LITTLE ROCK — Report finds test scores on low side
The Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has produced a 2010 Report Card on Arkansas Public Schools that highlights state test score gains but notes lower-than average achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and below average ACT college entrance exam scores.
In Arkansas, where 81 percent of high school graduates in 2010 took the ACT, the average composite score was 20.3, with 36 being the top score.
Nationally, the average composite score was 21. In other states with a high percentage of test-takers - including Alabama, Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska - the average composite score was 21.4.
The Office for Education Policy looked at average salaries for Arkansas teachers, concluding that the 2009 average teacher salary adjusted for the cost of living was $52,747. That was higher than the comparable adjusted national average of $51,359 and the adjusted averages in surrounding states, including Texas, where the average was $50,746.
The Arkansas average teacher salary was 50 percent higher than the state’s median salary of $35,257, according to the UA report.
The Education Policy Office also checked student poverty trends, concluding that 57 percent of Arkansas public school pupils in 2009 were from low-income families, up from 45 percent in 1999.
The eight-page report is available on the Office of Education Policy’s website: www.ark.edu/ua/oep/report_ cards/2010_Report_Card. pdf.
New study weighs graduation factors
A new national study of nearly 4,000 students born between 1979 and 1989 attempts to calculate links between high school graduation rates and third-grade reading skills, family income level, and race and ethnicity.
“Double Jeopardy: How Poverty & Third-Grade Reading Skills Influence High School Graduation,” commissioned by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, found that 12 percent of students did not graduate by age 19. Among the students who were proficient readers, only 4 percent did not graduate on time, compared with 16 percent of those who were not reading at grade level in third grade.
Among those who read below grade level and experienced at least some time in poverty, 26 percent did not graduate from high school by age 19, according to the study. Among those who read below grade level but didn’t experience poverty, 9 percent did not graduate on time.
The study is available on the Casey Foundation website: www.aecf.org.
School to add
iPads to classes
Apple iPad tablet computers will be used for the first time next school year as an instructional tool in the Arkansas Baptist School System’s preschool and kindergarten programs.
Arthur Bennett, system superintendent, said Arkansas Baptist plans to create iPad learning centers for use by 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds. In particular, the kindergarten pupils will be able to work with an iPad daily.
“This will certainly not replace any curriculum but enhance and reinforce our core curriculum for these grades,” Bennett said. “There are hundreds of apps for the iPad that are geared specifically for these age groups.”
Young children have grown up with technology and will be comfortable with technology-driven instruction, Bennett said.
“We see the iPad playing a role in offering supplemental instruction in math, reading, art and foreign languages,” he said.
The iPads will be provided at no additional cost to students’ families.
Arkansas, Pages 24 on 04/10/2011