Northwest Arkansas' education landscape has seen significant change over the past 20 years, and more is on the horizon.
Parents may choose to send their kids to one of a growing number of open-enrollment charter schools and private schools. There's also the home schooling option, which has grown increasingly popular across the area.
2020 hindsight
JIM ROLLINS
Springdale School District superintendent
What have educators and politicians done for the benefit of education in Northwest Arkansas?
During the last three or four years, the General Assembly has begun to allow districts to apply for innovative status. This has provided a true model for personalized learning and instruction. The next major educational reform is innovation. The Don Tyson School of Innovation in Springdale is an offshoot. This policy of innovation is allowing educators to best serve students.
We are utilizing innovative tenets throughout all 31 of our schools. All of our over 21,500 students are benefiting from personalized learning and instruction. This works hand in hand with our business community. It is an opportunity for businesses to partner with schools so that students will be prepared for the work force if that is the direction they choose.
What could have been done better?
Capacity building is the key to the future of any institution. It is recognizing the enormous needs children from all backgrounds have. We have had to build the capacity of teachers to deal with students who have come from different parts of the world. We could have been better prepared through professional development. That is why our own learning as educators needs to be a priority in order to best teach every child, no matter the level of readiness he or she has to learn.
RANDY BARRETT
Gentry School District superintendent
What have educators and politicians done for the benefit of education in Northwest Arkansas?
I think the most productive change has been the shift from “everyone must go to college” as a mantra to the concept that there are many educational pathways to success in life. Probably the most obvious change is the explosion of technology as an instructional tool in the classroom.
What could have been done better?
Sometimes it seems that the powers that be are always chasing the latest and greatest proposals that appear to be a panacea without taking into account unintended consequences and that old devil in the details.
SARAH MCKENZIE
Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas, executive director
What have educators and politicians done for the benefit of education in Northwest Arkansas?
Education in Northwest Arkansas is dramatically enhanced by the state’s aggressive support of Advanced Placement. Since 2008, public school districts have been required to offer AP courses in math, science, English and social studies, and the state covers the testing fee (of about $100) for all AP exams. Many Northwest Arkansas students have taken advantage of the opportunities. Of course, the big benefit of taking AP courses and exams is most colleges grant credit for AP courses passed, saving students time and money once they get to college.
What could have been done better?
We should improve in tracking the post-high school outcomes for students. The outcome of K-12 education shouldn’t be only high school graduation, but also how students do after they walk across the stage. Unfortunately, we don’t have a culture of following our students after graduation to see if they are successful.
Although not all students want to go to college, we should ask what support students from our various high schools are getting as they apply, and where they attend. The Arkansas Department of Higher Education reports college-going rates by district, but since it only includes those who attend in-state schools, we know this information is incomplete. We need to ask questions like “Are students who take advantage of Arkansas’ AP program actually more likely to graduate from college on time?” so we can ensure our K-12 system is giving students the skills they need.
— DAVE PEROZEK
School enrollment
Here’s a look at how public school enrollment in Benton and Washington counties has changed over the past 10 years:
School yearTraditional public school enrollmentOpen-enrollment charter school enrollment
2006-200766,492496
2011-1274,3191,085
2016-1782,1692,159
Source: Staff Report
Most children still attend traditional public schools, but they have responded by opening charter schools of their own and creating new programs officials hope will attract students with different interests.
"Overall, there are now more opportunities for students and families to choose schools that best fit their own skills and interests," said Gary Ritter, professor of education policy at the University of Arkansas and faculty director of the Arkansas Teacher Corps.
"Northwest Arkansas students today can choose large schools or small, a classical curriculum or the Montessori method, and an arts academy or a technology theme."
Charter growth
The state passed a law in 1999 allowing open-enrollment charter schools, a kind of public school that may be started and run by an institution of higher education, a governmental entity or a nonprofit organization. Charters started by school districts are called conversion charter schools.
Northwest Arkansas' charter school sector was slow to ramp up, but has seen rapid growth over the past several years.
The percentage of public school students in Benton and Washington counties attending open-enrollment charter schools is about 2.9 percent, up from about 1 percent a decade ago.
The number of such schools in the area increased from two to five in the past five years. Among them is Haas Hall Academy, a college preparatory school that serves more than 600 students in grades seven through 12 at campuses in Fayetteville and Bentonville. It has been named the top high school in Arkansas five years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.
Haas Hall plans to open two more campuses -- one in Rogers, one in Springdale -- for the 2017-18 school year. Will Martin Schoppmeyer, the school's founder and superintendent, stop there?
"I get phone calls at least once a month from people all over the country that think they'd like to have a Haas Hall," Schoppmeyer said. "Whether that's something we're going to do, we're looking into it. I'd like to be able to expand our program because I think it's a valuable program and one that's proven itself."
Schoppmeyer said he is focused on getting the Springdale and Rogers schools open. The Rogers school will be downtown in what was formerly the Lane Hotel; the Springdale school will be housed at the Jones Center.
"I love what I do, and I'm very fortunate to be able to do it. I understand a charter school is a privilege, not a right. So I work every day to make sure we're the best," Schoppmeyer said.
Northwest Arkansas' other charter schools are looking to grow, too.
Arkansas Arts Academy operates a high school campus and an elementary and middle school campus, both in Rogers. Overall enrollment is about 780, but the state recently granted the school an increase in its enrollment cap from 825 to 1,225. Most of that increase will be phased in at the high school level.
The larger number of high school students will enable the school to eventually expand its course offerings as well as support the construction of a new high school building, a project set to begin this summer. It will increase the square footage of its high school by more than 75 percent.
Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy, a Bentonville charter school, opened in 2013 with 400 students in grades kindergarten through eight. Enrollment has grown nearly 40 percent as it has added one grade level each year. It will begin the 2017-18 school year with grades kindergarten through 12.
Ozark Montessori Academy in Springdale opened for grades kindergarten through six in 2015. It added a seventh grade this school year and plans to add an eighth grade this fall.
The private sector
There's also growth on the private side of education.
The Thaden School, an initiative of the Walton Family Foundation, will open to students in grades seven and nine this fall in downtown Bentonville on what used to be the Benton County Fairgrounds. The school plans to grow incrementally over the next four years to serve students in grades six through 12.
Officials have declined to release the number of applications received, but Clayton Marsh, founding head of the school, said they were thrilled with the high level of interest. The school continues to accept applications for this fall.
"It is clear that our educational programs and small classes have generated a great deal of excitement. We look forward to opening this fall with strong enrollment from all parts of Northwest Arkansas," Marsh said, in an emailed statement.
Ozark Catholic Academy plans to open somewhere in Northwest Arkansas in the fall of 2018. It would become the region's first Catholic high school. John Rocha, who helped found a Catholic school for boys in Houston, was chosen as the academy's founding head of school last year.
Some existing private schools plan to expand.
The New School, located in Fayetteville, opened in 1971 with a couple dozen students and now serves more than 400 in preschool through ninth grades. New School officials recently raised more than $14 million to add three facilities. The school is adding a high school level as well.
Providence Academy, which is split between two campuses leased from churches in Rogers, opened in 2004 with 39 students in grades kindergarten through six. It has since grown to 535 students in kindergarten through grade 12.
Providence Academy is raising money to build a new campus on 66 acres it bought in Lowell last year. The entire campus will be built in phases and will include kindergarten through 12th grade, Headmaster Jason Ross said.
"During this current phase, we're conducting demolition as the property begins its transformation from a working farm into a beautiful, classical revival-styled campus," Ross said.
Trying new things
Traditional public school districts are trying to attract and retain students.
Rogers just launched its Honors Academy, which helps steer high-achieving students through high school and provides them special help navigating the college admission process. The School District also runs New Technology High School, a charter school that emphasizes project-based learning.
The Don Tyson School of Innovation in Springdale opened on a $24 million campus last fall for 500 eighth- through 10th-graders. The district's plan is for the school's enrollment to increase up to 1,000 eighth- through 12th-graders in the next two years.
The school allows students to move at their own pace as they master essential skills. It's built on the idea of providing each student with a personal education plan based on his readiness to learn, according to Superintendent Jim Rollins.
Bentonville's Ignite Professional Studies program immerses students in real experiences in a professional environment with support from a facilitating teacher and professional mentors.
The district launched Ignite in fall 2015 with one information technology class and expanded the program this school year to include construction professions, creative arts and production, and medical and health sciences classes.
About 100 students are enrolled in Ignite, but Superintendent Debbie Jones said it's realistic to believe enrollment will grow to 250 by the 2018-19 school year.
The Fayetteville School District opened its own online charter school, the Fayetteville Virtual Academy, last fall for students in grades four through eight. It will expand to include all high school grades starting this fall and will have an enrollment cap of 225.
The flexibility offered by the Virtual Academy makes it a good fit for certain students, said JoAnna Lever, the school's director. She cited the case of a sixth-grader who helps out on a sheep farm and travels to Springfield, Mo., once a week for pipe organ lessons.
Home schooling
Home schooling has become an increasingly popular option among Northwest Arkansas families.
Nearly 20,000 students in Arkansas were home-schooled during the 2015-16 school year, the most recent year for which data are available from the Arkansas Department of Education.
Benton County led the state with 2,323 home-schooled students that year. That represents about 5.7 percent of those enrolled in the county's public schools. Pulaski County had the second-highest total of home-schooled students at 2,072. Washington County was third at 1,353.
The number of home-schooled students in Benton and Washington counties grew 32 percent between the 2006-07 and 2015-16 school years. Enrollment in the area's public schools -- including charter schools -- grew 23 percent during the same time frame.
Nationally, the number of home-schooled students more than doubled from 850,000 in 1999 to about 1.8 million in 2012, according to a report released last year by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Some home schooling parents turn to one of the state's virtual schools for structure and professional help for their children.
Arkansas Virtual Academy and Arkansas Connections Academy are both online, open-enrollment charter schools serving students statewide. Together they enroll more than 300 students from Northwest Arkansas.
Arkansas Connections Academy, which opened in August and is based in Bentonville, reported about 18 percent of its students identified home schooling as their prior schooling situation, according to Gaby Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the academy.
NW News on 03/26/2017