§ 6-15-2701 - Closing the achievement gap program.
6-15-2701. Closing the achievement gap program.
(a) As used in this section, "chronically underperforming school" means a public school that does not meet adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, 20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq., as it existed on July 1, 2009, for three (3) or more consecutive years.
(b) (1) A school district that has a chronically underperforming school shall use its national school lunch state categorical funding under 6-20-2305(b)(4) to evaluate the impact of educational strategies used by the chronically underperforming school to address the achievement gaps among students in the chronically underperforming school.
(2) The evaluation shall:
(A) Identify the categories of programs and intervention strategies used with national school lunch state categorical funding; and
(B) Report the benchmark assessment scores for the end of the immediately preceding school year and for the end of the current school year of students involved in the programs and intervention strategies identified under this subdivision (b)(2).
(c) The Department of Education shall:
(1) Promulgate rules necessary to implement this section, including without limitation establishing the categories by which a chronically underperforming school shall identify programs and intervention strategies under subsection (b) of this section;
(2) In a chronically underperforming school's comprehensive school improvement plan, direct the use of national school lunch state categorical funding for strategies to close gaps in academic achievement, including without limitation:
(A) Using an Arkansas Scholastic Audit;
(B) Using disaggregated school data to set academic improvement targets in reading, writing, mathematics, and science;
(C) Using improvement targets to define professional development needs related to content, instruction, differentiation, and best practices in educating special education students, gifted and talented students, English language learners, and other student subgroups as needed;
(D) Developing interim building-level assessments to monitor student progress toward proficiency on the state benchmark assessments;
(E) Developing a plan to immediately address gaps in learning;
(F) Examining and realigning, as needed, school scheduling, academic support systems, and assignments of personnel; and
(G) Designing a plan for increasing parental knowledge and skill to support academic objectives; and
(3) By August 1 of each year, report to the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education on:
(A) The use of national school lunch state categorical funding by chronically underperforming schools in the state; and
(B) The status of the achievement gaps at chronically underperforming schools in the state.
(d) The department shall identify the chronically underperforming schools with the largest achievement gaps among students and give to those chronically underperforming schools the department's highest priority for:
(i) Monitoring school improvement plans; and
(ii) Providing support under this subchapter.