A new analysis finds that schools in Northwest Arkansas tend to be of higher quality than the rest of the state. They also compare favorably to similar schools nationwide.
But the analysis also found areas for improvement. The availability of of top-performing schools varies by district within Northwest Arkansas. Lower-income students and students of color also typically attend lower-quality schools and have less favorable outcomes than their peers even within high-performing schools in the region
The study, supported by the Walton Famly Foundation, used publicly available state data from multiple school years. Researchers also examined 10 years of pre-pandemic data from all public schools in the country