A bunch of schools in Arkansas got some great news before they shut down for Thanksgiving week. Great news plus money.
Cabot Junior High, $111,833.
Bryant Middle, $49,348.
Don Roberts Elementary in Little Rock, $81,577.
Why did all this manna start raining down? Because this state has finally gotten a School Recognition and Reward Program, and last week the best schools in Arkansas were, yes, recognized and rewarded. Good for them. Good for the state. Good for the taxpayers who are paying for it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Vilonia Elementary, $29,167.
De Queen Elementary, $24,248.
And the money seems to be coming a little faster these days, too. Last year, the amounts awarded to Arkansas' top-performing schools weren't announced until January. This year, the schools that did the best last year got the good news in November. The sooner a good school--or a good teacher, or plumber, or badminton player--is recognized, the better.
Benton Junior High, $68,927.
Willowbrook Elementary in Bentonville, $72,122.
The top 10 percent of all public schools in Arkansas--whether the traditional kind or public charters--got $90 for every kid in the school. The schools in the next 10 percent got $45.10 per student. And how were the best schools selected? Not by committees or Tiger Team Leadership Groups or the personal opinion of principals, but by how students did on standardized tests. Which is a lot fairer.
And what could be simpler? Here are the scores for each school. Here's the money. No fuss, no muss, no personal preferences or prejudices allowed to get in the way. Performance is the standard. The only standard.
"I am so thrilled about it," said the principal at Gibbs Magnet Elementary in Little Rock, aka Dr. Felicia Hobbs. "I called all the staff together in the foyer and we just whooped and hollered." We understand, Dr. Hobbs. We felt a little like whoopin' and hollerin' ourselves. But the editorial writers over here in the corner of the newsroom already have a reputation for being an eccentric bunch.
Somebody tell us again how merit pay can't work for teachers in the public schools. On second thought, don't waste the oxygen.
How will the money awarded these schools be spent? It's up to them, and should be: bonuses for the staff, equipment for the classrooms, temps to help out around campus. . . . Pretty much anything the schools can get the state to okay. They earned it, they know how best to spend it.
But, and you knew there'd be a but, didn't you?
When the School Recognition and Reward Program was put on the books by the Legislature, the top 10 percent of the schools were to get $100 per student, and the next tier $50. But the program hasn't been fully funded over the years. (There's always a catch.) That's why schools were given just $90 and $45.10 a student. The program was funded from the governor's share of the General Improvement Fund, and had to divvy up the $7 million allotted for it.
The money's a hit at the schools, which is no surprise, but the best schools--the kind you want to be sure to reward and recognize--could've picked up another 10 bucks for each student if the state had funded the program as it was intended.
Greenbrier High, $64,546.
L.A. Chaffin Junior in Fort Smith, $77,944.
It could have been more. It should have been more. It can be in the future. When it comes to encouraging the best schools, and others to join the best, let's not settle, Arkansas.
Don't forget that this program was intended not only to reward the best schools, but those that have made the best progress from year to year. But for some mysterious reason, these two quite sensibly separated categories were smushed together, and the combined totals seem to have been used to determine how the schools were ranked.
Which hardly seems fair. Here's why: Imagine a school that made the most progress of any school in Arkansas from 2013 to 2014, but still couldn't crack the top 20 percent. It would be left out. Now imagine a school that consistently scores in the top 1 percent being held back because it couldn't make much improvement from that lofty perch year to year.
Come this January, the Legislature is to be back in session again. So let's make a slight change to the way Arkansas recognizes both the best schools and those making the most progress. Let's re-establish those two separate categories of awards. And, yes, fully fund this rewarding program.
cc: Governor-elect Asa Hutchinson.
Editorial on 11/26/2014