LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Board of Education on Friday approved two new charter schools - one in Little Rock that will target high school dropouts and another that will convert the entire Cross County High School academic program into a “wall-to-wall project-based learning” system.
The state board also approved amendments to the existing charters for:
The Jacksonville Lighthouse Academy, which asked to raise its total enrollment cap for its two schools - including a new middle school campus that will open later this year at Little Rock Air Force Base - from 644 to 1,019 students by the 2015-16 school year. That approval came despite objections from Sam Jones, an attorney for the Pulaski County Special School District, who argued that the increased enrollment will hinder desegregation efforts in the county district.
The Osceola Communication, Arts, and Business Charter School, which asked to change its governance structure from two boards to one but withdrew an earlier proposal to expand its seventh-through-12th-grade program to the elementary grades. Although the state board approved the change, it also put the school on notice that there will be a hearing in March to possibly revoke its charter or put it on probation. That’s because the 98-student school’s academic focus has shifted away from its stated mission of serving dropouts.
The two new charter schools that will begin operating next summer are distinctive from other charter and traditional public schools.
“This is very radical,” Education Board member Jim Cooper of Melbourne said about the Cross County New Tech High School in Cherry Valley, a community about 35 miles south of Jonesboro.
The school, which has 320 students in grades seven through 12, will become the state’s 11th conversion charter school, which is a charter school operated within a traditional school district. That’s in contrast to an open-enrollment charter school operated by a nonprofit organization other than a traditional school system.
Charter schools are taxpayer-supported public schools but are exempt from some regulations that apply to traditional schools and, as a result, can be experimental in their design. In return for that flexibility, charter schools are held to the terms of their contracts with the state.
All teaching in every class at the Cross County school will be done through projects that will require students - each of whom will be equipped with a laptop computer - to develop skills in communication, collaboration, technology, thinking analytically and problem solving.
“We’re preparing kids not to be successful just in school, but in life,” Cross County Superintendent Matt McClure told the state board.
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES
As part of the program, some courses will be combined, becoming interdisciplinary “cornerstone” courses. Some state-required courses such as career orientation, keyboarding and oral communication, will be taught throughout the curriculum and won’t be offered as separate, distinct courses.
High school graduation requirements will be expanded to require 40 hours of community service. Students also will have to produce an electronic portfolio of their work and a senior project on which they have made a public presentation.
To graduate, each student also must complete an application to a post secondary school or to the military or be able to show a career-readiness certificate.
The school year will begin in early August with multiple short breaks during the year as a way to improve student retention of what they learn and to give teachers time to plan for the student projects.
The Cross County school will become part of the national New Tech Network, based in Napa, Calif., which will provide the Cross County school with access to a “coach” to assist in the implementation of the model as well as access to thousands of lessons and project ideas. Some 80 schools will be part of the national network next school year.
McClure, Cross County district employees, School Board members and Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell have visited other schools in the network, most notably in Manor, Texas, near Austin, where the school uses flexible scheduling and no bells to mark times to change classes. Chairs and tables are all on wheels for greater flexibility in reorganizing classroom space
“Do you have the horsepower to pull it off from teachers and parents?” Education Board Chairman Naccaman Williams of Springdale asked.
McClure responded that it will take some “heavy lifting” but the school has already begun the project-based teaching model on a limited basis. He also said that the district’s staff is young and many are from nonteaching career backgrounds.
Board member Alice Mahony of El Dorado ultimately cast the sole vote against the charter. She questioned whether the Cross County school is large enough to support the program and whether graduates would qualify for state scholarship programs because of the change in graduation requirements. She also wondered if all students would be able to adjust to the instructional changes.
“What kid doesn’t need these skills?” McClure responded. “I don’t subscribe to the theory that this isn’t for everyone. What we are doing now isn’t for everyone,” he said, but he also noted that the district is revamping its alternative-learning program for students who aren’t successful in the main program.
LITTLE ROCK CHARTER
The School for Integrated Academics and Technologies in Little Rock at 6900 Scott Hamilton Drive will be the19th open-enrollment charter school in the state.
The school, which will operate in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Job Corps Center in Little Rock, received a rare endorsement from the Little Rock School Board, which last year filed a motion in federal court objecting to the state Education Board’s practice of approving most charter schools in Pulaski County without taking into account the effect the schools have on desegregation throughout Pulaski County.
SAI Tech will serve young people ages 16-22, most of whom live at the Jobs Corps center and are in a job-training program. The educational program will feature an education plan for each student. The open-entry, open-exit program allows students to work on academics year round.
The Education Board in November delayed action on the proposed charter because of questions about whether the program would teach the minimum 38 courses required for Arkansas high schools.
On Friday, Linda Dawson, chief executive officer of the New Education for the Workplace Corp., of Vista, Calif., proposed that 22 units required by Arkansas education standards for high school graduation would be taught at the Job Corps Center.
The remaining 16 courses that schools must teach but students do not have to take will be made available at the Job Corps Center, through distance learning or through cooperative arrangements with other schools.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/15/2011