The Arkansas Board of Education on Friday approved a memorandum of understanding that will continue the multipartner Forward Arkansas initiative that was created in 2014 to make the state a national leader in public education.
The newly signed agreement commits the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation of Little Rock and the Walton Family Foundation of Bentonville to provide three years of financial support -- as well as staff guidance, meeting space and fiscal oversight -- to the initiative that has as its vision every Arkansas student graduating from high school prepared for success in college and the workplace.
The responsibilities of the state Education Board and the state Department of Education include providing a level of matching, in-kind support to the Forward initiative that is commensurate with the support of the foundations. The board and state agency also will advocate for the Forward initiative, correlate education rules and regulations with Forward goals, and provide data and other tools for monitoring progress of Forward programs.
The Forward Arkansas organization, which seeks 501-c-3 nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service, is the fifth partner in the agreement. Under the direction of its executive director, Susan Harriman, the organization commits in the memorandum to overseeing the development and implementation of an annual work plan as well as serving as the liaison for the other initiative participants.
Harriman on Friday called the memorandum of understanding "a demonstration of our true commitment to this work. "
Education Board member Vicki Saviers of Little Rock called the ongoing partnership exciting and noted that references to the initiative are routinely raised in different conversations.
"It's becoming organically part of all of our work," Saviers said.
Forward Arkansas started in August 2014 as an agreement among the state Education Board and the Rockefeller and Walton Family foundations to identify ways to strengthen public education. A 28-member steering committee of state educators, lawmakers, business operators and civic leaders worked with then-project manager Jared Henderson and a national consulting firm to do an in-depth analysis of the state's education system and get input from more than 8,000 Arkansans in focus groups and forums.
In September, Forward Arkansas released a 56-page "A New Vision for Arkansas Education" report that contained aspirations and recommendations -- some for the long term and others viewed as "quick wins."
Healthful school breakfasts, the timing of school elections, pay incentives for teachers in high-need subject areas and schools, and the structure of the Education Department were topics addressed in the report.
The recommendations also called for high-quality prekindergarten programs, after-school and summer school programs, telemedicine services for students, workforce coaching and streamlining of teacher and principal instructional duties. Still other proposals called for innovations such as year-round school and "looping" instruction so that students might have the same teacher for more than one school year.
A large section of the report included ideas for dealing with schools and districts that are categorized or on the verge of being categorized by the state as academically distressed.
The work of carrying out the recommendations over multiple years has been delegated in part to Harriman and the Implementation Working Group, which is made up of many of the same members on the original steering committee. Henderson, the former project manager who heads the Teach for America organization in Arkansas, and David Rainey, a former school district superintendent and former state legislator, are co-chairmen of the Implementation Working Group.
Board member Diane Zook of Melbourne voted against the memorandum of understanding Friday, the only Education Board member to do so, after voicing several concerns about limited board input into the work of the initiative and the possible need for additional Education Department staff members to accommodate the initiative.
"You all understand that they are the leaders in this," Zook told Harriman about the agency staff, "rather than you all coming in with extra work for them."
Harriman said she envisions "a reallocation or realignment of existing work that logically matches the goals" of the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act and the Education Department's own new strategic plan for operating.
Harriman said one of the tasks of the initiative is to oversee the development of a "crosswalk" to identify the commonalities and differences in the requirements in the new federal law, the Education Department's strategic operating plan and the Forward Arkansas recommendations.
Denise Airola, director of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville's Office of Innovation for Education, is doing that work.
Zook also questioned how the three original partners in the initiative -- the two philanthropic organizations and the Education Board -- grew to five.
"I'm not much into layers of bureaucracy," Zook said, adding that she doesn't feel there is little transparency in the work of the initiative.
Education Board member Jay Barth of Little Rock said the institutionalizing of Forward Arkansas as a partner is "very important" and the only way to keep moving ahead on the initiative's recommendations. That's because the foundations, as well as members of the steering committee and Implementation Working Group, all have other responsibilities and day jobs, he said.
In response to questions about the initiative's future beyond the three years, Harriman said she anticipates communities that attempt to incorporate the recommended innovations would continue to receive support and that the Arkansas initiative will become similar to organizations elsewhere, including the Colorado Education Initiative.
"We hope Forward will grow and become stronger and become a policy think tank for the state and a resource for schools," Harriman said. "We are making a three-year commitment, but we believe the project will grow on itself."
The Forward Arkansas initiative's new website is http://forwardarkansas.poweredbyrev.com.
Metro on 06/11/2016