Arkansas Education Gains Ground as School Choice Expands

Arkansas is seeing encouraging movement in education. Students participating in the state’s Education Freedom Account program scored above the national median in math and English language arts, while Arkansas public-school students improved across every major subject measured by the state’s ATLAS assessment. The results do not mean every challenge has been solved, but they provide measurable evidence that Arkansas education is moving in a better direction.

For families considering a move to Arkansas, education is often one of the first major questions.

Which public school serves a particular address? Are private schools accessible? What resources are available for homeschooling? Can a student receive tutoring, therapy, or a different learning environment when the traditional model is not working?

Arkansas has been rethinking how it answers those questions. Instead of expecting every child to follow the same educational path, the state has expanded the choices available to parents while also investing additional resources in public schools, teacher compensation, literacy instruction, and student support.

New results suggest that approach deserves serious attention.

What the New Arkansas Education Results Show

A recent Fox News report highlighted academic results from students participating in Arkansas’ Education Freedom Account program.

During the 2024–2025 school year, participating students averaged in the:

• 57th percentile nationally in mathematics
• 59th percentile nationally in English language arts

That does not mean students answered 57% or 59% of their questions correctly. A percentile compares their performance with students across the country. A student at the 57th percentile performed better than approximately 57% of the students included in the national comparison.

The Arkansas Department of Education’s annual report included 12,218 completed assessments with nationally comparable results. Private-school EFA students averaged in the 55th percentile for math and 57th percentile for English language arts. Homeschooled EFA students averaged in the 63rd percentile for math and 68th percentile for English language arts.

Those results are especially notable because Arkansas’ Education Freedom Account program was still relatively new. The 2024–2025 school year was only its second year of operation. 

What Is an Arkansas Education Freedom Account?

Education Freedom Accounts are designed to let approved state education funding follow an individual student.

Depending on the student and the approved educational plan, the funding may be used for expenses such as:

• Private-school tuition
• Homeschool curriculum
• Tutoring
• Educational therapies
• Instructional materials
• Other qualifying educational services

The program expanded in phases after the Arkansas LEARNS Act became law in 2023 and became broadly available to eligible Arkansas students beginning with the 2025–2026 school year.

Families must apply or renew for each participating student every year. Funding amounts and approved expenses can also change from one school year to the next. For the 2026–2027 school year, the state allocation is expected to be approximately $7,200 per participating student.

The program is not simply a way to change where a child attends school. It gives parents more flexibility to build an educational plan around the student’s specific needs.

For one child, that may mean attending a private school. For another, it may mean homeschooling with structured curriculum and outside tutoring. For a student who needs additional support, it could help provide access to approved educational therapies or specialized services.

Arkansas Public Schools Are Improving Too

The encouraging news is not limited to students using Education Freedom Accounts.

Arkansas’ 2026 ATLAS results showed improvement in every tested subject and across every grade level. ATLAS is the statewide assessment used to measure whether students are meeting Arkansas academic standards.

Between 2024 and 2026:

• English language arts proficiency increased from 33.8% to 39.5%
• Mathematics increased from 36.4% to 44.2%
• Science increased from 35.6% to 44%
• Algebra increased from 26.9% to 37%
• Geometry increased from 18% to 26.5%
• Biology increased from 36.4% to 42.8%

Across the tested subjects and grade levels, approximately 42% of students were performing at grade level in 2026, compared with 35% two years earlier.

The percentage of students performing in the lowest achievement category also declined in every subject.

Arkansas still has considerable work ahead. A majority of students have not yet reached proficiency in several areas, and long-term national comparisons remain a concern. But improvements this broad are worth recognizing, particularly when many states continue to struggle with learning losses that began before the pandemic and became more severe afterward.

Arkansas Is Combining Choice With Public-School Investment

The Arkansas education strategy is sometimes described as though the state must choose between supporting traditional public schools and giving parents additional options.

The actual approach is more complicated.

The Arkansas LEARNS Act expanded Education Freedom Accounts, but it also raised the minimum starting salary for teachers, provided raises for thousands of existing educators, expanded literacy support, and placed reading coaches in schools needing additional assistance.

That distinction matters.

School choice by itself does not automatically improve every school or guarantee that every student will succeed. Additional spending alone does not guarantee better results either. Arkansas is attempting to combine parental control, academic accountability, stronger literacy instruction, teacher investment, and multiple educational pathways.

The newest results suggest that those efforts may be beginning to work together.

What This Means for Families Moving to Arkansas

Families relocating to Arkansas now have more educational paths to consider than they may realize.

Traditional public schools remain the primary option for most students, but the state also has public charter schools, district transfer opportunities, private schools, homeschooling communities, microschools, virtual programs, and Education Freedom Accounts that can help qualifying families pay for approved alternatives and services.

That flexibility can be particularly valuable when children in the same household learn differently. One student may thrive in a neighborhood public school, while a sibling may need a smaller classroom, specialized instruction, additional therapy, or a more flexible schedule.

Education decisions should still be made carefully. Public-school attendance boundaries can change by address, and transfer availability, transportation, private-school admission, tuition, extracurricular activities, and support services vary widely.

Before choosing a home, families should verify:

• The school assigned to the exact property address
• Current district transfer policies
• Transportation availability
• Private-school tuition and admissions requirements
• Education Freedom Account rules and deadlines
• Special education or therapy services
• Academic programs and extracurricular opportunities important to the student

School ratings can provide one piece of information, but they rarely tell the entire story. Visiting schools, speaking with administrators, reviewing current performance data, and considering the needs of the individual student usually creates a much clearer picture.

Are These Results Proof That School Choice Works?

The results are encouraging, but they should be described accurately.

The Education Freedom Account report shows that participating students performed above the national median. It does not yet prove that the EFA program alone caused those results. Families who choose private school or homeschooling may differ from the statewide population in ways that also affect academic performance.

Participating students also completed several different nationally normed assessments rather than one identical test. Arkansas education researchers have said future reports should improve comparisons between EFA assessments and the ATLAS test used in public schools.

It is also important to distinguish EFA students from the entire Arkansas student population. Arkansas remained below the national average on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly called the Nation’s Report Card.

The responsible conclusion is not that Arkansas has solved education or suddenly surpassed the entire country.

The responsible conclusion is that Arkansas now has two meaningful positive signals:

1. Students participating in Education Freedom Accounts are performing above the national median on nationally normed assessments.
2. Arkansas public-school proficiency rates are improving across every major subject measured by the state.

That is genuine progress, even if more time and additional data are needed to understand the full impact.

A More Flexible Education Future in Arkansas

Arkansas is not waiting for a single educational model to work equally well for every student.

The state is investing in public schools while allowing more education funding to follow individual students. Parents have more authority to choose an environment that fits their child, and schools have greater pressure to demonstrate that students are actually learning.

The newest results are not the final word on Arkansas education. They are an early indication that the state’s willingness to try a different approach may be producing meaningful gains.

For people considering a move to the Natural State, that adds another important dimension to the Arkansas story: families are finding not only more affordable communities and room to build a life, but also a growing range of educational choices for their children.

Continue Exploring Arkansas

Explore our Arkansas Schools & Education articles for more information about school districts, education programs, and resources available across the state. You can also browse our Arkansas city guides to learn how schools, housing, commutes, recreation, and everyday life fit together in different communities.

Sources

• Fox News, “Arkansas Students Outperform National Average After Universal School Choice Expansion, Governor Says,” July 14, 2026.
• Arkansas Department of Education, 2024–25 Arkansas Education Freedom Accounts Program Annual Report.
• Arkansas Department of Education, Education Freedom Accounts program information.
• Arkansas 2026 ATLAS assessment results and executive summary reporting.
• University of Arkansas Office for Education Policy, 2024 NAEP analysis.
• Arkansas Advocate, 2026–2027 Education Freedom Account funding information.

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