A tipster tells me the Little Rock School District will appear on the state’s “school improvement” list today for failing to have enough students making sufficient academic progress. It was put on alert last year that it was heading in this direction.
REMINDER: The finger pointing has already begun, so before targeting your favorite villain, I’d add it’s worth remembering that Roy Brooks was superintendent last year. And I don’t blame him either, though troubled schools increased in his three years of leadership. There’s blame aplenty to go around on this condition — stretching back years, but also tied to the immutable circumstances of a district where impoverished children of broken, poorly educated homes make up a disproportionate segment of the student body. That doesn’t mean these students are hopeless. It does mean that nobody in the U.S. has figured out a way to move large numbers of them year by year in a readily replicable system.
UPDATE: There wasn’t an official “release” today, but the Education Department compiled a list of districts in the category. The 12 include all three districts in Pulaski County, all in their first year.