Thomas B. Fordham Institute - Advancing Educational Excellence

The Fordham Report 2006: How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children?

November 1, 2006

The Fordham Report 2006: How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children? appraises each state according to thirty indicators across three major categories: student achievement for low-income, African-American, and Hispanic students; achievement trends for these same groups over the last 10-15 years; and the state's track record in implementing bold education reforms. It finds that just eight states can claim even moderate success over the past 15 years at boosting the percentage of their poor or minority students who are at or above proficient in reading, math or science. In addition, most states making significant achievement gains--including California, Delaware, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, and Texas--are national leaders in education reform, indicating that solid standards, tough accountability, and greater school choice can yield better classroom results.

View the press release for this report

Contents

Arkansas

 


 


 

Tasked to Improve

Perception isn't always reality, especially in Arkansas. A perennial cellar dweller in per-capita income, the state is also home to the single most successful business enterprise of the past 30 years-Wal-Mart. So before writing off the state's education reform efforts to date as a failure, it pays to dig beneath the surface.

Arkansas's achievement data certainly give one reason to believe that, as in personal income growth, the Natural State hasn't been very successful in educating its youngsters-especially those who are most vulnerable. Whether in reading, math, or science, the state's poor and minority students simply aren't making the grade.

But the picture improves-some-when achievement over time is examined. Arkansas is one of 17 states to make at least "limited" progress in boosting the achievement of its disadvantaged students-in its case, for statistically significant increases in its poor students' NAEP scores in reading and math. So, is Arkansas making progress or not? 

Last year, Republican governor Michael Huckabee decided to find out. He invited the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education to evaluate the Arkansas school system and recommend ways to improve it. The task force, a team of education experts assembled by the Hoover Institution, including Fordham president Chester E. Finn, Jr., delivered 45 recommendations for reforming the state's education system.

For example, the task force suggested that Arkansas make alternate routes to teacher certification the primary pathway into its classrooms. After all, one of the state's great challenges is hiring and retaining effective teachers. With its rapidly growing population, Arkansas is not currently able to satisfy the demand for teachers; and while it does a decent job of bringing alternatively certified teachers into the classroom, that doesn't bridge the gap. Unfortunately, the state has not acted on this proposal.

Another task force idea, teacher merit pay, seems to be catching on with some districts and schools. The Little Rock Board of Education adopted as a pilot the Achievement Challenge Program, which provides performance bonuses to teachers whose students' test scores on the SAT-10 improve. These scores have steadily improved, so the school board voted in August 2006 to expand the program. Teachers must still approve the decision, but according to Jay P. Greene, director of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, performance pay is one of the reform measures that is gaining traction with education leaders and parents.

Charter schools have a less promising future. While the high-profile KIPP Academies have a single school in the Delta, fewer than 1 percent of students statewide attend charters. That number isn't likely to grow soon, as the state has capped the number of charter schools at 24. State Representative Joyce Elliott (D), education committee chairman of the Arkansas House of Representatives, says, "Charter schools don't have a stellar record in our state, and that has soured [people] on them." But Terri Hardy, an advisor to Huckabee, counters that only a few charters in Little Rock have received negative coverage for performance, and that these reports are coloring Elliott's understanding. Rural charters, she says, enjoy good track records.

One approach to reform that the state has aggressively embraced is consolidating districts. Moved to action by a court decision that ruled Arkansas education funding inequitable, the state acted to close 57 districts over the past couple of years. The Koret Task Force urged caution on this front, however, noting that closing small schools that are highly effective could be counterproductive to the state as a whole. Greene says that consolidation is probably unlikely because the public isn't behind the action.

The state's academic standards are also an area of continuing concern, scoring a D-. Fortunately, the state is required by law to review these every six years. Whether or not they'll improve remains to be seen.

Getting standards right is especially important now, as the state has adopted Smart Core, a mandatory college preparatory curriculum that requires high school students to complete four units of English; four units of math, including Algebra I, geometry, and Algebra II; three units of science with a lab; and three units of social studies. By 2007-08, the state is also hoping to require that every high school student be offered at least four Advanced Placement courses.

Arkansas is making some progress, to be sure. But don't be satisfied with that, says Elliott. "We have more to do."

 

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