Eureka Springs High School was the only school in Carroll County to receive an A grade in an annual report recently released by the Arkansas Department of Education.

The education department awarded each school in the state a annual letter grade based on a number of factors including academic growth, test scores, graduation rates and attendance figures.

In addition, the Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas released its list “outstanding educational performance awards” that highlight “high-growth Arkansas schools.”

“The mission of the Office for Education Policy is to examine educational issues through the lens of academic research and disseminate our findings to educations, policymakers, and other stakeholders around Arkansas,” the OEP said in its release of school rankings. “Annually, we highlight excellent schools around the state in our OEP awards.”

The release states that growth is calculated at the student level, and “essentially reflects how much a student improved his or her score from the prior year compared to what was predicted based on prior achievement history.” During the 20222023 academic year, ACT Aspire examinations were administered to students in grades 3 through 10 across the state in math, reading, writing, English and science. The scores in reading, writing and English were combined to create an overall score for English Language Arts.

“We are pleased to be able to highlight how students are growing academically in schools across the state, and hope the information will spark discussion among stakeholders about how to ensure all schools are growing the knowledge of Arkansas students,” OEP’s report states.

“We’re happy about that and excited,” Eureka Springs superintendent Bryan Pruitt said of the high school’s A grade. “It’s a struggle to be able to keep that, but we have a dedicated group of students, staff and parents that really work hard for us to maintain it. It gets tougher all the time, very demanding with a lot of expectations.

“Our kids take those tests seriously and take their education seriously.”

According to the OEP report, Eureka Springs High School had a growth score of 81.86, a growth percentage of 85, an achievement score of 66.5 and an achievement percentage of 96, according to OEP’s report.

“I’m very pleased with the high school,” Pruitt said.

Eureka Springs Elementary School repeated with a B grade from the state and had a growth score of 82, a growth percentile of 67, an achievement score of 72.89 and an achievement percentage of 87 in OEP’s report.

Eureka Springs Middle School earned a C grade from the state and had a growth score of 82.09, a growth percentage of 77, an achievement score of 62.30 and an achievement percentage of 72 in OEP’s report.

“We supply the best teachers we can get and try to keep whatever curriculum, materials and supplies available for students to be able to succeed,” Pruitt said. “We really work hard on identifying the kids that need more help and really spend some extra time on making sure that those kids that don’t get it … we do what we can to help build them back up. It’s a lot of work and I can’t say enough about our teachers.”

Pruitt said while the annual testing is critical and the basic backbone to the school grades and rankings, other things such as attendance are important for the district in the state education department grades.

“There are a lot of indicators involved,” he said. “Attendance is part of it. That’s why it’s so critical for parents to make sure kids are here at school.

“If you have high absenteeism it counts against you.”

Pruitt praised involved parents and a supportive community for helping the district be successful.

“We have a great community that supports our schools,” he said. “We are always working hard and digging deeper to see what we can do to improve. We try to be proactive with professional development and that will make us better for our students and our community.”