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- 6% of Black children and 4% of
white children in Arkansas are
uninsured. Black children in
Arkansas are 2 percentage
points more likely to be
uninsured than are Black children
nationwide. White children in
Arkansas are uninsured at a rate
consistent with the national
average.
- Youth Health Insurance
- 171 of the 686 Census Tracts in
Arkansas are considered to be in
a food desert. This impacts 11%
of white Arkansans and 22% of
Black Arkansans. Approximately
13% of children in Arkansas live
in a food desert.
- Food Access
- The median home price in
Arkansas is $179,80. This is
495% of the median household
income for Black Arkansans and
299% of the median household
income of white Arkansans.
- Affordable Housing
- 22.1% of children in Arkansas
live in poverty. This includes
17.2% of white children and
38.4% of Black children.
- Child Poverty
- Overall, students in Arkansas
scored, on average, below the
national average in both 4th and
8th grade in Mathematics and
Reading. While white students
scored above the national
average on all tests, their Black
and Latine peers scored well
below the national average.
- NAEP Scores
- The overall 4-year cohort
graduation rate for Arkansas is
87%. For Black students, this
rate is only 85%; for white
students, 90%. The disparities in
graduation rates may be traced
to disparities in opportunities to
learn.
- Graduation Rates
- Approximately 14% of Black high
school graduates in 2021
entered college in the Fall of that
year. In comparison,
approximately 18% of their white
peers matriculated.
- College Matriculation
- Arkansas ranks 42nd out of 50
states and Washington D.C. in
terms of its per pupil funding
level. However, Arkansas
spends slightly more per student
relative to its GDP than the
national average. Thus, although
Arkansas’s overall education
funding is comparatively low, it
comes at a slightly higher than
average effort.
- Per Pupil Spending
- The average teacher salary for
Arkansas is $54,309; however,
the average starting teacher
salary is only $37,907. Arkansas
ranks 45th in the nation for
average teacher salary.
- Teacher Salary
- Approximately 31% of districts in
Arkansas are regressive in their
spending for Black students
relative to their white peers. This
is particularly concerning
because Arkansas already
spends less, on average, per
pupil than the national average.
- Progressive Spending
- 8.37% of districts in Arkansas
have been identified as having
significant disproportionality in
their identification of students
with disabilities. As such, they
are required to commit 15% of
their IDEA funds to remedying
these disparities.
- Remedial IDEA Spending
Arkansas Education Investment
- Black students in Arkansas are
removed from their learning
environment at more than
double the rate of their white
peers. Five out of every 100
Black students were suspended
at least once in the 2021-22
school year, compared to 2 out
of every 100 white students.
- Exclusionary Discipline
- Black students were bullied on
the basis of race at more than
twice the rate of their white peers
(7 incidents per 10,000 Black
students and 3 incidents per
10,000 white students were
reported).
- Bullying
- Schools in Arkansas have
approximately 3 school
psychologists and 3 social
workers per 10,000 students.
- School Psychologists
- Schools in Arkansas have
approximately 7 school safety
staff per 10,000 students, more
than school psychologists and
social workers combined.
- School Police
- 94.6% of teachers teaching in
Arkansas are certified. Overall,
the student to teacher ratio in
Arkansas is 12:1.
- Access to Teachers
- While 9.8% of white students in Arkansas receive the benefits of enrichment in Gifted and Talented courses, only 5.6% of Black students benefit from this enrichment. While 6.5% of white students participate in AP courses, only 3.8% of Black Arkansas students are enrolled in these same courses.
- Challenging Curriculum
- Arkansas’s rates of identification
for Special Education are
relatively robust and comparable
for Black (19.15%) and white
(19.83%) students.
- Special Education
Arkansas
Arkansas Community Context
Arkansas Student Achievement
Arkansas Student Experience
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Out-of-School Factors
Within-School Factors
Opportunity to Learn
DASHBOARD
The Opportunity to Learn Dashboard is a joint
project of the National Center for Youth Law and
The Schott Foundation for Public Education.
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