Arkansas Student Scores Improve After State Rejected DEI and Focused on Fundamentals
So weird what happens when you eliminate the social justice nonsense!
Arkansas children have shown significant improvement in their education on the statewide exam, the Arkansas Teaching, Learning, and Assessment System (ATLAS), since the state passed the LEARNS Act in 2023, offering a blueprint for other states.
“The 2026 ATLAS exam scores confirm what we’re hearing from educators across the Natural State: Arkansas LEARNS is working and students across Arkansas are doing better because of it. We took education back to the basics to focus on what really matters, and our students’ success will power our state’s future for years to come,” boasted Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “The message these scores send is clear: now is the time to double down on the successes of the LEARNS Act and continue to pursue the strategy we know is helping more students than ever before thrive.”
The proficiency numbers are fantastic. Everything has gone up since 2024:
- Proficiency across all subjects and grade levels: +20% from 25% to 42%
- Math: 36.4% to 44.2%
- Science: 35.6% to 44%
- English language arts: 33.8% to 39.5%
Other stats:
- Students performing at the lowest levels: -17% from 27.9% to 23.1%
- Students proficient in reading in the third grade: +18% from 35% to 43%
- Proficiency for K-2 students: tops 50% in all but one subject in one grade level
- Kindergarten English language arts: +31% from 50.2% to 66%
The LEARNS Act eliminated critical race theory and DEI from curricula. In other words, the act returned to basics and taught skills and information critical to a child’s growth and success in life.
Universal school choice was also another point that made headlines back in 2023.
However, the LEARNS Act contains so much more that not only helps the students but also the community.
The act also raised the teacher salary to $50,000, placed over 120 literacy coaches in all schools rated D- and F- across the state, and gave tutoring grants to students who need extra help.
Every school district has to have a “high school career and technical education in one of 18 high-wage, high-growth industries.”
“The LEARNS Act was a bold, innovative, and comprehensive approach to improve education,” Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva said. “It was built on research, urgency, and the desperate need for change. These scores prove that listening to teachers, administrators, and parents wasn’t just valuable but also essential. The plan is working. Arkansas students are reading, learning, and benefiting.”
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Mississippi has also made great strides. Meanwhile the NE states, all blue, are sabotaging their cirriculum and slowly decling. Just CA did starting in the 1970s when we went from Top-5 in education and have dropped to #43 in math and #38 in reading. .
In fact, we used to make fun of Texas which was bottom-5 in those days. Now Texas is ranked higher in math (Top-10) and close to average in reading.
I agree with your comment other than to point out that the decline is precipitous instead of slow.
The quality of public schools declined so much just in the time my children were enrolled (until I pulled them out) was shocking to say the least.
It’s a model that needs to go away.
Not that I tracked regional educational proficiency numbers in my childhood, but I can’t help feeling that if schools had been publishing even these “achievements” back in the 60s, it would’ve been considered an educational Armageddon.
Amazing! You teach kids to read/write and do math, they are able to read/write and do math! Who would have thought this. Not only that but
all other classes are dependent upon those basic skills so improving them improves all other classes as well.
Yep.and the failure to deliver the basic foundation deprives the students for the rest of their lives in most cases. If an enemy wanted to destroy the Nation and had some patience then a plan to wreck the educational system of K-12 would be the place to do it over a few decades.
But if you spend all your time teaching them stuff like that, how will they ever know what their pronouns are?
those poor children that went through the system under the old DEI program.
“even these “achievements” back in the 60s, i”
*****
IIRC, SAT scores peaked around 1962-3. Since then the grading curves have been “renormalized” 4-5 times and the exam dumbed down. They are reluctant to identify what is done but IIRC in the late 90s, about 100 points were added to the raise the scores and more since. Latest was vocabulary section “can’t expect inner city youth to know words”, and reading comprehension reduced from interpretation oif multiple paragraphs to 2-3 sentences. “Students don’t have the attention span or vocabulary to read more than a text message”.
Acting white improves your lot regardless of your race.
The key here is school vouchers for parents to work market place magic on school enrollment to achieve state goals in education. Competition for vouchers will drive revolutionary change in the long term. Would that my state will adopt it but I will not hold my breath.
Frau Weingarten not available for comment.
Jonathan Turley has a similar article on this topic as well where he attributes the same factors to rising test scores.
https://jonathanturley.org/2026/06/19/the-abcs-of-educational-success-arkansas-shows-continued-testing-improvements-from-reforms/comment-page-1/#comments
However, in the comments there is a poster who says that the private schools (the ones with vouchers) took in the kids who were failing from public schools.
That makes sense.
The issue is that the private schools have to opt in to the standard tests being used by the state and only 3% of the private schools do so.
You therefore have low performing students leaving the public schools (where the higher performing students still remain) and going to a private school where 97% are not tested using the same standardized test.
Whether the so called “reforms” worked is a matter for discussion as there is no hard data to support the contention that they worked.
If all schools were tested, we could see if the reforms worked. They aren’t, so we don’t truly know.
The idea that high performing teachers are given better raises and lower performing schools get more teaching resources to get students back up to grade level are good ideas.
But public schools will never get better without more parental involvement in the child’s education. That is part of the equation that is not counted or taken into consideration.
Too many parents think school is a “day care” they don’t directly pay for, and that is why we need parents being “educated” that the education success of the child hinges on parental involvement.
I really do hope that the reforms contributed to the increase in scores.
At the same time, politicians pushed for these reforms and I am skeptical of politicians touting the success of their own horns without all of the data being known.
“,,,,,,,lies, damnable lies, and statistics” comes to mind.
I’m having trouble understanding the math in this article.
Proficiency across all subjects and grade levels: +20% from 25% to 42%
Students performing at the lowest levels: -17% from 27.9% to 23.1%
Students proficient in reading in the third grade: +18% from 35% to 43%
Kindergarten English language arts: +31% from 50.2% to 66%
I’m wondering is deporting illegals also contributing to this?
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