Arkansas Scores!

One and one and one is three.

Editorial

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Sunday, October 23, 2005

MAPS, we like. If something happens in Pisgah, Ark., you’d better give us a map, Mr. City Editor Type, to let us know where it is. (Just so you know, it’s in Pike County.) Maps let us know when it’s time to be concerned. (The bird flu has made it where?) Maps tell us if we should pack a lunch to go to the Purple Hull Pea festival. Maps can even lend perspective. 

We were thumbing through the paper the other day when we came across Cynthia Howell’s story on the NAEP tests. The story had a map. 

Ooh . . . Map . . . Good . . . . 

This National Assessment of Educational Progress is the real deal. It’s given in all 50 states. And it allows states to compare their kids against other students around the country. As we were perusing the above-mentioned map, we noticed that Texas was highlighted because it had improved in three of the four NAEP categories. 

Darn Texans. Always out to out-do other people. 

Also highlighted, and for the same reason, was Massachusetts. 

Uppity Yankees. Why do they have to be so la-di-da? 

And the only other state? 

Nope, it wasn’t Pennsylvania. Or Vermont. Or Minnesota. Or even Connecticut. 

Why gaw-awl-lee! It’s Arkansas! 

Good old, down-home, naturally wonderful Arkansas! We couldn’t have been more proud. See what hard work can get you? Yep, unlike the rest of the nation, this is what happens when you put your nose to the grindsto—    Okay, okay. Enough with the homerism. But you see where we’re going. Of the three states that made gains in three categories, Arkansas was right up there with Texas and Massachusetts, two states that always seem to be Doing Things Right when it comes to education. 

And, by the way and just so you know, these increases—in fourth and eighth grade math, and fourth grade reading—didn’t appear to be some statistical fluke. You know, because Arkansas went from a 0 to a 2 and therefore we had us a 200 percent increase! 

Nope. Not at all. 

These were “significant” increases, according to the U.S. Department of Education. And Arkansas is either (1) “at,” or (2) darn near “at” the national averages in all four NAEP categories. 

And that other category in which Arkansas (and Texas and Massachusetts) didn’t make significant gains? It was eighth grade reading. And no state in the Union made significant gains there, according to our handy-dandy map. In fact, several saw scores drop significantly. 

You can’t blame Ken James, Arkansas’ education commissioner, for being downright giddy. From Miss Howell’s story:  [Ken James] used phrases such as “steady growth” and “phenomenal progress” in describing aspects of the Arkansas results. The scores show taxpayers that educators are being good stewards of school funds, he said, and parents can see that their children are being provided an education program that is nationally competitive. He attributed the gains to the spillover effects of training teachers in literacy and math techniques in preparation for state exams. 

PART OF us wants to say, “Just slow down, there, Mr. Commissioner.” After all, Arkansas still has too many kids scoring Below Basic (like all other states). And the findings of the Supreme Court’s special masters say Arkansas still hasn’t done enough to improve education. And if a third of all students in the state continue to struggle with reading, then how can they do well in other subjects—But then again . . . . 

Aw, why can’t we just enjoy the good news today? You know, let loose for once. Even editorialists don’t always have to look for the dark cloud in the silver lining. 

So . . . . 

Way to go Arkansas! 

Now, let’s get after them Texans and Yankees, and beat ’em next year in eighth grade reading. Wouldn’t that just frost their pumpkins?!