Benchmark Exam scores for Arkansas schools have been released by the Arkansas Department of Education.

The exams test students in third througheighth grades on math and literacy, and fifth and seventh grades in science.

The test results are used to determine whether schools are making adequate yearly progress, a requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act.The scores are also used to help determine which students and schools need extra attention in certain areas, administrators said.

Yearly progress is measured for whole school populations and for subgroups such as Hispanicstudents and low-income students. Schools have to make adequate progress in each category or they are placed on alert and then subjected to increasingly stringent requirements, known as school improvement, for each year they fail to make adequate progress.

The finalized status of schools’ yearly progress won’t be available until sometime in the fall, said Julie Johnson Thompson,a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Education.

Test scores are divided into four ranges: below basic, basic, proficient and advanced. The national goal is to have all students scoring proficient or advanced in the 2013-14 school year.

Decatur superintendent Larry Ben - who was on his second day on the job Friday - said improving Decatur’s Benchmark scores is one of his primary goals.

Ben said he would first like to see the school surpass the state average and then the regional average, which is usually somewhat higher.

Ben noted the district did surpass both the state and regional average in third and fourth grade literacy and the state average in seventh grade literacy and seventh grade math.

Education, Pages 8 on 07/07/2010