Summary: Act 35

Arkansas Student Assessment and Educational Accountability Act of 2003

Following the Lakeview Decision, and based on findings of inequity and inadequacy, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that the Arkansas public education system was unconstitutional. In an effort to bring accountability to a new level, Act 35 – a multiyear assessment of the academic progress and performance of Arkansas' public schools, students and teachers – was written into law.

The purpose was to align with the requirements set forth in the No Child Left Behind Act to create a clear and thorough set of accountability standards by which Arkansas schools would be evaluated. The tenants of Act 35 established a framework that, for the first time, informed parents of the educational performance and progress of their local schools, while providing administration with an easy-to-understand system of assigned performance levels to be met.

Act 35 was designed as a multi-year commitment to require value-added computations of student gains on annual tests. Using a comparison of pre- and post- student achievement gains against a national, demographically matched group of students, the act enables the state to:

• Assess the annual learning gains of each student toward achieving the Arkansas State Standards appropriate for the student's grade level.
• Provide valuable data in evaluating teacher effectiveness and school accountability and recognition.
• Identify the educational strengths and weaknesses of students and the readiness of students to be promoted to the next grade level.
• Identify students in need of remediation and equip them with any additional instruction needed to perform at their respective grade levels before promotion to the following grade.
• Assess how well academic goals and performance standards are met at the teacher, school, school district and state levels.
• Provide information to aid in the evaluation and development of educational programs and policies.
• Establish an accurate comparison of the performance of Arkansas students versus students across the United States.

The accountability program established through Act 35 was designed to:

• Use the data obtained from the results of the Arkansas criterion-referenced student assessments to annually designate a performance level of 1-5 (1 is lowest; 5 highest) for each school's academic performance, with a level of 3 representing a school that is providing an adequate education.
• Utilize information from norm-referenced student assessments to annually designate aperformance level of 1-5 for each school's academic improvement, with a level of 3 representing a school that is providing adequate annual improvement gains for its students, taken from where they begin. This approach rewards schools that make gains with the same students over time, regardless of their performance in a one-year window on the criterion-referenced tests.
• Identify best practices for schools and districts in need of improving their financial accountability through the designation of a letter grade.
• Schools rated at a "5" or "4" in academic performance and/or academic improvement will be eligible to receive performance-based funding awards in the amount of $100 per student for each of the corresponding grades.
• Allow parents whose child/children is attending a school with an academic performance rating of "1" for a period of two consecutive years to have his/her child transferred to any other adequately-rated public school.
• Implement a progressive system of sanctions for schools and districts that continue to receive levels of "2" or "1" for academic performance.
• Require uniform, developmentally appropriate tests for kindergarten, first grade and second grade to determine deficiencies moving into the years required for the state criterion-referenced tests.
• Require high school students to pass exit exams in order to receive credit for corresponding course.
• Implement Nationally-Normed tests in third through ninth grades, to be used in conjunction with the State Benchmark Exams in grades three through eight and exit exams at the secondary level.