This article was published Monday, July 28, 2008, Arkansas Democrat Gazette

LITTLE ROCK — Photographer given posthumous degree

Will Counts, an Arkansas Democrat photographer who covered the desegregation crisis at Little Rock Central High School in 1957, has been posthumously awarded an honorary doctoral degree by the University of Central Arkansas.

The UCA Board of Trustees voted Friday in Conway to confer an honorary doctor of communication degree to Counts, who graduated from Arkansas State Teachers College, now UCA, in 1953.

Counts was a photographer for the Arkansas Democrat when he took a picture of Alex Wilson, a black reporter, being kicked in the stomach. It won first place in the spot news category of the “News Picture of the Year” competition.

Another photo - which showed Hazel Bryan, a white teenager, in a crowd taunting Elizabeth Eckford, one of nine black students, outside Central High - was named by The Associated Press as “one of the best 100 photos of the century.”

Counts was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Little Rock Central High School became internationally known in 1957, when nine black students integrated the school. Until then, segregation laws barred black students from Central.

Reading doctorate approved for UALR

The state has approved a doctor of philosophy in reading program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

The program will prepare educators who teach reading. Graduates can work as literacy administrators, curriculum specialists and program evaluators, among other jobs, according to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.

Officials cited a need, pointing to low performance in reading among the average Arkansas public school student.

Slightly more than half the students could read at grade level, according to results released July 9 by the Arkansas Department of Education.

Results from the state’s 11thgrade literacy exam showed that 2008 scores didn’t change when compared with 2007: 51 percent of 31,075 public school students who took the test scored at proficient or better levels in both years. Proficient is considered grade level.

The Higher Education Coordinating Board approved the UALR doctoral program - which can begin in the fall - during a meeting Friday.

College-going rate shows slight rise

The state’s college-going rate has risen slightly.

Arkansas’ college-going rate for public and private colleges and universities was 64.7 percent in fall 2007, the latest available figures, according to a state Department of Higher Education report.

That’s an increase of 2.7 percentage points from the previous fall.

The national college-going rate was 66 percent in fall 2006, the latest available figure. That year, Arkansas’ rate was 62 percent.

The college-going rate for public institutions in fall 2007 was 59.4 percent, which increased by 2 percentage points.

The rates are an indicator of Arkansans going to college. The data counts students who enter an in-state college right after high school.

Coordinating board officers unchanged

Dick Trammel of Rogers will continue as chairman of the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

David Leech of Stuttgart remains vice chairman. Lynda Johnson of Little Rock will continue as secretary.

The Higher Education board, meeting in Beebe on Friday, made the decision while deciding officers for the 2008-09 academic year.

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