LITTLE ROCK — On June 18, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced this year’s statewide results for the Arkansas Teaching, Learning, and Assessment System (ATLAS) showing remarkable achievement and significant growth.
“This year Arkansas students did something extraordinary. They improved in every single grade level across every single subject,” the governor said to loud applause while announcing the results.
“In the world of education research, year-over-year changes of a few percentage points are typically the cause for concern or celebration. Results like this — huge, across-the-board improvements — are basically unheard of,” she later added. “And it didn’t happen by accident. LEARNS included massive new resources for public education. In fact, it was the largest investment in our public school system in state history.”
The governor went on to announce that, across all subject areas and grade levels, 42% of students are now at grade level, up from 35% just two years ago when LEARNS went into effect. The test results include proficiency rates in English Language Arts (ELA), mathematics, algebra, geometry, science and biology – and all showed improvement.
Meanwhile, the percentage of students performing at the lowest achievement level declined in every subject, another positive sign of meaningful progress in education across the state.
“These results are clearly the product of a tremendous amount of work – by Arkansas students, by Arkansas educators, by Arkansas families who are more engaged than ever,” said Emmy Henley, managing director of the education nonprofit The Reform Alliance. “Gov. Sanders, Arkansas lawmakers, and the Arkansas Department of Education under Jacob Oliva have been focused on improving outcomes for Arkansas students though LEARNS, and we want to applaud them for all they’ve done for teachers and students in our state.”
Since the implementation of Arkansas LEARNS, assessments have shown improving results. Proficiency in English language arts (ELA) has risen from 33.8% in 2024 to 39.5% in 2026. Math likewise improved from 36.4% to 44.2%. In specific subject areas, algebra rose from 26.9% in 2024 to 37% this year. Geometry, while still lagging other areas, rose from 18% two years ago to 26.5%. Science as a subject rose from 35.6% to 44%, and biology specifically from 36.4% to 42.8%
Just as notably, the percentage of students performing at Level 1, the lowest achievement category, declined across all subjects from the prior year. Level 1 ELA proficiency was down 3.8%, math 4.6%, algebra 6.8%, geometry 5.6%, science 4.5% and biology 3.8%. In this case, those decreases represent real progress.
Analysts believe the difference in scores, enough to be statistically significant, is more than simple year-to-year variance. It represents enduring gains.
“To put it simply, LEARNS is working,” Gov. Sanders said.
