Recent test scores over the past years at Har-Ber have not met standards required by the No Child Left Behind act.
On June 29, 2012, the state of Arkansas, (along with five other states), was granted a waiver from the Obama administration that released Arkansas public schools from requirements meeting the federal NCLB Act.
Instead of requiring every public school in Arkansas to achieve 100 percent proficiency based on test scores by 2017, schools are now being required to cut their “proficiency gaps” in half by 2017.
A proficiency gap is the space between the proficient and advanced students being compared to the TAGG group students, (targeted achievement gap group), who scored basic or below.
Public schools across the state are now being judged by this gap. As a result of the waiver, Har-Ber is now considered a focus school, meaning the gap in the school is too large.
“I wasn’t a surprise to me,” said lead English teacher Amy Johnson. “It’s just something we need to work because we do have students learning the language at the school.”
In order for the proficiency gap to close, the general population of students must reach proficiency on test scores, which will increase the amount of proficient and advanced students. The school has no intention of slowing down the higher achieving students, and plans for the general population and TAGG students.
“We are using more critical thinking skills with in-depth analysis,” said lead science teacher Leslie Pitman.
Along with more in-depth teaching, the school is enforcing previous expectations from students such as getting to class on time and lessening the distractions of cell phones and other electronic devices during class.
But not all of the focus is being put on the students. Instructional facilitators Kristin Groves and Jaime Rabasa support teachers and improve student achievement. To cut the proficiency gap in half, Groves and Rabasa work with teachers to look at their data to find areas for growth for their students.
“We help teachers develop different teaching strategies for different classes,” said Groves. “We assist teachers in achieving their goals so that we will be able to cut the gap in half.”
Another change the school is currently experiencing is the adaption of Common Core, which was introduced last school year. Common Core will not be fully completed for two more years.
In Common Core, the focus for students learning is applying the basic skills they have previously been taught. Instead of just knowing basic facts, students will be expected to put these skills to the test causing reading requirements to be more intense. Basically, students will look at concepts on a deeper level instead of just from the surface.
Common Core is also focused on a student’s ability to retain previous knowledge and applying it in later years.
By the 2013 school year, the school aims to improve literacy scores from the 2012 scores of 67.69 percent to 70.63 percent and 80.54 percent to 83.31 percent in mathematics for the overall student population.