§ 6-15-421 - Awards and sanctions. - Arkansas Statutes

6-15-421. Awards and sanctions.

(a) The Department of Education is authorized to develop and implement, contingent upon appropriation and funding being provided by the General Assembly, a program of rewards to recognize individual schools that demonstrate exceptional performance in levels of student achievement and to recognize schools that demonstrate significant improvement in student achievement.

(b) (1) (A) Each school that does not attain the expected levels of student performance on state-mandated indicators and individual school improvement indicators shall be designated by one (1) of several levels of sanction.

(B) Each level of sanction shall determine specific interventions to be provided to the students of public schools or public school districts by the department.

(2) The levels of sanction developed under Acts 2003, No. 1467 shall be incorporated into the existing comprehensive school improvement plan.

(c) The State Board of Education shall develop a clear, concise system of reporting the academic performance of each public school on the state-mandated augmented, criterion-referenced, or norm-referenced assessments, developmentally appropriate assessments for grades kindergarten through two (K-2), benchmark examinations, and end-of-course examinations, which conforms with current state and federal law.

(d) (1) (A) Within thirty (30) days of a student's completing a course for which the state board has adopted an end-of-course assessment, the school district shall provide the Division of Public School Accountability of the Department of Education with each student's name, identification number, and grade in the course.

(B) The division shall:

(i) Match each student's end-of-course test score with the letter grade received in the corresponding course;

(ii) Report each student's end-of-course test score matched with the letter grade the student received in the corresponding course to the school district;

(iii) Create a report of the percentage of students who received a letter grade of "B" or above in the corresponding course and passed the end-of-course assessment on his or her first attempt; and

(iv) Create a report of the percentage of students who received a letter grade of "B" or above in the corresponding course and did not pass the end-of-course assessment on the first attempt.

(2) (A) No later than December 1 of each year, the division shall report to the state board and the General Assembly the name, address, and superintendent of any high school in which more than twenty percent (20%) of the students received a letter grade of "B" or above but did not pass the end-of-course assessment on the first attempt.

(B) The report shall indicate by high school the number of students receiving a letter grade of "B" or above in the corresponding course who did not pass the end-of-course assessment on the first attempt, provided such disclosure is not in conflict with applicable federal or state law.

(3) The department shall:

(A) Investigate the classroom practices of any school district in which more than twenty percent (20%) of the students received a letter grade of "B" or above but did not pass the end-of-course assessment on the first attempt; and

(B) Make in written form to the superintendent and local school board of directors any recommendations or changes that would improve classroom instruction and student performance on end-of-course assessments.

(4) As a part of the school improvement plan pursuant to 6-15-2201, the state board shall ensure that each school district and high school develops strategies to improve student readiness for the public postsecondary level based on annual analysis of the feedback report data.

(5) The department shall biennially recommend to the General Assembly statutory changes to reduce the incidence of postsecondary remediation in mathematics, reading, and writing for recent high school graduates who enroll in an institution of higher education.

(e) The state board, through the department, is hereby authorized to promulgate rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this subchapter.