Overview: Arkansas' Closing the Achievement Gap (CTAG)

Closing the Achievement Gap (CTAG) is the Arkansas Department of Education's comprehensive Response-to-Instruction and Intervention (RtI-Squared) approach to help all schools meet the diverse academic and behavioral learning needs of all students. The ultimate goal of the CTAG process is to maximize the academic and social, emotional, and behavioral success of all students by providing effective instruction to all students in these areas, while also providing strategic or intensive additional instruction or intervention to those students not responding to the effective instruction.

Guided by each school's School Improvement Plan (via the state's ACSIP process), the foundation to CTAG is:

• Effective and differentiated classroom instruction, complemented with . ..
• Positive and successful classroom management, that . . .
• Is delivered by highly qualified teachers who have . . .
• Administrators, instructional support and related services staff, and other consultants available to them to support these classroom, grade-level or unit, and school processes.

This is accomplished through Arkansas' evidence-based effective school and schooling and its continuous school improvement processes. These processes include:

• Data-driven Leadership
• Core Curricula (guided by the Common Core and State Proficiency Standards)
• Positive Academic Supports and Services
• Positive Behavioral Support Systems
• Professional Development and Mentoring
• Parent and Community Outreach
• Academic Instruction, Assessment, and Intervention
• Behavioral Instruction, Assessment, and Intervention
• The School Prevention, Review, and Intervention Team (SPRINT) process

Academically within CTAG, classroom instruction is delivered through core curricula that are explicitly cross-referenced to the Common Core Standards and the state's Framework of Student Learning in every grade and academic area.  Behaviorally, classroom management is guided by creating positive and safe settings and environments; consistently teaching students social, emotional, and behavioral skills that support their academic and interpersonal interactions; and holding students accountable for appropriate and inappropriate choices and behaviors.