RISON - The Cleveland County School District received a “B” and the Woodlawn School District received a “C” on the Arkansas Department of Education’s (ADE) new letter grade report card system issued for public school districts across the state for the first time last week.About 36 percent of school districts in the state received a “B” on their report while about 38 percent received a “C,” according to ADE. Cleveland County was the only district among the 15 school districts in the Southeast Arkansas Education Cooperative to receive a “B” on its report card.In addition to Woodlawn, other school districts in the cooperative receiving a “C” were DeWitt, Dumas, McGehee, Lake Village, Hermitage, Star City, Hamburg, Drew Central and Monticello. The Dermott School District received a “D” while Fordyce and Crossett both received a “F.”The Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) stated these new report cards reflect the state’s updated accountability system to provide transparency, family engagement, and data-driven school improvement.ACCESS Act of 2025 directed the ADE to create a formula to determine letter grades for all public school districts and education service cooperatives.District ratings are determined using the same calculation method as high schools, with the district treated as a single K–12 campus. All students within the district are included in the calculation, and the high school cut scores are applied to determine the final district letter grade. ADE noted that a district’s letter grade cannot be higher than the highest-performing school or lower than the lowest-performing school in that district. The new school and district report cards are aligned to ADE’s achievement, growth, and readiness indicators, which are areas used in calculating the letter grade.• Achievement: Indicates how effectively students met grade-l...
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