Students and teachers at Pine Bluff Junior High School’s Star Academy reflect on the school year that’s been: from left, eighth-graders Leyh Jackson and Jacob Kearney, and teachers Shiwanda Perry and Yulanda Lassiter. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)
June 1, 2025 by I.C. Murrell | Pine Bluff Commercial News
Leyh Jackson and Jacob Kearney took an interest in Star Academy at Pine Bluff Junior High School, and what piqued their curiosity helped them, in their view, become better students.
Leyh learned about the academy last year after taking a tour.
“I was intrigued by it so I decided to sign up for it so I could get a higher academic level,” she said. “It would also prepare me for ninth grade because that’s what most of what (was explained) was going to happen over here.”
The instruction, Leyh feels, is more advanced than in a regular classroom.
Classmate Jacob Kearney said he was impressed by Star when he first learned about it.
“Not many schools do hands-on things in the area in general,” he said. “I would really recommend it. I tried it my first week, and I enjoyed it a lot, so I decided to stay.”
Sticking with Star helped Jacob become more interested in academics.
“The experiments were pretty cool, just how there was a different one for each station and how it actually pertained to the subject or topic you’re going through,” he added. “It made me want to come to school more.”
Star is a program of core courses offered to eighth-graders inside PBJHS’ Ninth Grade Academy. The goal is to reach those students who may need to bolster their learning through hands-on, technology-driven learning.
Star is also the bedrock for the Explore Academy, a joint venture of the Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative and its member districts that serves grades 7-9 at the old Dollarway High School campus. Pine Bluff School District Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree said she would like to extend Star services to seventh-graders at PBJHS if the funding were available; however, those going to the ninth grade are offered the chance to stick with Star at Explore.
Barbaree credits the interest of the students in Star as part of its success.
“They wanted to be a part of the academy. When you want to be in the academy, you try harder,” Barbaree said. “Their cohort, that building is more like a family.”
The proof of Star Academy’s success is in the data.
Statistics from the school detail the rate of student attendance at the academy improved from 76% during the second half of the 2023-24 school year – the academy was launched that January – to 92% for this school year. During Fall 2024, 72 classes were missed, compared to 68 classes this semester.
Discipline referrals within the academy went from 28.2% in Spring 2024 to 6.4% for this school year. Only 5 of 78 students received a referral this school year.
Academically, 90% of the 78 students are achieving a grade-point average of 2.0 or higher this school year. In nearly all of the math mastery topics regarding the Arkansas Teaching and Learning Assessment System, the students improved their performance to mastery requirement of 80%, but showed growth in all the topics when comparing scores before the test to those afterward.
Case in point: The students’ mastery improved in algebraic expressions from 65 to 80%, functions from 79.4 to 93.8%, geometry from 75 to 88.3%, graphing linear equations from 70 to 85%, inequalities from 60 to 73.9%, integers from 68 to 80.2%, linear equations in two variables from 55 to 71.5%, Pythagorean theorem from 80 to 91.7% and systems of equations from 72 to 85%.
“You have to put in a lot of effort to make sure your grades are good and actually get that work and understand it,” Leyh said. “It is a lot, but it has helped me out, I believe.”
Luckily for Leyh, math is her favorite subject, something she wouldn’t have thought last year.
“It’s like a lot more to do now,” she said. “We have more experiments in math and hands-on things that help me more with math.”
Instructors use the Teachers Curriculum Institute for the course of study in Star, social studies teacher Yulanda Lassiter said. The curriculum she uses is TCI’s “History Alive!” and it provides her with lesson plans and activities that can be done online and through paper.
“Even though they’re in the classroom together, if they’re on different levels, I can assign them different lessons tailored to their particular needs,” she said.
Lassiter added some students who went through Star last year applied for Advanced Placement courses in ninth grade.
“I believe they did that because their level of confidence increased being in Star Academy,” she said. “They could see they were fully capable of doing the work.”
Shiwanda Perry teaches Star English and won an inaugural Joe Barry Carroll Award for her teaching prowess on the junior high level in May. Lassiter was a finalist for the award.
“What differentiates my English classroom from a traditional English classroom is that it’s more whole-group, but in Star Academy it’s split into groups based on the diagnostics or the benchmark test they take the beginning of the year,” Perry said. “When I was in a traditional classroom, it was hard to see where my kids were, but with the diagnostic, it’s easier for me to pinpoint, ‘This is a skill.'”
That the learning is project-based is another positive of Star, Barbaree said, adding students are self-motivated.
But be forewarned, rising eighth-graders: If you come, be ready for a lot of work and to be pushed by the teachers, Jacob said, when asked what he would say to the younger students considering Star.
“Be ready to be working hands on, every day,” he said.
https://www.pbcommercial.com/news/2025/jun/01/star-academy-sees-pine-bluff-junior-high-students/