Historical public education information in Arkansas, 2011-2013

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Education policy in the U.S.

Public education in the U.S.

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Charter schools in the U.S.

Higher education in the U.S.

Glossary of education terms

Education statistics

This page contains archived information on Arkansas' public education system, primarily from 2011-2012, but also from other years due to the availability of data at the time it was written. For more recent information, view Arkansas' public education page.

The Arkansas public school system (prekindergarten through grade 12) operates within districts governed by locally elected school boards and superintendents. In 2012 Arkansas had 483,114 students enrolled in a total of 1,108 schools in 289 school districts. There were 33,983 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 14 students, compared to the national average of 1:16. There was roughly one administrator for every 271 students, compared to the national average of one administrator for every 295 students. On average Arkansas spent $9,353 per pupil in 2011, which ranked it 33rd highest in the nation. The state's graduation rate was 84 percent in 2012.

State agencies

See also: Arkansas Department of Education

The Arkansas Department of Education is charged with the following responsibilities:

• "Implementing state and federal education laws"
• "Disbursing state and federal funds"
• "Holding schools and districts accountable for performance"
• "Licensing all educators and providing public transparency"

The mission statement of the Arkansas Department of Education reads:

“	The Arkansas Department of Education strives to ensure that all children in the state have access to a quality education by providing educators, administrators and staff with leadership, resources and training.	”

The Commissioner of Education is the chief executive of the Arkansas Department of Education. The Commissioner of Education is appointed by the State Board of Education and approved by the Governor. As of June 2015, the officeholder of this position was Tony Wood. His predecessor was Tom W. Kimbrell.

The State Board of Education is composed of nine members appointed by the Governor to seven-year terms. Two members come from each of the state's four congressional districts. One member is selected at large.

Regional comparison

See also: General comparison table for education statistics in the 50 states and Education spending per pupil in all 50 states

The following chart shows how Arkansas compared to three neighboring states in school year 2011-2012 with respect to number of students, schools, the number of teachers per pupil, and the number of administrators per pupil. Further comparisons between these states with respect to performance and financial information are given in other sections of this page.

Regional comparison, 2011-2012
State	Schools	Districts	Students	Teachers	Teacher/pupil ratio	Administrator/pupil ratio	Per pupil spending
Arkansas	1,108	289	483,114	33,983	1:14.2	1:271.3	$9,353
Louisiana	1,437	132	703,390	48,657	1:14.5	1:244.3	$10,723
Mississippi	1,069	163	490,619	32,007	1:15.3	1:251	$7,928
Missouri	2,408	572	916,584	66,252	1:13.8	1:294.1	$9,410
United States	98,328	17,992	49,521,669	3,103,263	1:16	1:295.2	$10,994
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Public Elementary/Secondary Education Survey", 2011-12 v.1a. National Center for Education Statistics, "Table 2. Number of operating public schools and districts, state enrollment, teacher and pupil/teacher ratio by state: School year 2011–12" U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Demographics

See also: Demographic information for all students in all 50 states

The following table displays the ethnic distribution of students in Arkansas as reported in the Common Core of Data for 2011-2012.

Demographic information for Arkansas' K-12 public school system, 2011-2012
Ethnicity	Students	State percentage	United States percentage**
American Indian	3,244	0.67%	1.10%
Asian	6,941	1.44%	4.68%
African American	102,438	21.20%	15.68%
Hawaiian Nat./Pacific Isl.	2,346	0.49%	0.42%
Hispanic	49,504	10.25%	24.37%
White	310,896	64.35%	51.21%
Two or more	7,745	1.60%	2.54%
**Note: This is the percentage of all students in the United States that are reported to be of this ethnicity.

Enrollments by region type

See also: Student distribution by region type in the United States

During the 2011-2012 school year a plurality of students in Arkansas attended rural schools. More than 64 percent of the state's students attended rural or town schools, compared to the approximately 36 percent who attended city or town schools.

Student distribution by region type, 2011-2012 (as percents)
State	City schools	Suburban schools	Town schools	Rural schools
Arkansas	25.8%	9.6%	20.3%	44.3%
Louisiana	20.7%	24.5%	19.6%	35.2%
Mississippi	10%	8.9%	28.9%	52.2%
Missouri	17.4%	29.9%	19.2%	33.5%
U.S. average	28.9%	34%	11.6%	25.4%
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD)

Academic performance

Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Compared to three neighboring states (Louisiana, Mississippi, and Missouri), Arkansas' fourth grade students scored the highest in mathematics during the 2012-2013 school year (tying with Missouri).

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Arkansas	39%	28%	32%	30%
Louisiana	26%	21%	23%	24%
Mississippi	26%	21%	21%	20%
Missouri	39%	33%	35%	36%
U.S. average	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables," accessed May 13, 2014

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state

See also: ACT and SAT scores in the U.S.

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Arkansas and surrounding states for 2012 and 2013.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores*
State	Graduation rate, 2012		Average ACT composite, 2012		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Arkansas	84%	Second	20.3	88%	1,697	4%
Louisiana	72%	Fourth	20.3	100%	1,655	5%
Mississippi	75%	Fourth	18.7	100%	1,673	3%
Missouri	86%	First	21.6	75%	1,773	4%
U.S. average	80%		21.1		1,498
*Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Rate (except for Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma, which did not report “Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate,” but instead used their own method of calculation). **Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades 9–12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Arkansas was higher than the national average at 3.5 percent in the 2010-2011 school year. The dropout rate was lower than the national average at 3.2 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

Educational choice options

See also: School choice in Arkansas

As of June 2015, school choice options in Arkansas included: charter schools, online learning programs and inter-district and intra-district open enrollment policies. In addition, about 5.41 percent of school-age children in the state attended private schools in the 2011-2012 academic year, and 2.67 percent were homeschooled in 2012-2013.

Education funding and expenditures

See also: Arkansas state budget and finances

Breakdown of expenditures by function in fiscal year 2012
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), Arkansas spent approximately 16.3 percent of its fiscal year 2012 budget on elementary and secondary education. As a share of the budget, this was down 2.4 percentage points, or 12.8 percent, from fiscal year 2008, when the state spent 18.7 percent of its budget on elementary and secondary education.

Comparison of financial figures for school systems
State	Percent of budget (2012)	Per pupil spending (2011)	Revenue sources (2011)
			Percent federal funds	Percent state funds	Percent local funds
Arkansas	16.3%	$9,353	16.02%	51.2%	32.77%
Louisiana	18.4%	$10,723	19.11%	41.43%	39.46%
Mississippi	16.9%	$7,928	22.33%	45.95%	31.72%
Missouri	22.6%	$9,410	13.75%	29.33%	56.92%
Sources: NASBO, "State Expenditure Report," Table 8: Elementary and Secondary Education Expenditures As a Percent of Total Expenditures U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Revenue breakdowns

See also: Public school system revenues in the U.S. to compare all states.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system revenues in Arkansas totaled approximately $5.2 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including revenue sources, for Arkansas and surrounding states.

Revenues by source, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	Federal revenue	State revenue	Local revenue	Total revenue
Arkansas	$834,685	$2,667,090	$1,707,234	$5,209,009
Louisiana	$1,570,393	$3,404,656	$3,242,171	$8,217,220
Mississippi	$1,006,465	$2,071,467	$1,429,770	$4,507,702
Missouri	$1,389,362	$2,963,196	$5,749,895	$10,102,453
U.S. total	$74,943,767	$267,762,416	$264,550,594	$607,256,777
Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Expenditure breakdowns

See also: Public school system expenditures in the United States

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system expenditures in Arkansas totaled approximately $5.7 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including expenditure types, for Arkansas and surrounding states.

Expenditures by type, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	General expenditures**	Capital outlay	Other***	Total expenditures
Arkansas	$4,495,309	$607,962	$578,992	$5,682,263
Louisiana	$7,440,499	$812,768	$149,430	$8,402,697
Mississippi	$3,888,831	$368,906	$88,046	$4,345,783
Missouri	$8,664,338	$856,962	$462,300	$9,983,600
U.S. total	$520,577,893	$52,984,139	$29,581,293	$603,143,325
**Funds spent operating local public schools and local education agencies, including such expenses as salaries for school personnel, student transportation, school books and materials, and energy costs, but excluding capital outlay, interest on school debt, payments to private schools, and payments to public charter schools. ***Includes payments to state and local governments, payments to private schools, interest on school system indebtedness, and nonelementary-secondary expenditures, such as adult education and community services expenditures. Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Personnel salaries

See also: Public school teacher salaries in the United States

Note: Salaries given are averages for the state. Salaries may vary between a state's urban, suburban, and rural districts and should be adjusted for cost of living. For example, a MacIver Institute study of average teacher salaries in 60 metropolitan areas found that salaries in New York City were the third-highest in absolute figures but 59th-highest when adjusted for the cost of living.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average national salary for classroom teachers in public elementary and secondary schools declined by 1.3 percent from the 1999-2000 school year to the 2012-2013 school year. During the same period in Arkansas, the average salary increased by 2.2 percent.

Estimated average salaries for teachers (in constant dollars**)
	1999-2000	2009-2010	2011-2012	2012-2013	Percent difference
Arkansas	$45,625	$49,850	$47,085	$46,632	2.2%
Louisiana	$45,246	$52,201	$51,014	$51,381	13.6%
Mississippi]	$43,535	$48,722	$42,339	$41,994	-3.5%
Missouri	$48,727	$48,373	$47,178	$47,517	-2.5%
U.S. average	$57,133	$58,925	$56,340	$56,383	-1.3%
**"Constant dollars based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, adjusted to a school-year basis. The CPI does not account for differences in inflation rates from state to state."

Organizations

Unions

In 2012 the Fordham Institute and Education Reform Now assessed the power and influence of state teacher unions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Their rankings were based on 37 different variables in five broad areas, including: resources and membership, involvement in politics, scope of bargaining, state policies and perceived influence. Arkansas ranked 48th overall, or "weakest," which was in the fifth of five tiers.

The main union related to the Arkansas school system is the Arkansas Education Association (AEA), an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA). For the 2004 tax period AEA had: $3.85 million in total revenue, $4.03 million in total expenses and $1.07 million in total assets.

List of local Arkansas school unions:

• Arkansas Education Association
• Pulaski Association Of Classroom Teachers

Government sector lobbying

See also: Arkansas government sector lobbying

The main education government sector lobbying organization is the Arkansas School Boards Association.

Studies and reports

State Budget Solutions education study

See also: State spending on education v. academic performance (2012)

State Budget Solutions examined national trends in education from 2009 to 2011, including state-by-state analysis of education spending, graduation rates and average ACT scores. The study showed that the states that spent the most did not have the highest average ACT test scores, nor did they have the highest average graduation rates. A summary of the study is available here. The full report can be accessed here.

See also

• Public education in Arkansas
• Arkansas
• Education Policy in the U.S.