School district opts in to participate in ATLAS interim testing

Delta Digital News Service

Friday, February 16, 2024

By Shelby Russom | Contributor

PARAGOULD, ARK – The Greene County Technical School District decided to participate in a new type of optional interim testing for the 2023-2024 school year.

The new testing program, the Arkansas Teaching and Learning Assessment System (ATLAS), interim testing acts as a way to track how students are performing and how to help them improve. The system offers classroom, summative and end-of-the-year assessments for grades third through 10th.

“We opted into practicing with the interims, and I’m so glad we did because the kids will be better prepared for the summative,” said Assistant Superintendent Kodie Potter during the Feb. 15 meeting.

Caroline Schenk, district administrator of instructional programs, said this differs from any testing GCT has undergone because the testing is more difficult. Still, she said she is hopeful the students will succeed.

The science portion is the only ATLAS interim testing available since the program is still new. The tests will eventually cover multiple subjects including math, reading, writing, etc. Scheck said the district hopes to implement every interim testing as it becomes available next year. 

When given the science interim test, GCT’s students showcased skills from six points above the state average of 89 at the fifth-grade level to four points below the state average of 64 at the third-grade level. 

“We have work to do,” Schenk said. “We are not happy with being below the state average. We would like to excel, so we will keep working.”

Along with the testing, Greene County Tech will put together “gold documents.” These documents detail how well each student is doing in a particular area and include test scores and lists of teachers’ expectations for their grade level. Lead teachers can edit and refer to these forms as the year progresses to monitor each student’s performance and show other teachers what the district expects their students to understand by a certain point in their academic career.

“We are so proud of our staff, our teachers. They are working so hard, and they are knocking this out,” Schenk said. “We never dreamed we’d be as far as we are with all of this.”

Greene County Technical School District reported at the end of January 2024, its operating account had an ending cash balance of about $14.8 million, of which $868,000 remains in special projects. The district is restricting $500,000 for construction, and about $5.6 million remains in the July 22 bond proceeds fund. The current budget leaves about $7.8 million for operating.

Three cadets from GCT’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) presented to the school board members detailing their organization’s 2023-2024 school year successes.

JROTC set school impact goals for the program over the next school year. The first goal was for 75% of cadets to receive at least a 2.0 GPA in regular education classes and a 3.0 GPA in the JROTC class. Deputy Corps Commander Cadet Bailee Williams said they are on track and expect to meet that goal by the end of the school year. The second goal of the program is to reach a 75% participation rate in non-mandatory activities for the 2023-2024 school year, of which they have passed with a participation rate of 97%. JROTC also wants to recruit at least 75 first-year students during their GCT Junior High School recruitment events while maintaining 70% of the corps.

“Our unit is currently maintaining 87.5% of the corps for the upcoming spring semester,” Williams said. “We also have 80.6% of the corps expressing interest in reenrolling into JROTC next year.”

JROTC also set goals for the earning of community service hours. Currently, the unit earned 1,732 hours with an average of 17.32 hours per cadet.

Throughout the fall and spring semesters, JROTC raised $5,925 selling peanuts and bath bombs and $5,170 selling digital coupons and discount cards. JROTC will donate $700 to the family of a GCT student diagnosed with cancer and $500 to the family of an eighth grader who was involved in a car accident.

Superintendent Scott Gerrish said he appreciates the work Sgt. Scott Burlingame has put into JROTC and believes the program is worth all the effort. 

• In the meeting, the board also:

• Reviewed how teachers feel about the implementation of the alternate calendar and early start.

• Approved a second read of classified and licensed personnel policies.

• Approved incoming and outgoing student transfer petitions.

• Approved a resolution authorizing the district to request a waiver.

• Approved a special education data system.

• and renewed the district’s ASBA Worker’s Compensation Trust.

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