Decatur schools readying for Internet testing, instruction

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

— Topping the agenda of the Decatur School Board meeting on Oct. 21 was the district superintendent’s annual report to the public, presented by Larry Ben, on the broadband Internet use in the school system.

The Internet has become a very important tool in the education of the district’s students, both at Decatur High School and Northside Elementary School, according to Ben. In order for Decatur graduates to be successful, it is imperative for them to be profi cient on all forms of Internet devices, he explained.

“Broadband is an important topic across the state as it is used in instruction but also testing,” Ben said. “When we have the PARCC testing that goes along with the core instruction, we are going to have to have an accurate broadband to get all the kids on a computer to take the test on computers … We won’t be testing this year, but we will be part testing next year.”

Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers is a consortium of 19 states that worked to develop a next-generation assessment method for K-12 in English and math. For the Decatur school district, PARCC is not a requirement. The district will still rely on the Benchmark testing this school year. However, Arkansas will require all schools to implement these testing standards for the 2014-15 school year.

Students will be required to take the PARCC test online. Therefore, it is critical for Decatur to have a strong broadband service in place.

“Schools across the state are piloting the PARCC testing; we are not one of them,” Ben said.

But testing is not the only use for the broadband system. Instructions via the Internet are becoming a vital part of the educational process.

“For teachers to teach and students to learn with computers, laptops, and iPads, all these devices they are going to have require broadband.”

The speed and dependability of the broadband connection is very important for the ability to upload and download data. Not only is it vital for students and teachers to have fast connection to the Internet, but the district is required to conduct its business via the broad- band connections. Currently Decatur High School operates at a connection speed of 36 bits per second while Northside Elementary is at 37 bits per second.

The district has the ability to monitor its Internet usages. They can check the times which computers are online and the user. This system allows the district to monitor peak broadband usage during the day.

The cost of the current service is $541 per month after E-rate discount. Decatur gets a 90 percent discount, which is based on demographics. If the schools did not have this discount, they would have to use a lower-cost system with slower service.

“If we didn’t have all that, we would still get done what we did but it would have been slower,” Ben said.

The annual superintendent’s “Report to the Public,” as required by the state, was presented by Ben. His report began with the district accreditation.

Accreditation is based on several factors, including teachers, dollars spent, class, course numbers, Internet connections and minutes spent in class.

“Northside Elementary School is fully accredited with no citations. At the high school, there was one citation, but since the data was collected last year, the citation has since been resolved and the school is accredited,” Ben reported.

Much of Ben’s report dealt with test scores for grades four through 12. These scores are compared to state averages. Both Decatur and state scores can fl uctuate from year to year and from grade level to grade level. The report shows the Decatur School District at or slightly below the state in each grade level. The 2013 test scores were better in comparison to the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years. Based on this data, the district is in an upward trend.

When Ben added a trend line through the data points for each grade, he found an interesting fact.

“As kids stay in our system, they tend to get more average. There are ups and downs along the way; but the longer they stay in school, the closer to the state average and, in some cases, above state average they become as a tendency,” Ben said.

Ben’s report includes the fi scal health, enrollment and staffing of the district. He reported that the district is growing at a positive rate compared to the last several years.

The superintendent’s report is available on the school district’s website at www. decatursd.com.

Other items on the agenda included:

• Approving a personnel policy committee proposal defining the teachers’ duty day.

• Approving a PPC proposal salary schedule addition: assistant basketball coaching stipends.

• Approving the ESEA statement of assurances.

• Electing school board officers: Ike Owens as president, Darleen Holly as vice president.

The Decatur school board meets at 7 p.m. every third Monday of the month in the old middle school building next to the high school cafeteria.

News, Pages 1 on 11/06/2013