Portions of Act 35 of the 2nd Extraordinary Session of 2003, codified at Ark. Code Ann. § 6-15-2006 (b), place two requirements on school districts. First, § 6-15-2006(b) requires that, beginning with the 2004-05 school year, each district school board shall annually publish in the local newspaper the school performance report required by § 6-15-1402. In addition, § 6-15-2006(b) requires district school boards to report in writing to the State Board of Education (SBE) by October 15 of each year the following information on the prior school year or the latest information available:
(1) By grade level, economic status, and ethnicity, the number and percentage of all students in grades kindergarten through twelve (K-12) performing at each category level on the benchmark examinations, and end-of-course examinations, the percentile rankings by school and grade level on norm-referenced exams, any other assessments as required by the state board, the number of students taking advanced placement courses, the number taking the advanced placement exams, and the percent of students making a 3.0, 4.0, or 5.0 on advanced placement exams;
(2) By grade level, the number and percentage of all students retained in grades one through eight (1-8);
(3) The graduation rate, grade inflation rate, drop-out rate for grades nine through twelve (9-12), and college remediation rate;
(4) The number of students transferring pursuant to the unsafe school provision of § 6-15-439 [sic; should be § 6-15-432]; and
(5) The number of students transferring pursuant to the Arkansas Opportunity Public School Choice Act of 2004, § 6-18-227 et seq.
With regard to the first requirement, it should be noted that the annual school performance report required by § 6-15-1402 does not have to be published in the district’s local newspaper by October 15. Since the Annual School Performance Report for the 2004-05 school year is not required to be published by ADE until March 15, the districts are only required to publish said report in their local newspaper after the report is made available by the ADE and prior to the end of the school year.
With regard to the second requirement that district boards report in writing to the SBE by October 15 that information specifically required in § 6-15-2006(b)(1)-(5), please note that the ADE has already received much of the information required in items (1)- (5) of the statute. In addition, most if not all, of the remaining information required will be submitted by districts in their Cycle 2 report via APSCN. Furthermore, ADE notes that some information requested (i.e. Opportunity Public School Choice transfers, Unsafe School Provision transfers) in § 6-15-2006(b) does not currently exist due to the fact that either Opportunity School Choice transfer portions of Act 35 have yet to take effect or that no Arkansas public schools have yet been defined as “persistently dangerous” pursuant to the unsafe school policy as adopted by the SBE. As a result, for the 2004-2005 school year, ADE considers districts that timely submit their complete Cycle 2 report to have complied with the second requirement of § 6-15-2006(b). To the extent a school district has any relevant information such as Unsafe School Provision or Opportunity Public School Choice transfers or other information as required by § 6-15-2006(b)(1)-(5) not otherwise previously reported to the ADE, those districts should submit said information to Mr. Jim Boardman, Assistant Director, Information & Technology, ADE Technology Center, 8221 Ranch Boulevard, Little Rock, AR 72223 or via email at jboardman@arkedu.k12.ar.us.
For additional information, contact Jim Boardman at 501-371-5005.