Arkansas schools: improving
The Southern Regional Education Board, in one of its periodic assessments of the regional effort to improve schools, has a generally positive report on Arkansas. Arkansas's college graduation rate, to name one, is still a cause for concern. But this piece of good news really jumped out, because it hits a critical population:
The proportion of children from low-income households is increasing in Arkansas, but their academic achievement also is increasing in some subjects. More than half of the region's fourth-graders from low-income families scored at or above the Basic level in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2007 - outperforming their peers in the nation. In Arkansas, 50 percent of fourth-graders from low-income families scored at that level in reading, up since 2003 and matching the national percentage.
"These results are remarkable," [SREB President Dave] Spence said.
