Smart Step

Thanks to Smart Start, Arkansas has seen an increase in student achievement, as well as improved professional development for teachers and administrators. Smart Start focuses on improvement in student achievement in literacy and mathematics by the end of the fourth-grade. Smart Step focuses on improvement in the same areas for students in Grades 5-8. Smart Step implements some of the same strategies used in Smart Start.

Smart Step provides the same intense professional development for teachers and administrators at the middle school level, as well as additional materials and assistance to the state's middle school teachers. At the inception of Smart Start, Arkansas education leaders knew that to sustain the gains made at the elementary school level, a comprehensive and focused plan to assist educators at the middle school level would have to be developed. Smart Step gives Arkansas teachers in Grades 5-8 the resources, materials, and expertise they need to help Arkansas' Smart Start students continue in their academic progress.

Introduced in November 1998, Smart Start was Arkansas' first phase in its effort to increase student achievement. With Smart Step, unveiled in 2000, the state entered the second phase of the process. For detailed information concerning the implementation of Arkansas' Smart Step Initiative, please review the Smart Step Action Plan.

For more information, please contact:

Debbie Coffman, Education Associate Director
Arkansas Department of Education
K-12 Literacy
Four Capitol Mall, Room 401-B
Phone: 501-682-4232