Results of state and national standardized tests show a long-term upward trend in public school students’ performance, according to the sixth annual Arkansas Report Card from the Office of Education Policy at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Nevertheless, Arkansas students’ scores on one national test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, still fell below the national average for testing in literacy and math during 2013.
Gary Ritter, who directs the policy office, has seen “noticeable improvements” in Arkansas public education over the past 15 years. He suggests state policymakers continue to pursue innovative education programs to address needs that persist, especially among groups of students who traditionally have not performed as well as their peers, he said.
“We’re now talking about whether we’re just below or where we are in relation to the national average,” he said. “It’s a good sign, given the traditional narrative about low performance in Arkansas schools.”
Ritter is scheduled to give a presentation on the 16-page report card to the Joint House and Senate Education Committee during an 11 a.m. meeting April 22 at Mary Mae Jones Elementary in Bentonville.
The Office of Education Policy works to provide information, data and policy analysis, and the annual report card offers answers to common questions about student performance and school finance, said Michael Crouch, school performanceevaluator for the office.
On the state Benchmark exam, third- through eighth-graders earning proficient or advanced scores in math rose between 27 and 33 percentage points ateach grade level from 2004-05 to 2012-13, according to the report card. The rate of proficient and advanced students in literacy during that same time period rose between 16 and 36 percentage points at each grade level.
Progress has slowed more recently, with proficiency rates in both subjects the same or down from 2011-2012 to 2012-13.
The Benchmark exam evaluates how students perform against the Arkansas Curriculum Frameworks in literacy and math, though schools statewide are now teaching under the Common Core State Standards.
Crouch thinks that the Benchmark scores could have stagnated because the state has reached a ceiling in performance for that exam. Achieving gains is more difficult as the percentages near 100 percent. The shift to new standards also could have influenced performance on the state exam, he said.
“It’s difficult to tell with these tests what it reflects,” he said.
The report card also provides results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, given every two years to samples of fourthand eighth-graders from every state.
In 2013, higher rates of students from Arkansas earned proficient or advanced scores on the national exam than in early 2000s and 1990s. Still, the highest rate of proficiency for Arkansas in 2013 was 39 percent for fourth-grade math.
Jerri Derlikowski, director of education policy for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, would like to see Arkansas students showing the same or better performance than their peers nationwide, especially in literacy.
The Arkansas Report Card shows literacy performance among Arkansas eighth-graders on the National Assessment of Educational Progress rose from 26 percent in 2005 to 30 percent in 2013, but the state’s performance still trails the national percentage of 34 percent in 2013.
“We know that kids who aren’t reading proficiently by the end of third grade struggle from that point forward,” Derlikowski said. “That [4 percent difference] on eighthgrade reading in some respects might not sound like a lot. It’s a world of difference in how well they’re going to be able to finish high school and if they have any prospects for education beyond high school.”
Arkansas Advocates, along with the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, started the Arkansas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading in September 2012 to improve literacy performance, Derlikowski said.
The Arkansas Report Card also discusses statewide performance on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, a standardized test given to the state’s firstthrough ninth-graders.
The test allows for comparison across states using a national percentile rank.
The report states that results from the Iowa test have declined or remained stagnant in math and literacy.
The state’s national percentile rank was 59 in 2004-05 and 55 in 2012-13, meaning that Arkansas students overall did as well or better than 55 percent of students nationally.
Greg Kaza, executive director of the Arkansas Policy Foundation, was concerned about the state results for the Iowa test and the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
He noticed in the report that the total amount of local, state and federal revenue per pupil in Arkansas increased from $10,044 in 2006 to $12,156 in 2011, but the national assessments indicate declining performance or performance that is below the rest of the country, he said.
The foundation takes a greater interest in national comparisons because large public companies in Arkansas compete on a global level, he said.
“A skilled workforce is a factor of economic development, and that factor is a product of the public education system,” Kaza said. “We need to raise not lower expectations for schools.”
The foundation has done its own analysis of student performance in Arkansas and found that a small number ofschool districts have poor performance, he said. The foundation has supported policies that expand access to public charter schools and private schools for families living in poorly performing school districts, he said.
The report card, which can be accessed at officeforedpolicy.com, offers additional information for parents and community members.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/11/2014