New Report Rates Performance of Arkansas Schools

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Schools often are judged solely by the test scores their students receive, but a new report by University of Arkansas researchers accounts for the advantages and disadvantages students bring to school with them -- and the report suggests that after adjusting for these characteristics, Arkansas students perform slightly better than the national average on standardized tests.

Researchers in the UA department of education reform have created The School Performance Index in an attempt to disentangle school quality from student advantages and disadvantages.

Accountability tests are often used to assess the quality of schools. Schools with high scores are thought to be “good schools,” while schools with low scores must be “bad schools.” However, test score results are only partially a reflection of the quality of school instruction; they also reflect the advantages and disadvantages that students bring to school.

To develop the School Performance Index, researchers controlled for student characteristics, community characteristics and resources and then predicted how well each school should be performing given this input. The difference in how well or poorly the school performs in reality when compared with the prediction gives the estimate of the quality of the school.

• After controlling for student characteristics and resources, Arkansas students perform slightly higher than the national average;
• Some schools and school districts in Arkansas perform substantially better than we would expect given their student characteristics and resources, while others perform substantially worse than expected;
• School performance on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills is not substantially affected by the spending of the district;
• School performance on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills is not substantially affected by the size of the school or district; and
• School performance on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills is substantially affected by the percentage of African American students, the percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price school lunch in the school, household income, educational attainment of residents, the percentage of Hispanic students, and percentage of married families in the district.

To see the full report, with results for every individual school and school district in the state, please visit http://www.uark.edu/ua/oep/SPI_Full_Document.pdf.

Jay P. Greene is endowed chair and head of the department of education reform at the University of Arkansas. He has conducted evaluations of school choice and accountability programs in Florida; Charlotte, N.C.; Milwaukee; Cleveland; and San Antonio, Texas. He has also published research on high school graduation rates, social promotion and special education. His articles have appeared in policy journals, such as The Public Interest, City Journal, and Education Next, in academic journals, such as the Teachers College Record, the Georgetown Public Policy Review, and the British Journal of Political Science, as well as in major newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and USA Today. His education research has been cited in U.S. Supreme Court opinions and has appeared in scholarly and popular publications. Greene obtained his doctorate in political science from Harvard University in 1995.

Joshua H. Barnett is a distinguished doctoral fellow in the public policy doctoral program at the University of Arkansas. He is specializing in education policy and is also pursuing graduate certificates in education policy studies and educational program evaluation. He works in the Office for Educational Policy at the University of Arkansas, and his research interests include the sociology of education -- particularly the effects of education on marginalized groups of students, including gender and race issues -- teacher preparation and quality, and the effects of teachers on student development and identity construction.

Gary W. Ritter is an associate professor of education and public policy and holder of the Endowed Chair in Education Policy in the department of education reform at the University of Arkansas.  He is also the associate director of the inter-disciplinary public policy doctoral program and the director of the new Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas. His research interests include volunteer tutoring programs, program evaluation, standards-based and accountability-based school reform, racial segregation in schools, the impact of pre-school care on school readiness and school finance. He earned a doctorate in education policy in 2000 from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania.

Marcus A. Winters is a doctoral academy fellow at the University of Arkansas. He has performed several studies on a variety of education policy issues including high-stakes testing, charter schools and the effects of vouchers on the public school system. His op-ed articles have appeared in numerous newspapers, including the Washington Post, USA Today, and the Chicago Sun-Times. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science with departmental honors from Ohio University in 2002.

The Department of Education Reform is the newest department within the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas. Its mission is to advance education and economic development in Arkansas and nationwide by focusing on the improvement of K-12 schools. The department is committed to producing and disseminating high-quality research that will inform policymakers, scholars, parents, teachers, administrators and the general public about policies and practices that could improve the performance of schools in Arkansas and nationwide. By gathering a critical mass of leading researchers focused on education reform, the department will be uniquely positioned to have a meaningful impact on education policy research and the quality of school.