Education notebook

State law waivers on board's agenda

The Arkansas Board of Education has on its agenda for its 10 a.m. meeting Thursday the possible waiver of education laws in the state-controlled Little Rock School District.

The agenda doesn't specify the laws to be considered for waiver, but Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key said in October that he would ask the state Education Board to waive the state's Teacher Fair Dismissal Act and the Public Employees Fair Hearing Act in the 22 Little Rock schools that recently received D and F letter grades from the state.

Waivers of those laws are intended to ease and quicken the process of firing poorly performing employees.

Key, who acts as the school board in the district, has said the waiver is intended to be used as a scalpel.

Arkansas law allows waivers to state law -- if approved by the Education Board -- in districts that are labeled as Level 5, or in need of intensive support, which is the case for the Little Rock district.

State high schools due CrashCourse

Arkansas will be the first state in the country to implement CrashCourse, a virtual reality concussion education program, in every high school.

The Arkansas Department of Education, Arkansas Department of Health, and Arkansas Activities Association have joined forces with the nonprofit TeachAids to provide concussion education. The program targets student athletes to provide them with up-to-date medical knowledge about the prevention, symptoms and treatment of concussions.

"Arkansas is setting a precedent for the rest of the nation in providing cutting-edge VR education to its students," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement about virtual reality education. "Through our unique partnership with TeachAids, this groundbreaking concussion education experience will empower young people to solve real-world problems in our increasingly technology-driven society."

CrashCourse is based on research from Stanford University, builds on an earlier, Facebo.

Changes floated to meet U.S. law

The Arkansas Department of Education is proposing amendments in the state's plan for complying with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

The proposals affect the long-term goals in the state plan, Deborah Coffman, assistant commissioner for accountability, said last week. The proposed changes do not change the calculations of a school's annual "ESSA Index Score" or the school's A-to-F letter grade, Coffman said.

One of the proposed changes calls for making 2017-18 -- instead of 2016-17 -- the baseline year for reporting 12 years of annual school performance. The change in the baseline year is meant to accommodate the English/language arts minimum score revisions made by ACT Inc. in 2018 on the Aspire tests in grades three through 10.

Similarly, the state proposes a 2018 baseline year for tracking the achievement of the state's students who speak English as a second language and take the English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century, or ELPA21.

The proposed amendments are available until Jan. 4 for public review and comment, after which they will be sent to the U.S. Department of Education for consideration. Arkansas' initial ESSA plan was approved by the federal agency in January of this year.

$1M available for computer teachers

Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has made computer science education a priority in his administration, used the annual Computer Science Education Week last week to announce the availability of $1 million over two years to increase the number of licensed computer science teachers.

He added $200,000 to the Kindergarten-through-Eighth-Grade Computer Science Lead Teacher Stipend and Training Program to reach that $1 million mark.

The program provides training on higher-level computer science concepts and guidance on assisting other teachers with embedding elementary and middle school computer science standards across all academic subject areas.

About 300 kindergarten-through-eighth-grade teachers enrolled and completed training in the first summer of the program. Unused funds from the first year, combined with additional funding, will allow more than 200 teachers to begin the process in the summer of 2019.

To be eligible for the full $2,000 stipend, a computer science lead teacher must be a state-licensed teacher; attend a five-day training session by the Arkansas Department of Education's office of computer science; obtain a computer science endorsement on the teacher license; and provide computer science education support to individuals and schoolwide.

Metro on 12/10/2018

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