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What would it take to be number one?

Every year, the Annie E. Casey Foundation releases the Kids Count Data Book, a comprehensive, 50-state look at child welfare. Arkansas made gains in health coverage and education over the last year, but the child poverty rate went up...

Pre-K, not prisons

They’ve done it again. The legislature provided funding for prisons in this special session. About $6.3 million was funded this time to open 600 prison beds. That’s about $10,500 a bed-far more than we pay per student for K-12...

Juneteenth – Freedom through education

Today is Juneteenth, a day to celebrate the promise of freedom to black children and families throughout the United States. Though the freedom we celebrate today was provided by the Emancipation Proclamation more than 150 years ago, we still...

AACF statement on Common Core State Standards

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) supports the adoption of Common Core State Standards.  Setting high, clear, and consistent expectations for student learning is essential to improving educational outcomes for all Arkansas students and closing racial and socio-economic...

Covering the bases on Common Core

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) is releasing three documents aimed at helping low-income parents understand Common Core State Standards (Common Core). The documents are written in family-friendly language that is more easily understood by non-education professionals. One...

How to “fix” schools in academic distress

In a challenging editorial this morning, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette called on our state to begin widely publishing the results of academic success, or lack thereof, classroom-by-classroom. The suggestion would be to make this the next step in academic accountability,...

Speaking up for adequate education

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) was one of eight groups invited to testify before the House and Senate Education Committees Monday to share its strategy for providing an adequate education for all Arkansas children. The need for...

Annual pre-K report underlines need for more funding

  According to the National Institute for Early Education Research’s annual report, total pre-K enrollment in Arkansas followed a national trend in 2013, declining slightly. The state ranks 14th for 4-year-old enrollment, reaching 33 percent of those eligible.* Last...