LITTLE ROCK — Adopting an overhaulminded strategic plan is a painful but necessary step to increase student achievement in the struggling Little Rock School District, one of the plan’s authors said Thursday.
Little Rock School Board member Baker Kurrus, the only member to serve on the citizens commission that crafted the strategic plan, spoke during a community forum Thursday night at Parkview Magnet High School, where the group presented the plan publicly for the first time.
“We have too many students who simply are not achieving,” he said. “The results we are getting in this school district are unacceptable for many - not for all, but for many. The commissioners know that and they know it’s time for a change.”
So, Kurrus said, the strategic plan’s changes “won’t be candy-coated and [they] won’t be wrapped in a little fuzzy blanket.”
The 26, 000-student dis-trict is currently on the state’s list of districts in need of improvement after repeatedly falling below state minimum achievement requirements on state tests. Also, 29 schools in the district, the largest in Arkansas, are individually on the state improvement list because of subpar scores.
As a result, the commission - whose members were selected by Superintendent Linda Watson - drafted a strategic plan with “ambitious, eye-popping goals,” according to the plan.
Its aim is to transform Little Rock into one of the highestperforming districts in the country.
The goals include getting 85 percent to 90 percent of students to achieve proficiency or better on state literacy and math exams within five years.
The plan calls for 50 percent of all students from minority groups - primarily blacks and Hispanics in Little Rock - to achieve proficiency during the same time period.
Other goals include raising the graduation rate from 79 percent to 90 percent and increasing the average ACT score from 19 to 24.
The changes that will help achieve these goals include, among others:
Auditing and redesigning the district’s ailing literacy program.
Investing more heavily in professional development.
Pouring more resources into helping struggling students achieve.
Streamlining the assessment program.
Establishing a single-sex or charter school to help black male students specifically.
Implementing a new teacher evaluation model that includesa merit-pay component.
Raising starting teacher salaries from $32,000 to $40,000.
With a $327 million annual budget, the resources are there to fund the plan, Kurrus said.
“We’ve got plenty of money. That’s not our problem,” he said. “But we still must use it very wisely and allocate and budget it very wisely.”
Interim Associate Superintendent Dennis Glasgow said that accountability - from the superintendent on down to the classroom teacher - is what distinguishes this strategic plan from the ones of the past.
“The expectations are there for us to deliver on the plan,” Glasgow said. “If we don’t, then we probably are going to be looking for other lines of work.”
The plan was unanimously approved in January by the commission. It now needs School Board approval.
On the commission with Kurrus were Little Rock City Director Ken Richardson, University of Arkansas at Little Rock Chancellor Joel Anderson, Bishop Steven Arnold of St. Mark Baptist Church, Little Rock PTA Council President Patty Barker, parent Wayne Burt, Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce President Jay Chessir, state Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, Hispanic community representative Andre Guerrero, Philander Smith College President Walter Kimbrough, Cathy Koehler of the Little Rock Classroom Teachers Association and Little Rock lawyer John Walker.
The commission was originally headed by former state Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock,and community leader Terence Bolden. Both men resigned from the commission in February, saying Watson did not trust them and was trying to control the process.
The board paid more than $200,000 to consultants Lawrence O. Picus and Associates of California to help draft the plan.
Carl Cohn, one of the consultants, said Thursday that it could take until 2015, and maybe closer to 2020, to accomplish the goals laid out in the plan.
“This is not a quick fix,” Cohn said. “So I’m issuing a warning that anybody who thinks this is a one- or two-year process of improvements, you will be disappointed.”
School Board President Charles Armstrong said after the forum ended that he may call a special meeting to vote on the plan as soon as next week. He said there is “broadsupport” for the plan among board members and predicted the board would approve it.
Armstrong acknowledged, however, that it would be difficult for the district to attain the goal of 90 percent proficiency laid out in the plan.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 03/19/2010