School officials in Northwest Arkansas are keeping a watchful, and in some cases, wary eye on what effect new laws will have on their districts.
Rogers Superintendent Janie Darr and Fayetteville Superintendent Vicki Thomas agreed laws dealing with curriculum, instruction and professional development for teachers will most affect their districts.
Web Watch
2013 General Assembly Acts
The Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators has prepared a detailed PowerPoint presentation of the 2013 acts passed by the General Assembly. The presentation can be viewed at:
www.theaaea.org/Domain/122
Darr specifically mentioned a memo from Tom Kimbrell, state education commissioner, spelling out requirements for technology courses and keyboard instruction that are optional next school year but mandatory in the 2014-15 school year.
One law requires schools to offer at least one digital learning course for all high school students, including those in charter schools. The course can be either a primary or supplementary method of instruction and can be part of a blended learning, online-based or other technology-based format tailored to meet the needs of each student.
Darr asked what constituted a digital learning course. Richard Abernathy, director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, said that remains to be seen as the State Education Department develops rules and regulations to implement the law.
Darr’s comments came after a presentation Thursday morning by Abernathy at the Northwest Arkansas Educational Services Cooperative.
The focus on technology accompanies the Common Core State Standards that will be computer-based.
Although not a law, the commissioner’s memo has the force of law. It outlines a sequence of courses that will be required in fifth through eighth grades, starting in 2014-15, to raise student competency in technology.
The memo requires school districts to begin teaching basic keyboarding, starting in kindergarten and continuing through fourth grade. A student should have the skill to key a full page in a single setting by fourth grade.
No one is opposed to keyboard instruction in the fourth grade, Darr said. But school districts could be saddled with more costs to pay for additional training for teachers who may not be licensed to teach a technology class, she said. Or districts could have to hire more teachers to accommodate this new requirement.
The Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research reported 2,492 bills were passed in the 2013 legislative session that ended about two weeks ago. Abernathy said his agency tracked just more than 300 bills that dealt with education. Of those, 145 passed into law, he said.
Thomas called many of the laws “unfunded mandates,” meaning districts will have to come up with the money to implement them.
Abernathy listed dozens of the bills in his presentation that will impact education in the coming biennium. He cautioned school officials to be particularly mindful about details in some of the bills, especially those passed as emergencies. Emergency bills take effect upon the signature of the governor while others may not take effect for several months.
In the next two years, schools will be required to provide students with a moment of silence at the beginning of the school day. Another law will require seventh- and eighth-grade students to participate in either band, music or visual arts. Other laws focus on the use of cell phones at schools; raise the amount awarded in Arkansas challenge grants; and require high school students to learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation.''