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Week 6: Points into Progress
Happy Friday!
Thank you all for the dedication you have shown as we move into the middle of September. This time of year, the days can begin to feel heavier, and both students and adults sometimes show the strain through shorter tempers, impatience, or discouragement. Yet in these moments, we continue to see patience, encouragement, and empathy shining through in classrooms and hallways. Those small daily choices are what keep our schools strong and our community moving forward.
This week, we also received our state letter grades, which closely relate to our performance targets for the year. In this Wrap-up, we want to highlight what those results mean for each building, the areas that are holding us back from an A, and the mindset we need to carry into the rest of the year, with only 144 instructional days left to make the greatest impact that we can for our students.
School District Letter Grades
The Arkansas Department of Education released 2025 school letter grades for the 2024–2025 year:
* Louise Durham Elementary — B (511.28 points), within 12 points of an A
* Holly Harshman Elementary — B (511.28 points), officially a B with last year’s grade being preliminary and unofficial, which is a point of celebration of hard work and progress
* Mena Middle School — C (441.82 points), just 3.7 points away from a B
* Mena High School — C (400.07 points), with more ground to cover, but every step of growth matters
Louise Durham Elementary’s grade is unique. Although K–2 students at LDES do take summative assessments, the state has not yet developed a reliable way to incorporate those results into the school rating system. Because ATLAS testing does not begin until 3rd grade, the performance of our 3rd graders, who are enrolled at Holly Harshman, feeds back into Louise Durham’s rating. In other words, Louise Durham’s letter grade depends heavily on Holly Harshman’s tested students. This reinforces why early literacy, numeracy, and readiness in K–2 matter so much—they set the stage for what happens in grades 3–5 and beyond.
How School Ratings Are Calculated
The chart below shows how Arkansas calculates school letter grades. Each building is scored across multiple indicators, and the total points determine whether a school earns an A, B, C, D, or F.
* Achievement: How many students score at Level 3 (Proficient) or Level 4 (Advanced) on state assessments in ELA, Math, and Science.
* Growth of All Students: Whether students are meeting their individualized growth targets, regardless of their starting point.
* Growth of the Lowest Quarter: Whether the students who start the furthest behind are catching up to their peers.
* Success Ready Graduate (High School only): Whether students are graduating on time and demonstrating readiness through merit or distinction (such as AP, concurrent credit, CTE concentrators, or the Seal of Biliteracy).
For elementary and middle schools, the formula is built entirely on achievement and growth. For the high school, the formula also weighs graduation rates and readiness measures.
This breakdown helps explain why our district’s biggest challenge right now is ELA performance and growth at the elementary and middle levels, and readiness measures at the high school. It also reinforces the message that every student matters because growth at any level contributes to the total, and those points can impact an entire building’s grade.
What Is Keeping Us from an A?
* Louise Durham Elementary (B, 12 points from an A): Math and science are above the state average. ELA proficiency and growth, particularly in the lowest quartile, remain a barrier. Roughly 14–15 students moving from Level 1 to Level 2 in ELA would be enough to reach an A.
* Holly Harshman Elementary (B, 12 points from an A): Gr
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