Arkansas Named Fifth in Nation in Education Policies
Yesterday, Arkansas received more good news from Education Week who upgraded the state’s rank for education achievement, naming Arkansas fifth in the nation for overall education achievement.
Governor Beebe said, “I am excited by Arkansas’ continued rise in the Education Week rankings, but there is more hard work ahead of us. We’ve come a long way as a state in our pursuit of academic excellence, and we’ll continue making improvements that help our students and our state’s future.”
Under the leadership of Governor Beebe and Arkansas Democrats serving in the state legislature, the Arkansas education system was named sixth in the nation by Education Week in 2011. Education Week cited smooth transitions for students, consistent standards, and quality teachers among the factors that determined Arkansas’ high ranking.
Read news coverage below.
State is ranked 5th in education policies
By Sarah Wire, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
LITTLE ROCK — Public-education policies in Arkansas rank fifth in the nation with a grade of a B-minus, according to the annual Quality Counts report, a national report card released Thursday that tracks policy and performance in six broad categories in the 50 states and Washington, D.C.
The state moved up one spot in the rankings, from sixth in 2011. It ranked 10th in 2010, 11th in 2009 and eighth in 2008.
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“Get out of the way Maryland, we won’t be fifth long,” Gov. Mike Beebe said when announcing the ranking at the Arkansas Municipal League’s winter conference in Little Rock. “They can all kiss our grits if they don’t think we’re coming for them.”
Beebe has touted Arkansas’ 2011 ranking dozens of times during the past year but said he was concerned that Arkansas would lose its rank.
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The survey weighs student achievement, student demographics, school spending and policies that researchers believe have the potential to increase student achievement.
Arkansas moved up in half of the six categories used to decide states’ overall rank.
The state increased one spot for standards, assessment and accountability, keeping it’s A grade and ranking sixth in the nation. This category looks at how students are tested, whether schools are accountable for student performance and whether standards are grade and course-specific.
Arkansas earned an A grade and ranked first in the country in terms of the connections it has developed between kindergarten-through-12th-grade education and early-childhood education, higher-education and workforce education. The state’s ranking was not updated in 2012. The state’s 2011 score was used instead, according to the report. Arkansas was one of five states to be given an A grade.
This category includes whether the state defines college readiness and whether the state offers a high school diploma with career specialization and assesses children entering early-childhood education.
Arkansas also held its rank as second for its efforts to improve the teaching profession, such as annual teacher evaluations, mentoring programs and financial incentives for teachers to earn national-board certifications.
Read the full article here.
Magazine ranks Arkansas 5th in educational policies, performance
By John Lyon, Arkansas News
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas has moved up one position in Education Week magazine’s annual ranking of states’ education policies and performance, going from sixth in the nation to fifth.
“I am excited by Arkansas’ continued rise in the Education Week rankings, but there is more hard work ahead of us,” Gov. Mike Beebe said of the magazine’s annual Quality Counts report, released today.
“We’ve come a long way as a state in our pursuit of academic excellence, and we’ll continue making improvements that help our students and our state’s future,” Beebe said.
The state ranked 10th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the magazine’s 2008 and 2009 reports before moving up to sixth in the 2011 report and fifth in the latest report.
“We’re very pleased about the latest sign of Arkansas’ advancement in education,” state Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell said. “To be ranked fifth in the nation indicates that good things are happening in Arkansas schools. Educators and policy makers across the country are taking notice.”
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The ranking is based on a composite of the grades the state received in six categories. Broken down by category, Arkansas’ best score was in transitions and alignment — ensuring consistent standards and smooth transitions as students go from one grade to another — where the state received an A and was ranked first in the nation.
The state also scored a B-plus for the quality of the teaching profession in the state, ranking second in the nation behind South Carolina. This is the first time the Quality Counts report has included this category.
Read the full article here.
