Arkansas earns a c-minus on state report card, ranks 43rd in nation

The 21st annual edition of _Quality Counts—Under Construction: Building on ESSA’s K-12 Foundation_—continues _Education Week_’s long-standing tradition of grading the states on their

performance. A state’s overall grade is the average of its scores on the three separate indices tracked by the report. STATE OVERVIEW This year, Arkansas finishes 43rd among the 50 states

and the District of Columbia, with an overall score of 69.8 out of 100 points and a grade of C-minus. The nation as a whole posts a grade of C. Diving into the findings for the three graded

indices, Arkansas earns a C-minus in the Chance-for-Success category and ranks 46th. The average state earns a C-plus. In School Finance, Arkansas receives a C-minus and ranks 29th. For the

K-12 Achievement Index, last updated in the 2016 report, it finishes 41st with a grade of D. The average state earns grades of C and C-minus in School Finance and K-12 Achievement,

respectively. More details on results in these categories are reported below. CHANCE FOR SUCCESS The Education Week Research Center developed the Chance-for-Success Index to better

understand the role that education plays in promoting positive outcomes across an individual’s lifetime. Based on an original state-by-state analysis, this index combines information from 13

indicators that span a person’s life from cradle to career. Those indicators fall into three sub-sections: early foundations, school years, and adult outcomes. For early foundations, which

examines factors that help children get off to a good start, Arkansas earns a grade of C and ranks 46th. The average state posts a B-minus. Arkansas receives a C-minus for the school years,

a sub-category focusing on metrics related to pre-k enrollment through postsecondary participation. It finishes 40th in the nation in this area. By comparison, the nation as a whole earns a

C. In the area of adult outcomes, based on postsecondary educational attainment and workforce indicators, Arkansas’s grade is a D-plus. It ranks 48th in the nation. The national average is a

C-plus. SCHOOL FINANCE The school finance analysis examines two critical aspects of school spending. Of the eight indicators in this category, four assess school spending patterns, while

the remaining metrics gauge equity in the distribution of funding across the districts within each state. Across the spending indicators, Arkansas finishes with a letter grade of F compared

with a national average of D. Arkansas ranks 30th in the nation in this area. On the equity measures, Arkansas’s grade is a B, which places it 24th in the national rankings. The nation as a

whole earns a B. K-12 ACHIEVEMENT The K-12 Achievement Index examines 18 distinct achievement measures related to reading and math performance, high school graduation rates, and the results

of Advanced Placement exams. The index assigns equal weight to current levels of performance and changes over time. It also places an emphasis on equity, by examining both poverty-based

achievement gaps and progress in closing those gaps. The results of the K-12 Achievement Index reported here are from the _Quality Counts 2016_ report and have not been updated. Indicators

in the index can be broken down into three sub-categories: status, change, and equity. Measures in the status sub-category evaluate a state’s current performance. Arkansas receives an F in

this area and ranks 43rd in the nation. The average state earns a D. The change sub-category examines a state’s improvement over time. In this area, Arkansas posts a D-plus and ranks 26th.

The national average is a D-plus. In the equity sub-section, states are graded based on achievement gaps between low-income students and their more affluent peers. Arkansas’s grade on those

poverty-gap measures stands at a B. Nationally, it ranks 21st in this area. The nation as a whole receives a B. Arkansas’s 2017 _Highlights Report_ includes summarized results based on each

of the nearly-40 indicators that make up _Quality Counts_’ overall grading rubric. Tables with the full results are available in PDF form below: - Grading Summary - Chance for Success -

School Finance - K-12 Achievement View more 2017 reports on states and the nation >