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Arkansas gets B-minus on technology in education Thursday, Mar 27, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas' incorporation of technology into public education received a grade of B-minus in a report released Wednesday by the Washington-based journal Education Week. The state scored higher than the national average of C-plus. The report, "Technology Counts - Stem: The Push to Improve Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics," evaluates public education systems in three categories: Access, use and capacity of technology. Arkansas received a C for access, an A-minus for use and a B-minus for capacity, for an overall grade of B-minus. The national averages were C for access, C-plus for use and C for capacity. "We are pleased that the grade of B-minus is better than the national average, but we expect to do even better next year," said Jim Boardman, the state Department of Education's assistant commissioner for research and technology. "The state Board of Education adopted a new Arkansas Technology Plan last month which will improve our score in capacity." Six other states received an overall B-minus and nine scored a B or above. West Virginia received the only A, and Georgia and South Dakota each received an A-minus. "I am especially pleased with Arkansas' A-minus in use of technology compared to the national average of C-plus, because access and capacity mean little if you are not using the technology," Boardman said. At the bottom of the rankings, Nevada, Oregon and Rhode Island earned overall D scores and the District of Columbia ranked last with a D-minus. Scores for access were based on percentages of students in selected grades with access to computers, ratios of students to computers and ratios of students to computers with high-speed Internet access. To determine use scores, Education Week considered whether states include technology in their student standards, whether they test students on technology, whether they have established a virtual school and whether they offer computer-based assessments. Arkansas does not test students on technology but does meet the other three criteria. Capacity scores were arrived at by considering whether states include technology in their standards, initial licensing requirements and recertification requirements for teachers and administrators. Arkansas includes technology in its teacher standards and its recertification requirements but does not include technology in its administrator standards or its initial licensing requirements, according to Education Week. |
