Magazine Elementary School was presented the prestigious 2023 Reading Initiative for Student Excellence (RISE) Arkansas School Award during tonight’s monthly meeting of the Magazine School Board of Education at the Administration Building.
Board members, administration and faculty were on hand to receive the award presented by Sandy Shepard, the Arkansas Department of Education’s Lead Regional RISE Specialist. In late May, school administrators were notified that the elementary school had received the award, and an informal announcement was made to the faculty and staff.
Magazine Elementary School is one of only 47 schools in Arkansas to receive the award since the program’s inception in 2018.
RISE Arkansas fosters a culture of reading by coordinating a statewide reading campaign with community partners, parents and teachers to establish the importance of reading in communities, homes and schools. The first goal of RISE Arkansas is to “sharpen the focus and strengthen instruction.” RISE training was developed in 2017 to bring evidence-based teaching practices to the classroom.
In an effort to promote the continued growth of RISE Arkansas, the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) recognizes schools that have successfully implemented these practices for their students.
This past spring, a team from the ADE and education service cooperatives used a rubric to score submitted applications. The rubric was based on the three goals of RISE, plus the minimum requirements from the application. Of those that applied, eligible schools advanced to a second round, which included a day-long visit from RISE specialists. The goal of the visit was to look for a schoolwide implementation of strategies and practices aligned with the science of reading.