What a difference a decade makes.
In 2003, 65 members of the state House of Representatives elevated a single school district statistic--student enrollment--above all other education performance measures.
Earlier this week, in a thunderous 95-0 vote, the House restored student achievement, financial stability and academic excellence to their rightful place by approving House Bill 1263 and sending it to the state Senate.
House Bill 1263 would allow small schools that fall below the state minimum to get a waiver from forced consolidation as long as the school is not in financial, academic or facilities distress.
Picking some supposedly magical number out of thin air is rarely the best way to set standards for anything, and the dart-throwing contest that produced a 350-student enrollment minimum for Arkansas school districts (a 1,500 minimum was suggested) was no exception.
Time and again, small rural districts that were distinguished by strong parental support (including raising local millages), high student achievement (test and ACT scores) and high system performance (graduation rates, collegiate enrollment) were shuttered simply because their student population fell below the arbitrary limit.
On several occasions, successful small schools were closed and their students sent to districts that were less cost-efficient, less proficient and offered fewer advanced courses.
Commendable as correcting that egregious wrong is, there's still a lot to do--and undo--to improve learning and education in Arkansas, and to refocus our schools on students and their progress.
Many legislators campaigned on reform and leadership rather than preserving the status quo, and nothing cries out more for innovation than our public schools.
As a rural state, we've long deserved a strong vision of what a rural school system should look like. Instead, we've continually turned to consultants from vastly dissimilar states.
In the spirit of fostering new ideas to address rural challenges, here's an education "to-do" list:
• Repeal Act 60 of 2003
The waiver for small schools is great (assuming the Senate passes it), but the 2003 Public Education Reorganization Act's enrollment focus still sends the wrong message overall.
A new vision for rural education can never materialize as long as bigger schools are automatically (and foolishly) assumed to be "better" by default.
Taking enrollment out of the equation won't bust the budget--many consolidated schools spent less per pupil than the district that annexed them--but it will shift the focus back to improving individual student achievement, not taking head counts.
• Develop "Edumetrics"
When Bill James came up with "sabermetrics" as winning strategies for major league baseball, many traditionalists scoffed. His ideas, like batting order doesn't matter and a bunt is rarely worth the out, were pooh-poohed--until his employer, the cursed Boston Red Sox, won a couple of World Series after an 86-year drought.
Education statistics need overhauling in the same way James did with batting average and pitcher win-loss records.
"When a team has resources," he famously said, "there is a powerful tendency to solve problems by spending money."
I'm a friend of investing in education, and Arkansas has come a long way in bringing things like teacher salaries up to snuff. But like baseball, education has become entrenched with looking at the same old statistics.
Rather than compare funding alone, for example, why not create a new ratio that incorporates graduation rates? How about an index for aspects such as discipline, student volunteerism, activity participation and other elements that research has consistently shown bolsters educational performance?
Measuring tax burden against per capita resources would be a valuable indicator of community support, an important ingredient to school success.
• Embrace remote learning
In the age of 100 meg Internet connections, no schools are "isolated" in the way they were 40 or 50 years ago. Yet 1970s research still drives urbanite study recommendations about funding resources in rural districts.
Professional collaboration is happening remotely using broadband technology, and the practice is exploding in every industry--except education.
Surgeons are supervising sophisticated procedures from states away via telehealth, and yet we can't figure out how to share one Spanish teacher over several rural schools?
Technology has created more opportunities to refine rural schooling in the last five years than the last five decades. The only thing holding us back from devising the best rural education system in America is our self-limiting myopia on disproved myths, like "consolidation saves money."
• Calculate before consolidating
Closing schools that anchor communities should never be done rashly. A study to estimate length of bus rides should always be required prior to any consolidation recommendation to determine effect on students' family time and extracurricular activities--both of which factor significantly in learning.
An economic study should be required, too. We're a poor state that can ill afford to deliberately destroy local economies.
• Consult our own teachers
The next time we feel the urge to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on California or New York consultants, let's refrain. Instead, implement a biennial education assessment that consults with Arkansas teachers.
They, more than anybody, have real-world rural experience and student interests closest to heart, and that should be the interests of the state, too.
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Dana Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.
Editorial on 03/06/2015