Teachers describe fellowship, early interventions and quick test reporting to education committee

Three third-grade teachers who completed the inaugural Arkansas Excellence in Teaching Fellowship told the joint Senate and House Education Committee on May 22 that the year-long program helped them share classroom strategies across districts and accelerate interventions for struggling readers.

The teachers — Lindsey Laster of Poin Elementary, Melanie Brotherton of Drew Central Elementary and Lisonbee Monroe of Ward Central Elementary — described the fellowship as a statewide, cohort-based residency that met by Zoom and created opportunities to exchange resources. "We were able to learn from other teachers who are excellent educators and see the different things that they're doing in their classrooms," Laster said.

Secretary Oliva tied the fellowship to the state's teacher merit-pay system and said the first cohort focused on the top-tier merit-pay recipients: "We reached out to our highest level teacher merit pay recipients — meaning they got at least $7,500 or higher — and asked them to share what's working." He said the invitation-based program drew about 23 teachers in its first year and that not everyone eligible chose to participate.

Why it matters: Committee members pressed the panel about third-grade retention under the state's law and about how districts are identifying and supporting at-risk students. Teachers emphasized early screening, frequent progress monitoring and targeted interventions. "When you get your students at the beginning of the year, you have to think where do you want them to be in May?" Monroe said, describing pull-out groups, RTI meetings and before-school intervention sessions her team used to move students forward.

Teachers offered concrete results. One said a small intervention group saw 10–15 point gains on interim ATLAS measures; another described a student who moved from a level 1 at the fall interim to a level 3 by spring, a gain of 33 points after coordinated interventions and support from inclusion staff.

Secretary Oliva and teachers described procedural improvements from the Arkansas Learns initiative that they said have made data timelier. "Students and schools are getting their 3 through 10 ATLAS scores within 24 hours," Oliva said, adding that statewide aggregates would be available after the testing window closes and files are loaded in mid-summer.

Committee members also discussed recruitment and spread of practices: teachers said they disseminated fellowship materials through PLCs, slide decks and principal briefings; the secretary noted the program intends a second cohort and encouraged legislators to identify eligible teachers in their districts.

The committee approved the prior meeting minutes by voice vote before the presentation and moved on to the Bureau of Legislative Research's resource-allocation briefing.

Next steps: The teachers and the department said they will continue cohort work, share resources with districts and plan a cohort 2; the committee invited follow-up information about cohort demographics and statewide participation.