State’s education reforms working
Posted on Sunday, September 10, 2006
I’ll be honest. There are times in this job as Commissioner of Education when I have to pinch myself. Like the other week when a national officer of ACT told us that the college placement exam scores of Arkansas graduating seniors improved at a pace greater than those of any other state testing at least 50 percent of its graduating classes. Or, a few days later, when an official from the College Board’s SAT told us that, in direct opposition to the national trend, Arkansas scores improved for those taking that college placement exam overall as well as in every racial subgroup.
These two bits of light follow a year that has revealed positive indicator after positive indicator for the state of education in Arkansas.
Like many of you, I was born in this state and spent many of my formative years in Arkansas. I followed my parents’ footsteps into a career as an educator, and I have served as superintendent at three Arkansas school districts before being appointed commissioner in 2004. All this is to say I am well aware of the “bottom-ofthe-rankings” position Arkansas has traditionally held in education measures—and the negative self-image we have developed because of it.
I am here to tell you that we no longer need to hang our heads.
Never in this state have we been able to boast the academic progress we’ve experienced in the last few years. To be able to do so in such a short time is nothing short of amazing.
What’s driving these successes ? I am certain it is because the state has put the systems in place to ensure that every child in Arkansas has the opportunity to succeed academically and, by extension, in life after school.
In 2003, the Arkansas Supreme Court charged the state with the responsibility of providing every child in Arkansas access to an adequate education. Gov. Mike Huckabee and the state Legislature responded to that challenge with a series of sweeping reforms enacted during the Second Extraordinary Session of the 84 th General Assembly.
I can report that the reforms enacted during the special session have only made it easier for the Department to achieve its mission.
Arkansas is recognized as a national leader in requiring high school students to pursue a rigorous curriculum. That’s because our state mandates that all high schools in the state teachnot just offer, but actually teach—a core set of 38 courses. Therefore, if you move from Mena to Osceola, you are assured your child will have access to the same basic set of courses.
In addition, this year’s ninth graders make up the first class taking Smart Core as a default curriculum. Smart Core requires four years of grade-level English as well as four years of math, including a sequence of Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II and another higherlevel math course. Arkansas and Texas were the first to do this, but more and more states are following our lead.
Likewise, the Education Commission of the States recently singled Arkansas out as a model for other states to replicate in terms of Advanced Placement policies and practices. AP is a nationalized set of rigorous high school courses. Arkansas law mandates that by the 2008-2009 school year, each high school in the state will offer an AP class in English, science, social studies and mathematics. Many schools have already put these courses in place, and, of course, most of our larger high schools offer many more. In 2005, with a 108 percent jump in the number of students enrolling in AP classes, Arkansas experienced the largest increase in AP class participation of any state in the 50-year history of AP classes. Since 2002, our participation rate has climbed an impressive 241 percent.
Increasingly, our students attend classes taught by highly qualified teachers—professionals who have shown mastery of the subjects they teach. Arkansas teachers also engage in at least 60 hours of additional professional development each year. Thankfully, we now pay our teachers as well as or even better than surrounding states, according to a recent survey by the Southern Regional Education Board.
Funding for schools has grown dramatically, with districts receiving “foundation funding” on a per student basis to cover basic expenses of a school district with additional funding allocated to schools for special categories of children—those in poverty, those who have limited English skills and those needing to be educated in alternative environments.
Obviously, these reform measures required school districts to institute changes, which hasn’t always been easy or without resistance. But the efforts have been far from fruitless. We—you, me, all educators and students in the state—have ample reason to celebrate The number of students scoring proficient or above on Arkansas Benchmark test scores increased this year across all racial groups in all grade levels in both subjects with one exception—6 th grade literacy for Hispanics. That test showed 1 percentage point fewer Hispanic students scoring proficient than in 2005.
For the first time ever, Arkansas students scored at or very near the national average on The Nation’s Report Cardthe National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP ). Arkansas and Massachusetts were the only two states recognized for making substantial growth on all four tests (fourth and eighth grade literacy and math exams ) over the past decade.
Scores on the Iowa Test of Basic skills were well above the 50 th percentile in most cases. That means that our students, on average, scored better than over half of the children in the national comparison group.
As mentioned earlier, scores on college placement exams—the ACT and SAT—have started to climb after remaining flat for years.
Any of these alone could be considered a fluke, but together, they are sure signs that we are moving in the right direction. In fact, every educational indicator presented this year demonstrates the academic improvement of Arkansas students. If we maintain the course, we may soon be bragging that our students are setting the national standards.
But it’s not the ability to brag that is our goal here. Rather, it’s knowing that we—as educators, as parents and as responsible citizens—have prepared our children to be the best that they can be, to lead successful, productive lives and to have the choice to do whatever they want to do in this global economy into which we will be sending them.
Dr. Ken James is Arkansas Commissioner of Education.
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