Transparency

By transparency, we mean that those who seek complete information about a school or school system (excluding personal information about individuals) should readily be able to get it. This information should be provided in forms and formats that enable users to easily compare one school, system, or state with another.

Letter grades: A, B, C, D, F
Currently, the Arkansas Department of Education uses vague terms like “needs improvement” to identify schools that do not provide their students with an adequate education. Letter grades based on test scores are much easier to understand than the terminology used now. Even without knowing much about a school system, the public knows that an “A” means a school is doing an excellent job of educating children and an “F” is a trigger for parents to put pressure on the school to improve.

Grades go to schools (not districts)
Because schools within the same school district sometimes provide varying qualities of education, grades for the school’s performance should be given to individual schools and not the overall school district. The school’s performance grade is based on an average of all the students test scores in that particular school.

One grade for overall test score
Parents should know which schools are successful in teaching the basic curriculum. Publicized and easily accessible school grades let parents know whether their children are attending academically successful schools, so that they can make informed decisions on where their children attend school.

Another grade for improvement
Grading is based on the amount of improvement in overall test scores. This system of grading recognizes schools working hard to improve their educational product. Rewarding improvement will encourage schools to continue their progress until they earn A’s for their overall test scores as well.

Rewards
Monetary incentives are the keys to improving schools. Schools that perform will have the means to make their schools even better, and failing schools will have a financial stake in improvement. Schools will have the choice of offering bonuses to attract better teachers and of encouraging excellent veteran teachers to sign on for another school year.

Some states have implemented this incentive system for schools already. Suggested monetary rewards for this system could be in the range of:

• $100 per pupil for “A” or “B” for overall score. For example, an elementary school with 300 students could earn $30,000.
• $100 per pupil for “A” or “B” for improvement. For example, a high school with 1,000 students could earn $100,000.

Rewards spent on non-recurring items
Monetary incentives should be designed to allow the schools to improve their educational offerings, including such items as new computers, teacher bonuses and foreign language software. By making these non-recurring, the school only gets the money to spend if they make the grade, avoiding any budget cuts.

Local distribution of rewards
Once earned, a committee including the principal, a teacher elected by other teachers at that school, and a parent should be allowed to distribute the monetary incentives within their own schools. Local people involved with that school administrators are in the best position to identify their current needs and make the proper decisions on where the rewards should be targeted to strengthen their weak areas.