Education crisis

Arkansas’ public education system is improving, report shows

By Roy Ockert Jr.

Nov. 6, 2012

One of the whipping boys of the 2012 general election has been the Arkansas public education system. Propaganda spread by Americans for Prosperity, a special interest group attempting to influence Arkansas legislative races, has suggested that the system is lagging.

And on the eve of the election an Arkansas-based organization calling itself A-Plus Arkansas, distributed a flyer decrying the state’s “educational crisis.” The flyer cherry-picked from a national educational study that actually showed improvement in most areas.

“Our schools are not making the grade,” the flyer says. “And Arkansas’ children are falling behind.”

It cites a grade of “D” for Arkansas’ K-12 Achievement on a report card included in Education Week’s “Quality Counts” study, issued last January. It also said “some politicians don’t want you to know that Arkansas’ schools are in crisis.”

One of those politicians A-Plus Arkansas obviously refers to is Gov. Mike Beebe, who was in Northeast Arkansas Saturday campaigning for various Democratic candidates. He fired back at the criticism.

“Why would they run our education system down when we've made so much progress just for a vote, just to try and influence somebody and tear what we’ve done down?” the governor said, according to an Associated Press report. “Why would you want to do that unless you didn’t love Arkansas and weren’t from Arkansas, didn’t care about Arkansas but cared more about electing somebody with some letter by your name than whether or not they cared about the future of our state?”

Previously Beebe and other state officials expressed pride in the “Quality Counts” report, which gave Arkansas a “B-minus” grade and ranked it fifth overall among all states for the six graded categories. Arkansas’ average score was 81.6, which trailed only Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Virginia — all of which have much larger, better financed systems of public education.

That score was a slight improvement over the 2011 study and moved Arkansas up one place.

Here’s how the state was scored in the six individual categories, which were all given the same weight:

• Chance for Success — C-minus, ranking 44th

• K-12 Achievement — D, 34th

• Standards, Assessments and Accountability — A, 6th

• The Teaching Profession — B-plus, 2nd

• School Finance Analysis — C, 2nd

• Transitions and Alignment (in 2011) — A, 1st

The K-12 Achievement index, which measures state results in reading and math testing, graduation rates and Advanced Placement exams, is certainly important, and Arkansas has never done well when compared nationally. But Arkansas has come from the bottom of the pack to near the middle in a relatively short time, moving up two more places in this study.

That movement started with the educational reforms under Gov. Bill Clinton, then Mike Huckabee and now Mike Beebe. It also is related to the requirements enacted under orders of the state Supreme Court in the Lake View school funding case.

To single out that one category of a major national review as evidence of an educational crisis is downright dishonest.

Certainly we want to do better in the K-12 Achievement category, but let’s keep it in perspective. Arkansas’ score was 66.3; the national average was only 69.7.

Our state’s grade in Chance for Success, which measures the importance of education in a person’s career from cradle to career, also leaves plenty of room for improvement. The 2012 study doesn’t show any movement for Arkansas in this category, and that’s disappointing but not a crisis.

Nevertheless, the other categories give reason for optimism.

Achievement, including higher test scores and higher graduation rates, happens only after you’ve made critical improvements in the system and in individual schools that cause students to perform better.

One of those is providing sufficient local, state and federal funding to the public schools. For many years Arkansas didn’t do that across the board, and only after years of litigation have we done what our Constitution requires — to provide a equal and adequate public education for every child.

“Quality Counts” says the state now ranks second overall in financing its schools. That doesn’t mean just in terms of dollars but also in equity. The analysis showed Arkansas spends $10,757 per child, about $900 less than the national average. Overall, we’ve seen a sea change here in just a few years.

Learning doesn’t happen without good teachers, and Arkansas’ efforts over the past few years have added incentives designed to attract and keep good teachers while also requiring increased evaluation and accountability. Only one other state is doing better in this respect, and that has to pay off in the long run.

Arkansas policymakers also have greatly improved academic standards, assessments for student performance and school accountability — successfully enough to bring a grade of “A” and pave the way for better performance of students.

Arkansas received a perfect score in Transitions and Alignment, which involves putting all the changes in standards, evaluation, assessment and readiness in line so as to provide a seamless system from early childhood education through preparation for postsecondary education and-or entry into the workforce. That’s critical for students to make progress through the years.

Reading the whole report (you can obtain one for $4.95 from www.edweek.org) does not provide evidence of a crisis but rather strong and steady improvement.

Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.