Bentonville School Board: Not All Students Need College

BENTONVILLE -- College isn't for everyone and the School District could do a better job serving those students who don't plan to pursue higher education after they graduate, School Board members said this week.

The subject came up during a discussion of goals and the district's strategic plan at the board's meeting Monday.

At A Glance

Board Meeting

The Bentonville School Board’s next meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. July 21 at the district Administration Building, 500 Tiger Blvd.

Source: Staff Report

"I think if you step back and look, our School District needs to do the best we can to serve as many kids as we can who have all kinds of needs, and right now we really focus on the kids who are the high achievers," said Grant Lightle, board vice president.

Lisa Clark, board member, said only 20 percent of high school graduates in Arkansas go on to get a bachelor's degree.

"What are we doing for that 80 percent that's not going to make it through?" Clark said. "We've got a big portion of our population that we really could be significantly impacting so they are prepared post-graduation to enter the work force, to enter technical training, so they are ready for life as productive citizens."

Michael Poore, district superintendent, said administrators plan to attend a conference in Kansas City in which they'll hear about the Center for Advanced Professional Studies, a high school program offered in the Kansas City area. The center is an entrepreneurial approach to education designed to give high school students hands-on, real-world experience in a profession of their choice, according to information from the website of the Blue Valley School District in Overland Park, Kan.

Poore mentioned Bentonville High's career pathways, such as the one for medical preparation.

"We really don't offer meaningful opportunities and experiences for kids to see all the different angles of what med prep might mean, from nursing to medical administration to being a doctor. There's a lot of different pathways," he said.

Something like the Center for Advanced Professional Studies could encourage, for example, the local construction trade industry to create a lab environment for students to participate in, Poore said. Bentonville students who otherwise would have to go to the Northwest Technical Institute in Springdale could get similar training closer to home, he said.

The district had 76 students who attended the institute this past school year, said Sterling Ming, finance director.

The district must be willing to shift resources if it intends to focus more on career training, Lightle said.

"We have this huge school, and one of the things we point to is we have so many class choices. Well, how much inherent value is there in that? For me, not a lot," Lightle said.

Lightle said he went to a fairly small law school that didn't have many class choices, but it didn't matter.

"I had plenty of classes I did want to take, and the environment being the right size was a lot more important," he said.

Willie Cowgur, board member, said when it comes to keeping students engaged and on track for graduation, it boils down to the three A's: academics, arts and athletics. Those three things keep students engaged in school, he said.

"If you focus on the three A's, I think your graduation rate will improve," he said.

The district's graduation rate for 2011-12 was 85.2 percent, slightly more than Arkansas' 84.1 percent, according to state figures. Improving the graduation rate is a goal the board has asked Poore to meet in the coming school year.

The 2014 class of Bentonville High School has graduates attending prestigious universities such as Harvard, Stanford and Yale. But Cowgur said it's important to get across the message to students there's no shame in pursuing a path that will land them a job immediately after high school.

"If you think about it, they'll come out much more ahead because they graduate high school and have a skill," Cowgur said. "They'll make $40,000 a year, $50,000, whatever they make. Versus a kid who goes to college for two or three years, has $70,000 worth of debt, then they get a $20,000 or $30,000 job, and all they're doing is paying off college debt."

"It's more options," Clark said. "It's giving those kids options and educating them about what their options are."

Giving students the ability to explore careers in a hands-on way during high school also allows them to do so in an environment that doesn't cost them anything, said Wendi Cheatham, board president.

"So they have the safety net of failure at a time when it's not going to affect them negatively," Cheatham said. "They can fail and learn from that, and go back to their adviser and say, 'That's not for me.'"

NW News on 06/28/2014

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