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Most Mountain Home Public Schools grade levels and subjects posted higher proficiency rates over the past three years, though a weakness in content vocabulary showed up in nearly every classroom, the district’s testing coordinator told the school board May 21.
District Testing Coordinator Becca Camp presented results from the ATLAS portal, the Arkansas Teaching, Learning and Assessment System, covering the spring 2024, 2024-25 and 2025-26 testing windows. She said all but two measured areas improved over the three-year span.
“Everyone else has trended towards improved proficiency each year, which is what we want to see,” Camp said.
The clearest gains came in mathematics. Seventh grade math proficiency rose from 48% to 64% over the three years, the largest jump in the report. Third grade math climbed from 42% to 54%, fourth grade went from 48% to 53%, sixth grade rose from 50% to 56% and eighth grade improved from 32% to 40%.
Fifth grade math was one of the two areas that did not improve, slipping from 54% to 52%. Across the math grades, Camp’s report flagged multi-step problem solving and mathematical reasoning as recurring trouble spots, while basic computation and foundational skills held up as strengths.
Science also trended upward. Third grade science rose from 42% to 54%, sixth grade from 42% to 52% and seventh grade from 51% to 55%. Fourth grade science improved from 40% to 43%, fifth grade from 42% to 46% and eighth grade from 40% to 46%. The report identified scientific reasoning, application and experimental design as persistent weaknesses, with foundational science vocabulary listed as a strength.
End-of-course exams showed gains as well. Algebra I proficiency rose from 37% to 53% over the three years and biology climbed from 42% to 51%. Geometry remained the lowest-scoring tested area, improving from 26% to 32%.
In English language arts, third grade proficiency rose from 33% to 42%. Camp’s report tied the district’s literacy gains to foundational reading comprehension and literary analysis, while pointing to informational reading, inferencing and higher-level reasoning tasks as ongoing challenges. Secondary ELA scores trailed the elementary and middle grades, sitting in the 30s and 40s.
The single weakness that surfaced across the board was content vocabulary, which Camp said showed up in nearly every grade and subject.
“That’s an easy fix,” she said, suggesting a return to daily vocabulary instruction. “We’re back to the vocab days, and here’s the word of the day.”
Camp said the district administered 23,600 assessments through the portal this year, including 7,900 summative tests, along with interim exams and screeners.
“It’s unbelievable, and it only crashed once,” she said of the state system, crediting the state with strengthening the platform each year.
Scores for kindergarten through second grade were pulled back by the state and re-released around 9 p.m. the night before the meeting, Camp said. She told the board the second release came back slightly better than the first and focused her presentation on grades three through 10.
Camp said the portal now lets the district compare results by standard across multiple years, not just by student or classroom. The view removes the individual student from the picture and shows how consistently a given standard was taught over time, giving teachers a target for where to focus.
“It gives me something to focus on and gives me something to celebrate,” Camp said.
The data is already changing how the district plans for struggling students, officials said. Each student has an individual profile in ATLAS showing strengths and weaknesses within a subject, and teams have begun grouping students by need so intervention can begin when school resumes in the fall.
Officials said the results arrived early enough this year to use during summer professional development for the first time, letting collaborative teams adjust plans before classes start. They credited a districtwide effort for the rising scores, noting that principals, special education teachers and counselors now join the planning meetings.
Board members thanked teachers for the results, pointing to the increased rigor of the state standards in recent years.
“Please, please tell your staffs at your buildings, it’s noticed, it’s appreciated,” one member said. “And it’s impressive.”
