As Kansas student outcomes continue to plummet in real terms, Arkansas’ three-year-old LEARNS Act has shown remarkable improvement with proficiency gains in reading, math, science and English language arts.
LEARNS is an acronym: LITERACY, EMPOWERMENT, ACCOUNTABILITY, READINESS, NETWORKING, and SCHOOL SAFETY.
How did Arkansas do it? Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Fox News:
“We did a comprehensive approach to really supporting and making sure our students run a pathway to success. Everything from deploying literacy coaches into our “D” and “F” rated schools, helping provide that one-on-one instruction, high impact tutoring, to paying our teachers better, (starting pay rose from $36,000 to $50,000), providing better training and resources for them, keeping them in the classroom, by being one of only two states in the country that has up to 12 weeks of paid maternity leave. That’s something that makes a really big difference when 70% of your workforce is female.
“We added in accountability measures. We aligned our system. One of the biggest things that’s different for LEARNS is that we now have early intervention. We’re doing these assessments on the front end, getting the results immediately. So teachers aren’t getting the assessment and the scores of their kids at the end of the year. They’re getting it throughout, so that they can provide support, help their students catch up, not after those students have already left that classroom and gone on to the next teacher’s instruction. And so, it’s having kind of a comprehensive, aligned approach that I think is really making a difference.”
The Republican governor says improving student outcomes shouldn’t be a political issue:
“Seeing kids achieve and do better and be successful. That’s not a Red State or Blue State issue. That’s something everybody should care about. We want our kids to do well. And in Arkansas, we aren’t allowing excuses and criticism to stop that. And I’m hopeful, absolutely, that Red States will use what we’re doing here as a blueprint, but I also hope that Blue States will look at the success that you’re seeing in places like Arkansas, Mississippi, and others, and try to follow suit, ’cause we want all kids to do well.”
While Kansas artificially improved its results by lowering its proficiency standards last year, Kaelin Clay, spokesperson for Arkansas Department of Education Secretary Jacob Oliva, says her state didn’t “cook the books”:
“No, Arkansas set cut scores in 2024. They have not been changed. In fact, they are very rigorous and aligned with NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) because states need to be honest around student performance. Three years into the Arkansas Teaching, Learning & Assessment System (ATLAS), students are meeting and surpassing those benchmarks. It shows that when we raise the bar and support teachers, students rise to the challenge. Our 2026 statewide testing results show clear, measurable progress. Thanks to a combination of strong instruction, targeted tutoring, literacy coaching, the Science of Reading, and significant investments in teachers – all core components of LEARNS – proficiency is up more than 20% since the baseline year in 2024. Additionally, the number of students performing at the lowest levels decreased across all subjects by more than 17%. Students are not just meeting expectations — they’re exceeding them. The LEARNS Act is delivering the outcomes it promised.”
The Kansas State Board of Education doesn’t require school districts to set proficiency improvement goals, even though state law requires it to have an accreditation system based on improvement. The State Board began de-emphasizing academic improvement in 2015 under former Education Commissioner Randy Watson, resulting in a steady decline in ACT college readiness over 10 years, from 32% to 17%.
