Richland tops in county on 2018 ADE report cards

Richland tops in county on 2018 ADE report cards

WJHS, AWM leadership ‘ proud’ of schools’ assessment on annual study

WM School District The Arkansas Department of Education on Wednesday posted letter grades for the state's more than 1,000 schools and West Memphis Schools drew solid grading. Leading the way is Richland Elementary, which graded out as the top-performing elementary school in Crittenden County. Richland is also the only elementary school in the county which will receive performance funds.

Richland was listed among the 6-10 percent schools and will be awarded $26,190.36 by the state department.

'We are again thrilled to receive funds through the Arkansas School Recognition Program,' said Richland principal Gwen Looney. 'What an awesome bonus for everyone's hard work and like I've always said… 'surround yourself with great people and great things will happen.' Our students, parents and staff are to be commended for their continued support of Richland's vision by providing rigorous curriculum and committing to the excellence of producing lifelong learners.'

West Junior High came in with a solid C grade and a 68.14 score, which is also the best in Crittenden County. West's score also was better than the two Jonesboro junior highs, MacArthur and Annie Camp as well as other junior highs in Blytheville, Wynne, Osceola, Forrest City, Helena-West Helena and Barton.

West principal Charlie Tyler said he was very pleased with the outcome of the grading.

'We have great teachers who work hard,' he said.

'They are concerned about our students. We don't really know what's going to be on these (standardized) tests, so we're not teaching toward the tests. We're just teaching skills, and we've got good folks over there teaching. They care about the kids.'

The Academies of West Memphis also scored a very solid C with 68.14, ahead of every school in Crittenden County as well as ahead over Jonesboro High School, Paragould High School, Blytheville, Forrest City and Osceola.

Other notable schools AWM outscored included Arkansas High out of Texarkana, Fort Smith Northside, North Little Rock High School, Springdale High School, Sylvan Hills and El Dorado.

'I'm extremely proud of our teachers, our administrators and our students,' said AWM principal Gary Jackson. 'It was a yearlong effort. We just dug in and met the kids where they were. We changed up some of our curriculum alignment.'

The biggest addition to the AWM curriculum was a cutting edge cyber security program that has been lauded statewide.

'We moved some of our staffing around,' Jackson added. 'We're proud of their effort and we're proud of our score. We're not judging ourselves with anyone else. We're setting a bar for ourselves and we have high expectations for this year as well.'

By Billy Woods