39 districts seek leeway on school standards

Ashley Violantes, 10, talks about how she solved a math problem Tuesday in Dawn Buchanan’s fourth-grade class at Elmdale Elementary in Springdale. Ashley and the rest of the class were using extended children’s mathematics to solve math problems. The students are allowed to solve a problem any way they can but must show their work and explain it to the class.
Ashley Violantes, 10, talks about how she solved a math problem Tuesday in Dawn Buchanan’s fourth-grade class at Elmdale Elementary in Springdale. Ashley and the rest of the class were using extended children’s mathematics to solve math problems. The students are allowed to solve a problem any way they can but must show their work and explain it to the class.

Pamela Kessell, an administrator for the Hope School District, thinks high school teachers should be able to exceed the state maximum of 150 students per day if they teach online classes.

The Springdale School District hopes to award credit for graduation to students in the district's new iSchool when they show mastery of a course, instead of after they finish 120 hours of instruction, said Clay Hendrix, assistant superintendent for education innovation for the district.

Hope and Springdale are among 39 districts to submit applications for such deviations from state standards under the Arkansas Department of Education's new District of Innovation program created by Act 601 of 2013.

The state Board of Education approved rules for implementing the program in February, and the department gave districts until last Thursday to apply. The program does not come with new funding.

The department received applications from 39 school districts, with 11 proposals for a "District of Innovation" and 118 proposals for a "School of Innovation."

Commissioner of Education Tom Kimbrell will decide whether to approve the plans. The department plans to send notices by June 30 to applicants whose proposals are approved, said Megan Witonski, assistant commissioner of learning services for the department.

Under the new program, an "innovation" is defined as a new or creative alternative to existing instructional and administrative practices that is intended to improve academic performance and learning for all students. The law gives the education commissioner the authority to allow districts or schools of innovation to depart from specific laws, rules or other regulations governing public school districts.

State Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock who sponsored Act 601, has said she knew schools had different ideas about education, such as blending art and reading. She was interested in giving school districts more latitude to experiment without requiring them to restructure an entire school under a charter.

For more than a dozen years, state law has allowed school districts and independent nonprofit organizations to establish public charter schools. Charter schools operate under waivers of some of the state rules and laws that govern traditional schools and, as a result, can be experimental in some of their design and offerings.

A school of innovation is another option.

'Baby steps'

Some districts, including the Alma School District, have asked for flexibility from state regulations to start the school year sooner than state law allows. Under state law, the earliest that school districts can begin the 2014-15 school year is Aug. 18, a Monday.

Alma Superintendent David Woolly said proposals written for all four campuses in Alma request the commissioner allow school in Alma to start Thursday, Aug. 14, two school days earlier.

"You could do some really different things," Woolly said of the new law. "Let's take baby steps first."

Starting earlier would provide more days of instruction before testing time in the spring, especially in the event of a harsh winter like the one Arkansas experienced this year, Woolly said. Snow and ice caused Alma to cancel eight school days. The district also would like the commissioner to allow the district to make up snow days by adding time to the school day instead of by having to go extra days.

Other proposals are more elaborate.

Hope High School's application seeks eight waivers from state regulations, said Kessell, an assistant principal at Hope High School who oversaw the district's applications.

"Our overall goal is that we improve our graduation rate and students become more interested and see school as more relevant than they do now," Kessell said.

One request is for teachers to be allowed to teach more than 150 students per day if they want to facilitate a digital learning course offered in the evening, Kessell said. The high school also wants the commissioner to permit teachers to have more than 30 students in a class for a program targeted at home-school students. The high school wants to offer online courses for students in home school, but doing so would put teachers over the maximum number allowed in a class.

In addition, the high school wants the ability to count athletics courses as either physical-education courses or career-oriented courses for students who want to pursue a career in sports and also are enrolled in sports medicine, athletic training or medical professions courses, Kessell said.

"If I tell you my career goal is sports medicine, to be a ballplayer or coach, it's hard to say to a kid in athletics, 'When you're in athletics, you're not working toward your career goal,'" Kessell said.

Springdale plans

Every Springdale campus submitted an innovation proposal, and the district also made requests for the iSchool program the district plans to open in August, Hendrix said.

Springdale schools' requests for exemptions are focused on providing personalized education, Hendrix said. For students who perform poorly on state reading tests, the state specifies the format of the improvement plan for students. Springdale wants to continue improvement plans but wants to incorporate them into personalized learning plans that will be developed for every child.

The iSchool -- referring to "innovation" school -- is set to open in the fall at The Jones Center for Families, a community center in Springdale. The school will open with eighth-grade students and will expand to an eighth- through 12th-grade campus. The district plans for students at the school to graduate with a high school diploma and a college-level associate's degree.

State regulations require students to complete 120 hours of instruction for a full credit toward graduation. At the iSchool, the district wants to award credit at a faster pace, Hendrix said.

"This cannot be accomplished now, because we cannot put credit on a student's transcript if he or she has not spent the required amount of time in the classroom for that course," Hendrix said.

Hendrix described state regulations as being a one-size-fits-all model of education.

"We know that across the state, even across the Springdale School District, we have very different schools with very different students," Hendrix said. "A one-size-fits-all model may not be the best thing."

A Section on 05/07/2014

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