Welcome to the Curriculum and Assessment sections of the website. Here you will see our academic standards and how we measure student progress by the state-mandated instruments.

Participating in the PLC Cohort 2 in conjunction with the Arkansas Department of Education and Solution Tree, Gurdon Public Schools is engaged in ongoing analysis and revision of its curriculum alongside its assessment data.

For the 2020-2021 academic year, collaborative teams in the Gurdon School District developed explicitly-stated and published skill-based essential standards for each course and articulated a guaranteed and viable vertically-aligned curriculum as measured by the work products produced by each team. These documents are available on the district website.

Due to the pandemic in Spring 2020, schools will also incorporate the Arkansas Playbook into their campus Ready for Learning Plans. This will help teachers to address key content that might be lacking due to the changes in Spring 2020.

The Gurdon Public Schools use curriculum aligned to the Arkansas Academic Standards for the operation of the school district.

• The curriculum and assessments are aligned and presented to the board in the annual update found here.

• Our local board-approved policies regarding curriculum are available here.

• Our district curricular documents are available here.

Solution Tree provides training and coaching in implementing the professional learning community (PLC) process.

Gurdon Public Schools applied for and was accepted into the Arkansas Department of Education's PLC Cohort 2 in Spring 2018. During this three-year commitment, the district works with Solution Tree personnel to address key steps in this implementation.

• During the 2018-2019 academic year, collaborative teams in the Gurdon School District worked to analyze its curriculum alongside its assessment data, to develop explicitly stated and published skill-based essential standards for each course, and to articulate a guaranteed and viable vertically aligned curriculum as measured by the work products produced by each team.

• During the 2019-2020 academic year, collaborative teams in the Gurdon School District are continuing this work from 2018-2019 while adapting this work for the Response to Intervention (RtI) model.

• During the 2020-2021 academic year, collaborative teams in the Gurdon School District are refining the previous two years of work by improving the preparation of assessments and the use of data from those assessments.

• Gurdon School District continues the work of PLCs throughout the district. This will continue to be a work in progress to assist with our students' and staff's success and growth.

We are using the ATLAS Screeners/Summative for Grades K-2.

We are using the ATLAS for math, science, reading, English, and writing in Grades 3-10.

• We have periodic assessments to help us monitor progress during the year.

• We will have summative assessments during the last quarter of the year.

We offer a state-purchased ACT for juniors in the spring semester.

We offer a state-purchased ACT WorkKeys at GHS.

We administer the Civics Exam to high school students as part of their graduation requirements.

We are using the ELPA21 for ELL students and the ELPA21 Screener for placement of new arrivals.

We use the Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) as an alternative assessment for students whose IEP indicates those as the better option.

Assessment results for the 2019-2020 school year will not follow historical publication schedules due to the COVID-19 disruption.

All other assessment data should be available through the following resources:

• Arkansas Department of Education: Division of Elementary and Secondary Education's Assessment Office

• Arkansas Department of Education's MySchoolInfo

• Arkansas Department of Education's LEA Insights