ROGERS -- School District officials hope a new program aimed at the brightest students will result in more of them applying to and enrolling in the nation's top colleges and universities.
Details of the Rogers Honors Academy are still being worked out, but the program already has received about $280,000 in grants from the Walton Family Foundation, said Robert Moore, assistant superintendent for secondary education.
Lunch prices rising
The Rogers School Board on Tuesday approved 10-cent hikes in the lunch prices for students at the elementary, middle and high school levels starting this fall. That means lunch prices will be $2.35 for elementary school students, $2.85 for middle school students and $3 for high school students.
Source: Staff report
About 1.3 percent of the district's graduates go on to enroll in a top-100 national college or university or a top-50 liberal arts school. Officials hope the academy helps to boost that figure to at least 3 percent for the class of 2018.
"We want to support our students who are trying to reach the highest level of education," Moore said.
The School Board heard the proposal at its meeting Tuesday. The board voted unanimously to establish the academy and hire a director.
Data show about 200 students enter their sophomore year with a grade point average of 3.75 or above, but many are unable to sustain that kind of average through graduation. They therefore fall short of being named "high" or "distinguished" honor graduates.
A disproportionate number of those students are minorities or economically disadvantaged, Moore said.
The district's plan is to identify those students who excel early in high school and invite them to participate in the academy, which will provide them support to take challenging courses and increase their performance on the ACT college entrance exam.
The academy also will provide opportunities for college visits, concurrent college enrollment and other means of exposing them to higher education. Students will receive college application and admission counseling and support to help them attend the school of their choice.
Part of the plan involves setting up a College Advancement Mentoring Program. The director of that program will research, plan and organize districtwide honors academy activities and support programs to assist academy students, according to a district document.
The director also will research best practices and consult with counselors and administrators on how best to meet student needs. Moore said he hopes to hire a director by July 1. That person's salary will be about $67,000.
"Another component is to provide tutoring after school for those kids, and their advisory mentor would have office hours after school so they could get help with their applications or just get general support," Moore said.
Officials expect to get the honors academy rolling by January with about 200 students. They hope to add an additional 200 students both of the following two school years.
Once accepted into the honors academy, students will be expected to enroll in at least two Advanced Placement courses each year and maintain a 3.75 grade point average.
Several goals have been established for the program as a result of the partnership with the Walton Family Foundation. Among the goals is getting 75 percent of participating students accepted into two of the top 100 national or top 50 liberal arts colleges and universities in the country, as determined by the annual rankings by U.S. News & World Report.
A board member asked what will happen to the honors academy when the grant funding runs out.
Superintendent Janie Darr said she hopes the program will prove successful and attract families from outside the district through school choice. The state pays school districts $6,584 per student.
"I believe we will attract students who want to come here, and we may be able to pay for it through increased enrollment," Darr said.
The announcement of the honors academy follows two other initiatives the board has approved that affect students at the high schools.
One is a program in collaboration with Northwest Arkansas Community College that puts students on a path to earn an associate degree during their high school years.
The district also is pursuing state approval of a virtual charter school that could serve as many as 400 students in grades six through 12. The school consisting of online classes could open in the fall of 2017 if the state approves the district's charter application this year.
"As public schools we're in a competitive market for students," Moore said. "Our job is to meet as many needs as possible."
NW News on 05/18/2016