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Arkansas students' test scores improve, show smaller achievement gap Friday, Jul 6, 2007 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas students' scores on benchmark exams were higher overall this year than last year, and for the first time the scores show a narrowing of the achievement gap between black students and whites, state Education Commissioner Ken James said Thursday. "Almost all the students' scores on standardized tests rose throughout the grades, for the population as well as per subject. That's something we're very excited about," James said at a news conference announcing the test results. The Arkansas Benchmark Examination tests students' proficiency in math and literacy. Scores fall into four categories: Below basic, basic, proficient and advanced. In math, the percentage of third-graders scoring proficient or above rose from 67 percent last year to 74 percent this year; fourth-graders rose from 60 percent to 65 percent; fifth-graders rose from 50 percent to 61 percent; sixth-graders rose from 57 percent to 68 percent; seventh-graders rose from 50 percent to 58 percent; and eighth-graders rose from 44 percent to 48 percent. In literacy, the percentage of third-graders scoring proficient or above rose from 57 percent to 59 percent; fourth-graders dropped from 61 percent to 59 percent; fifth-graders rose from 56 percent to 59 percent; sixth-graders rose from 59 percent to 60 percent; seventh-graders rose from 53 percent to 57 percent; and eighth-graders dropped from 66 percent to 63 percent. James said achievement gaps between black students and white students grew smaller overall, for the first time since the federal government began requiring the state to compare scores by race. "Not only did the gap narrow, but it narrowed at the same time that the African-American achievement also increased across the board," James said. The biggest changes were at the third-grade level, where gaps between black students and white students scoring proficient or above narrowed from 33 percent to 27 percent in math and from 29 percent to 23 percent in literacy. Gaps grew from 32 percent to 34 percent in sixth-grade math and from 34 percent to 35 percent in seventh-grade math. Achievement gaps between Hispanic and white students widened overall. The biggest change was in third-grade literacy, where the gap widened from 9 percent to 20 percent. Officials said a change in the way some Hispanic students are tested contributed to the gap. Because of U.S. Department of Education regulations, students with limited proficiency in English were required to take the same benchmark test as other students this year. Previously, those students were assessed in an alternative way that involved a portfolio of completed tasks, state Education Department spokeswoman Julie Thompson said. On the Iowa Test for Basic Skills, Arkansas students' scores ranged from the 48th percentile - meaning students scored as well as or better than 48 percent of their cohorts nationwide - in the ninth grade to the 62nd percentile in the fourth grade. The rankings did not vary greatly from last year's rankings. The percentage of students scoring proficient or above on the End-of-Course Exam for Algebra I dropped from 65 percent last year to 61 percent this year. In geometry, the percentage dropped from 60 percent to 59 percent. On the End-of-Course Exam for literacy, administered to 11th-graders, the percentage of students scoring proficient or above rose from 45 percent last year to 51 percent this year. Next year, the Benchmark Exam and Iowa Test will be combined into one test, the Augmented Benchmark Exam. James said combining the tests will make it possible to release results earlier. |
