Frustration from mandates -- Update

Booneville Elementary Principal Terresa Dewey speaks out on education mandates and the school improvement list in this morning's Southwest Times Record. It is a controversial subject among many educators and administrators. Dr. Ken James, Arkansas Department of Education Commissioner, says that the process is meant to be corrective, not punitive. Click here for the 2007 school improvement list. Booneville Elementary is not on this year's list, which includes 325 schools (no schools from Logan County made the list this year).

Update (1:45 p.m.): A reader asks where Arkansas ranks among the states in education. If you have some time, read this article from UofA professor Gary Ritter. It's a broad category, and as far as I can tell, some rankings are fairly arbitrary, but here are a few rankings that I've been provided from various lists:

36 -- Average salary of public school teachers K-12 (NEA)
1 -- Pre-K program quality (NAESP)
36 -- 4th grade reading proficiency (Center for American Progress)
38 -- 4th grade math proficiency (Center for American Progress)
35 -- 8th grade reading proficiency (Center for American Progress)
45 -- 8th grade math proficiency (Center for American Progress)
7 -- Participation of 3 year-olds in Pre-K (Center for American Progress)
17 -- Participation of 4 year-olds in Pre-K (Center for American Progress)
10 -- Pre-K enrollment (Southern Education Foundation)
28 -- High school graduation rate (Center for American Progress)
4 -- Academic readiness for college (Center for American Progress)
34 -- College enrollment rate of high school graduates (American Progress)
47 -- College graduation rate among enrollees (Center for American Progress)
32 -- "Smartest state award" (Morgan Quitno Press)