Cynthia Howell
Arkansas Online
Little Rock, AR, United States
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Past articles by Cynthia:
Charter school in Northwest Arkansas for kids in trauma favored
The state's Charter Authorizing Panel on Tuesday endorsed a proposed open-enrollment charter school designed to expand the availability of educational and social/emotional services to young children who have experienced trauma. → Read More
ESTEM altering expansion timeline
The leader of the eSTEM Public Charter Schools system Friday asked to temporarily withdraw from state consideration an application for a multicampus expansion. → Read More
Test finds state students lag
Two out of three Arkansas pupils who took state-mandated exams in English/language arts last spring and three out of four math test-takers will require remediation after falling short of academic standards for their grade levels, state Department of Education leaders said Thursday. → Read More
Little Rock school touts spot on state's 'A' list
The staff at Little Rock School District's Terry Elementary -- a one-story building sprawled out on the corner of Shackleford and Mara Lynn roads -- has known for a couple of years that its pupils were making gains on state math and literacy exams. → Read More
Waltons donating $50M to Teach For America
The Teach For America program serving the Arkansas and Mississippi River Delta region will receive $4,757,500 over three years from the Walton Family Foundation as part of the foundation's $50 million grant to the national teacher recruitment and training program. → Read More
Close schools to cut excess, LRSD chief says
Superintendent Baker Kurrus said Tuesday that the Little Rock School District can't sustain its more than two dozen small elementary schools while trying to cut at least $40 million from its annual operating budget. → Read More
On National Assessment, state's pupils fall behind
Arkansas student achievement dropped on a national fourth-grade math test in early 2015 and showed no statistical gains in other subjects and grades when compared with 2013 results, according to the Nation's Report Card, released early today. → Read More
Charter-school bid gets OK, but panel tables 1, rejects 1
An Arkansas Department of Education panel gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a proposed charter high school in which students would have opportunities for concurrent college credit and workplace internships in areas of student interest. → Read More
State clarifies PARCC scoring standards; description of lowered cutoff said to be error
Arkansas Department of Education leaders elaborated Tuesday on the scoring levels that will be applied to state exams taken by more than 200,000 third-through-11th-graders last spring. → Read More
New district faces gifted-classes jam
The establishment of the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District has created a dilemma for parents in the new district who want their children to continue in unique or accelerated academic programs in schools that are beyond the new district's borders. → Read More
Bias lawsuit not focus, kids are, Key says
Arkansas and Little Rock education leaders said Thursday that they will focus on supporting teaching and learning in the classrooms and leave a newly filed federal lawsuit alleging racial discrimination to others to resolve. → Read More
2 new schools for Little Rock get push
The Little Rock School District is restarting efforts to develop new school buildings in northwest and southwest sections of the district. → Read More
Test chief: Failure targeted early
The president of ACT Aspire, the new testing program mandated for Arkansas schools, said Tuesday that the elementary-into-high school exams are meant to identify gaps in student learning early -- before they derail a student's college and career plans. → Read More
Charter school system seeking OK to expand
The Lisa Academy charter school system is asking the state to approve a reorganization and expansion of campuses in west Little Rock and Sherwood for the 2016-17 school year. → Read More
Plan for improving schools focuses on seven categories
Forward Arkansas, a partnership of two philanthropic organizations and the state Board of Education, on Tuesday released its proposed plan for improving public education to the point that every student is prepared for success in college or in the workplace. → Read More
'15 school elections unlike in years past
The annual school elections on Sept. 15 in Pulaski County -- for which early voting starts Tuesday -- will be like none other in the history of the county. → Read More
46 Arkansas schools earn bottom 5% tag
The Arkansas Department of Education has identified 46 schools as "priority" schools -- those scoring in the bottom 5 percent on state tests over three years. → Read More
In national comparison test, state's 1st-, 2nd-graders slip
Arkansas' youngest test-takers scored lower on the 2015 Iowa Test of Basic Skills than did pupils in past years. → Read More
State's ACT average same as 2014: 20.4
Arkansas' high school class of 2015 earned a composite ACT college-entrance exam score of 20.4, duplicating the average earned by the previous year's class but falling short of the national composite average of 21. → Read More
Bonds now to finance new school
The Pulaski County Special School District is gearing up to build a new Mills University Studies High School campus that would open within two or three years and help the district meet its desegregation obligations. → Read More