Each year, the Office for Education Policy (OEP) at the University of Arkansas creates a report entitled the Outstanding Educational Performance Awards highlighting the highest-performing schools in Arkansas. Although the PARCC results have not yet been released, we are happy to announce OEP Science awards based on Benchmark and End-of-Course science exams.

We are pleased to share with you that Oark High School has been awarded a “Most Improved” OEP award for performance on the Grade 7 Science exam. These awards are given to schools that have shown the greatest improvement in science performance over a five-year period. Awards are based on the OEP-created “school GPA,” calculated on the basis of the percentage of students that perform at a particular level on the Benchmark or End-of-Course exam (advanced, proficient, basic, and below basic). To learn more about how we determined the OEP award winners and to see the full list of award recipients, you can view the report here.     

We congratulate you on this accomplishment and hope that you will share this good news with teachers, students, and any others who contributed to your school’s success. This year we are providing a ‘virtual’ award that you can place on your school’s website (download here), and we will send the physical award certificate to your school shortly. We encourage you to follow the OEP over the next few months as we release additional awards in math and literacy.  

If you would like to follow us and do not already, you can send an email to oep@uark.edu with the subject line “Add to OWL List” to be added to our weekly email list, or you can follow our blog at www.officeforedpolicy.com.

Congratulations again on your OEP “Most Improved” Science award!