HB1642

House Bill 1642 amends the School Performance Report Act in Arkansas to modify how school-level graduation rates are calculated. Specifically, it dictates that a student who drops out of school but successfully passes a GED test during the same year shall not be counted as a dropout for the purposes of calculating a school's five-year graduation rate. The bill maintains that the school rating system should continue to utilize a multiple-measures approach, including academic achievement, student growth, English-learner progress, and graduation rates. The primary purpose is to adjust the data reporting metrics to potentially improve school performance ratings by excluding GED recipients from the dropout category. This legislation seeks to align state reporting metrics with the achievement of a high school equivalency credential.