School Improvement Information

The Bentonville School District is committed to preparing students to achieve high academic standards today needed to meet the challenges of tomorrow. Each year, the Arkansas Department of Education releases a detailed Annual School Report Card and District Summary Report indicating the academic improvement status, attendance/ graduation rate and teacher qualifications for each school and the district as a whole. Based on the most recent assessment results, the district and each school must develop an Arkansas Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (ACSIP) that establishes goals, interventions and actions that reflect how academic progress in literacy and mathematics will continue to improve.

We believe that parents and community members play a vital role in helping our students demonstrate adequate yearly progress (AYP) and welcome your feedback regarding the District Summary Report, Annual School Report Cards, and ACSIP initiatives. Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is a school improvement designation issued by the Arkansas Department of Education reflecting the level of achievement by schools and the district on the state-mandated tests. This designation is in compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and serves to identify schools and districts that are in need of academic improvement. To "Meet AYP" a certain percentage of students must score at a proficient level on the literacy and mathematics state-mandated examinations. The percent necessary increases annually ending with 100% of students proficient in the 2013-2014 school year. In the intervening years, not only must a certain percentage of the combined population of students score at a proficient level but the six subgroups identified by NCLB must do the same.

Bentonville Public Schools is proud to report that all nine elementary schools, all three middle schools, one junior high school, and the high school earned the designation of "Achieving", the highest designation possible for the 2009-2010 school year. Lincoln Junior High School's AYP school improvement designation is "Targeted Improvement Year 1, Achieving (TI-A-1)". The term "Targeted" indicates that only a minimal number of subgroups were involved, in this case only one. As background, LJHS was placed on School Improvement, Year 1 in 2007-2008 for the Students with Disabilities subpopulation when their percentage scoring proficient did not meet the annual percentage in literacy. An AYP School Improvement designation takes two years to be reversed, so the best that could be hoped for was that Lincoln would meet the percentage in 2008-2009. After hard work, focus, and innovative programs, Lincoln students achieved this elevated percentage in literacy in 2008-2009 thus receiving the TI-A-1 designation for 2009-2010. In compliance with NCLB guidelines, LJHS offered school choice, (Click here for the Spanish letter), to the student population in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010.