I was applying the active class to the a tag instead of the li tag.
The correct solution would be to replace this:
<% navArr.each do |value| %>
<ul>
<li>
<a
<% if (yield(:navActive)==value) %>
class="active"
<% end %>
href="#">
<%=value%>
</a>
</li>
</ul>
<% end %>
with this:
<ul class="nav">
<% navArr.each do |value| %>
<li
<% if (yield(:navActive)==value) %>
class="active"
<% end %>>
<a href="#">
<%=value%>
</a>
</li>
<% end %>
</ul>