Arkansas Schools

    Arkansas students showed the highest gain in ACT scores in the country in the 2005 testing season. ACT scores rose an average of 0.3, making average scores 20.6. No other state testing at least half of their graduates gained this much on ACT scores. Arkansas’s Commissioner of Education, Dr. Ken James, attributes this to reforms in the educational system. Arkansas students scored best in English and worst in Math. This has stayed consistent over the last five testing years. Arkansas’ SAT scores are also higher. The state boasts that it is sending over 60% of graduating seniors to college this fall.

Arkansas spends almost half of its entire state budget on K-12 education—over $6 billion in the 2005-06 school year. This results in a per student spending of about $6500.

After Hurricane Katrina, when Arkansas schools saw an influx in evacuee students, the state suspended the student-teacher ratio cap to allow all the students displaced by Katrina to get into classes without hindrance. The Department of Education gave these students a special code to differentiate between them and the others as the main push was to get these students from the gulf region into classes without placement tests, without haggling, and sometimes without enough desks.

Only 39 of Arkansas’ 1137 schools are labeled “Title I” by the No Child Left Behind act. Title I schools are schools with poverty-stricken students and are eligible for grants to improve school performance.

Arkansas’ Department of Education website is http://www.arkansased.org.