Study Makes Recommendations to Reduce Achievement Gap in Arkansas

   A new study on the academic achievement gap in Arkansas recommended smaller class sizes, school-based health clinics, and after-school and summer programs as strategies to reduce the disparity among students of different races and incomes, reports the Arkansas Democrat & Gazette.

Jay Barth, an associate professor of politics at Hendrix College in Conway, and Keith Nitta, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas’ Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, released the findings of their nine-month study — “Education in the Post-Lake View Era: What is Arkansas Doing to Close the Achievement Gap?”

Lake View is a reference to Phillips County school district that challenged the constitutionality of the state’s system of funding public schools. That led to more state aid to school districts, pay raises for teachers, state funding for preschool programs and renovated school facilities. The achievement level of Arkansas’ growing Hispanic population fell between the levels of black and white students.

While average scores for black and white students increased in recent years, the Hispanic scores mostly dropped. The study highlighted nine strategies that research shows are successful in closing the gap. Those include improving curriculum and instructional strategies and updating facilities. Also in place in Arkansas are early-childhood education programs, initiatives to improve teacher quality and the use of charter schools that feature longer days. The state should “deepen” its commitment to those efforts, the study said. That could mean, for example, promoting the state’s early childhood programs so that parents will enroll their children in them.

— Teachers of Color