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Committee hears college‑and‑career readiness briefing: presenters flag high remediation rates and recommend broader measures
Summary
APA presenters told the Senate Education Committee Arkansas has about a 90% high‑school graduation rate but lower ACT performance, a college‑going rate near 48.8% and remediation rates around 64.9% for those who enroll in state institutions; presenters urged defining and measuring career readiness alongside college readiness.
Amanda Brown, presenting the college‑and‑career‑readiness portion of the adequacy study, told the committee that Arkansas can measure many readiness indicators using existing state data but currently has gaps in career‑readiness indicators. Brown summarized key measures used nationally — attendance thresholds, GPA, AP/IB or dual‑enrollment participation, ACT benchmarks (English >18, Math ≥21, Science ≥24) — and walked members through Arkansas results reported in the presentation.
Brown cited several Arkansas figures presented to the committee: a high‑school graduation rate near 90%, an average ACT composite slightly below 19 in math and about 20 for science and reading, a college‑going rate around 48.8% that reflects students who enroll in Arkansas higher‑education institutions, and an in‑state remediation rate reported at about 64.9% of those college‑going students. Brown also noted a positive signal: CTE completers show stronger graduation and placement outcomes than peers in the SREB comparison group.
‘‘We would encourage that state agencies are relied on to develop the specific standard skills and indicators under that definition,’’ Brown said, arguing the state should equally value both college and career readiness and make definitions actionable by specifying measurable skills and indicators. She recommended considering career indicators (CTE completion, industry certificates, Arkansas Career Readiness Certificates based on ACT WorkKeys) in the high‑school SQSS indicators so schools have clear incentives to emphasize career pathways as well as college preparation.
Legislators asked for further detail and disaggregation. Brown pointed to appendix slides with race/ethnicity breakdowns and agreed to provide additional tables showing remediation and benchmark attainment by subject area, institution type (two‑ vs four‑year), and student subgroup.
The presentation ended with an invitation for stakeholder feedback in September panel sessions before the team finalizes recommendations in December.
