Education Commons^™

Changes In Teacher Salaries Under The Arkansas Learns Act, Gema Zamarro, Andrew Camp, Josh Mcgee, Taylor Wilson, Miranda Vernon

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

• The LEARNS Act:
• Increased the state’s minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000,
• Guaranteed all teachers a minimum raise of $2,000, and
• Removed the minimum teacher salary schedule and relaxed other salary schedule requirements in state law.
• Before LEARNS, starting teacher salaries in almost all school districts were below the new minimum salary of $50,000.
• The average entry-level teacher salary for those holding a bachelor’s degree was about $38,000, with 39% of districts paying the pre-LEARNS minimum salary of $36,000.
• Starting teacher salaries under LEARNS are now more equally distributed, with minimal variation across districts.
• This school year, 97% of …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2011, Alexandra Boyd, Greg Michel, Misty Newcomb, Gary Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

So, in this Arkansas Education Report (AER) we aim to highlight excellent performance and give our congratulations. To that end, we are happy to highlight many high performing schools around the state in our now-annual AER entitled the Outstanding Educational Performance Awards.

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2010, James L. Woodworth, Jeffery R. Dean, James V. Shuls, Caleb P. Rose, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

So, in this Arkansas Education Report (AER) we aim to highlight excellent performance and give our congratulations. To that end, we are happy to highlight many high performing schools around the state in our now-annual AER entitled the Outstanding Educational Performance Awards.

Spotlights On Success: Traits And Strategies Of Five High-Growth Schools In Arkansas, Misty Newcomb, James L. Woodworth, Jeffery R. Dean, Caleb P. Rose, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

Successful schools are those which best educate the students, regardless of background. They are not those with students who come in well-educated but show only slight improvement, nor are they schools which use the disadvantage as an excuse for continued low levels of achievement. Instead, successful schools are those which advance the learning of all their children beyond what is expected.

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting Top Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2009, Bentley R. Kirkland, James V. Shuls, Caleb P. Rose, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

Since our founding in 2003, the mission of the Office for Education Policy has been to look at pressing issues through the lens of academic research and disseminate our findings to educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders around Arkansas. Every once in a while, however, we think it is okay to stray from issue analysis and simply share some good news! So, in this Arkansas Education Report (AER) we merely aim to highlight excellent performance and give our congratulations. To that end, we are happy to highlight the top performing schools around the state in an annual AER entitled the Outstanding …

The State Of Education In Arkansas 2008: How Much Are Arkansas Schools Spending?, Joshua H. Barnett, Gary W. Ritter, Brent E. Riffel

Arkansas Education Reports

Over the last half century, more than forty states across the nation have experienced school finance lawsuits as a consequence of funding gaps between rich and poor districts. Arkansas is one such state, with a long history of school funding battles in the courts. The legal challenges began in 1983, when the Arkansas Supreme Court initially found the state's school funding system unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the state constitution1 . The court found “no legitimate state purpose” and “no rational relationship to educational needs” in the state's method of financing public schools. This initial finding set the …

Placing Arkansas School Funding Data In The National Context, Joshua H. Barnett

Arkansas Education Reports

In the Lake View v Huckabee school funding lawsuit, the Arkansas Supreme Court found the state’s school funding system unconstitutional because it did not provide an “adequate and equitable” education to all students. In light of the court’s ruling, this paper addresses the adequacy of the Arkansas system by examining levels of expenditure, teacher salary levels, and school performance. Further, this paper highlights the level of equity within the state of Arkansas as compared to other states in the nation using the Federal Range Ratio, the Coefficient of Variation, and the McLoone Index. Finally, data on the sources of revenue …

Does Size Matter? School Consolidation Policy Issues In Arkansas, Joshua H. Barnett, Gary W. Ritter, Christopher J. Lucas

Arkansas Education Reports

Providing a reasonable education for all students in Arkansas is a legal responsibility explicitly mandated by the state’s constitution. Consistent with the long-standing American tradition of “grassroots” control of education, public schools in all states are funded and managed first and foremost at the local level. The federal government can and does enact legislation with which schools must conform. Directly or indirectly, federal mandates provide significant amounts of monies to support particular types of school services and programming. But ultimate responsibility for financing and operating schools devolves on state government. In Arkansas, it has been held, the state must provide …