Forrest City reports statewide growth gains; junior high earns high-growth award and $50-per-student grant

District academic leaders told the Forrest City School District Board of Education that new state growth metrics show the district met or exceeded expected student growth in English language arts, mathematics and science for grades 3 and up.

Superintendent's staff explained the state now reports growth as a score centered on zero: a score of 0 means students met expected growth, positive values indicate growth above expectations and negative values indicate growth below expectations. Using that metric, district staff said the Forrest City district average growth score across tested content areas was 0.06; the state average reported in the presentation was about -0.003 in the comparable summary table shown to the board. For mathematics the district average reported was about 0.10 while the state average cited in the presentation was about 0.003. For science the district average cited was about 0.04; the state figure cited was about 0.002. District staff said these figures come from the Arkansas Department of Education accountability reports.

The presentation highlighted…