Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Department of Education has been awarded $9.8 million in federal stimulus money to improve its system for tracking students’ progress, education officials announced today.

Arkansas is one of 20 states selected to receive grants to develop and implement longitudinal data systems to chart students’ progress from early childhood into careers.

The state’s system already is recognized as one of the best in the nation by the Data Quality Campaign, said state Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell.

“This funding will allow us to take the system to the next level so that it is able to be easily used by teachers, administrators and policy makers to reach informed, data-driven decisions that will improve the quality of education for students in Arkansas,” Kimbrell said.

The grant is the third awarded to Arkansas for its longitudinal data system. The first grants were authorized by the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002 and were awarded starting in 2005.

The latest grants, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, were awarded through a competitive application process.