opportunity for student demonstration of proficiency in the targeted academic areas on the next state-mandated Arkansas Comprehensive Assessment Program.

(iii) A cumulative review of all academic improvement plans shall be part of the data used by the school in creating and revising its comprehensive school improvement plan.

(iv) All academic improvement plans shall be subject to review by the Department of Education.

(C) In any instance in which a student with disabilities identified under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has an individualized education program that already addresses any academic area or areas in which the student is not proficient on state-mandated augmented, criterion-referenced, or norm-referenced assessments, the individualized education program shall serve to meet the requirement of an academic improvement plan;

(4) "Adequate yearly progress" means the level of academic improvement required of public schools or school districts on the state-mandated augmented, criterion-referenced, or norm-referenced assessments and other indicators as required in the Arkansas Comprehensive Testing, Assessment, and Accountability Program, which shall comply with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as reauthorized in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001;

(5) "Advanced placement test" means the test administered by the College Board for a high-school-level preparatory course that incorporates the topics specified by the College Board on its standard syllabus for a given subject area and is approved by the College Board;

(6) "Annexation" means the joining of an affected school district or part of the school district with a receiving district under 6-13-1401 et seq. or 6-13-1601 et seq.;

(7) "Annual improvement gains" or "student learning gains" means calculating a student's academic progress from one (1) year to the next, based on a same series nationally normed assessment given in the same time frame from one (1) year to the next, used as a pre-post measure of learning for the content areas tested;

(8) "Annual performance" means the level of academic achievement required of public schools or school districts on the state-mandated augmented, criterion-referenced, or norm-referenced assessments;

(9) "Arkansas Comprehensive Assessment Program" means the testing component of the Arkansas Comprehensive Testing, Assessment, and Accountability Program, which shall consist of:

(A) Developmentally appropriate augmented, criterion-referenced, or norm-referenced assessments in kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12), as determined by the state board;

(B) Any other assessments as required by the state board;

(C) Other assessments that are based on researched best practices as determined by qualified experts that would be in compliance with federal and state law; and

(D) End-of-course examinations for designated grades and content areas;

(10) "Arkansas Comprehensive Testing, Assessment, and Accountability Program" means a comprehensive system that focuses on high academic standards, professional development, student assessment, and accountability for schools;

(11) "Comprehensive school improvement plan" means the individual school's comprehensive plan based on priorities indicated by assessment and other pertinent data and designed to provide an opportunity for all students to demonstrate proficiency on all portions of the state-mandated Arkansas Comprehensive Assessment Program;

(12) "Consolidation" means the joining of two (2) or more school districts or parts of the school districts to create a new single school district under 6-13-1401 et seq. or 6-13-1601 et seq.;

(13) (A) "District improvement plan" means a districtwide plan coordinating the actions of the various comprehensive school improvement plans within a school district.

(B) The main focus of the district improvement plan shall be to ensure that all students demonstrate proficiency on all portions of the state-mandated Arkansas Comprehensive Assessment Program;

(14) (A) "Early intervention" means short-term, intensive, focused, individualized instruction developed from ongoing, daily, systematic diagnosis that occurs while a child is in the initial, kindergarten through grade one (K-1), stages of learning early reading, writing, and mathematical strategies to ensure acquisition of the basic skills and to prevent the child from developing poor problem-solving habits that become difficult to change.

(B) The goal is to maintain a student's ability to function proficiently at grade level;

(15) "General end-of-course assessment" means a criterion-referenced assessment taken upon successful completion of a course of study set by the State Board of Education:

(A) To determine whether a student demonstrates, according to a requisite scale score established by rule of the state board, attainment of sufficient knowledge and skills to indicate a necessary and satisfactory mastery of the subject level content in that end-of-course assessment; and

(B) For which failure to meet that requisite scale score requires sufficient remediation before a student is entitled to receive full academic credit for the course;

(16) "Grade inflation rate" means the statistical gap between actual grades assigned for core classes at the secondary level and student performance on corresponding subjects on nationally normed college entrance exams such as the ACT;

(17) "Grade level" means performing at the proficient or advanced level on state-mandated Arkansas Comprehensive Assessment Program tests;

(18) "High school" means grades nine through twelve (9-12);

(19) "High-stakes end-of-course assessment" means a criterion-referenced assessment taken upon the successful completion of both the Algebra I and the English II course of study under 6-15-433(b)(3)(A)(iii):

(A) To determine whether a student demonstrates, according to a requisite scale score established by rule of the state board, attainment of sufficient knowledge and skills to indicate a necessary and satisfactory passing standard of the subject level content in that particular end-of-course assessment; and

(B) For which failure to meet the requisite scale score requires that the student shall not receive academic credit for the course of study for which the assessment was taken until the student meets the requisite scale score on the initial, a subsequent, or an alternative high-stakes end-of-course assessment as allowed or required by Arkansas law or by state board rules;

(20) "International Baccalaureate assessment" means an assessment administered by the International Baccalaureate Organization for a course offered under the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program;

(21) "Longitudinal tracking" means tracking individual student yearly academic achievement gains based on scheduled and annual assessments;

(22) "Middle level" means grades five through eight (5-8);

(23) "No Child Left Behind Act" means the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 signed into federal law on January 8, 2002;

(24) "Parent" means:

(A) A parent, parents, legal guardian, a person standing in loco parentis, or legal representative, as appropriate, of a student; or

(B) The student if the student is eighteen (18) years of age or older;

(25) "Point-in-time intervention and remediation" means intervention and remediation applied during the academic year upon the discovery that a student is not performing at grade level;

(26) "Primary" means kindergarten through grade four (K-4);

(27) "Public school" means those schools or school districts created pursuant to Title 6 of the Arkansas Code and subject to the Arkansas Comprehensive Testing, Assessment, and Accountability Program except specifically excluding those schools or educational programs created by or receiving authority to exist under 6-15-501, 9-28-205, 12-29-301 et seq., or other provisions of Arkansas law;

(28) "Public school in school improvement" or "school in need of immediate improvement" means any public school or public school district identified as failing to meet certain established levels of academic achievement on the state-mandated augmented, criterion-referenced, or norm-referenced assessments as required by the state board in the program;

(29) "Reconstitution" means a reorganization intervention in the administrative unit or governing body of a public school district, including without limitation the suspension, reassignment, replacement, or removal of a current superintendent or the suspension, removal, or replacement of some or all of the current school board members, or both;

(30) (A) (i) "Remediation" means a process of using diagnostic instruments to provide corrective, specialized, supplemental instruction to help a student in grades two through four (2-4) overcome academic deficiencies.

(ii) For students in grades five through twelve (5-12), remediation shall be a detailed, sequential set of instructional strategies implemented to remedy any academic deficiencies indicated by below-basic or basic performance on the state-mandated augmented, criterion-referenced, or norm-referenced assessments.

(B) Remediation shall not interfere with or inhibit student mastery of current grade level academic learning expectations;

(31) "SAT" means the college entrance examination known as the "Scholastic Assessment Test" administered by the College Board;

(32) "School district in academic distress" means any public school district failing to meet the minimum level of academic achievement on the state-mandated augmented, criterion-referenced, or norm-referenced assessments as required by the state board in the program;

(33) "School improvement plan" means the individual school's comprehensive plan based on priorities indicated by assessment and other pertinent data and designed to ensure that all students demonstrate proficiency on all portions of the state-mandated Arkansas Comprehensive Assessment Program examinations;

(34) "Social promotion" means the passage or promotion from one (1) grade to the next of a student who has not demonstrated knowledge or skills required for grade-level academic proficiency;

(35) "Uniform school readiness screening" means uniform, objective evaluation procedures that are geared to either kindergarten or first grade, as appropriate, and developed by the state board and specifically formulated for children entering public school for the first time; and

(36) "Value-added computations of student gains" means the statistical analyses of the educational impact of the school's instructional delivery system on individual student learning, using a comparison of previous and posttest student achievement gains against a national cohort.