Pulaski County's four school districts are in a ready-and-willing position to work with businesses to transform high schools into career-focused academies as a way to better prepare all students for both jobs and higher education.
That is the finding of a team from the Ford Next Generation Learning initiative -- an arm of Ford Motor Co. -- that visited Pulaski County earlier this year to assess the interest and the capacity of the four school systems and area businesses to cooperatively phase in career academies in 10 high schools.
"Community leaders, educators and employers in Pulaski County are interested in transformation and see this moment in time as the stars aligning for the change that this community needs," the Ford Next Generation Learning team concludes in its report being widely released today by the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce.
A career academy model pairs traditional academics with project-based learning and real-world problem-solving in different, multiple career fields such as medical professions, building trades, or the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The model for each campus includes a freshman introductory academy and multiple career academies that are ideally made up of 200 to 250 students each.
Ford Next Generation Learning has assisted about 35 communities over the past 13 years to establish the career-focused academy model, including Nashville, Tenn., where Nissan North America, the FBI, and Country Music Television are longtime local affiliates with career academies.
Today's release of the Pulaski County report is the latest in a series of steps to explore and possibly carry out the Ford Next Generation Learning academy model.
The Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce has spearheaded the early steps -- including funding the initial study and accompanying local school and business leaders to two Ford Next Generation Learning conferences in Nashville.
Immediate next steps include asking the Little Rock district's Community Advisory Board and the school boards in the North Little Rock, Pulaski County Special and Jacksonville/North Pulaski school districts to commit to the initiative.
If that is forthcoming, then community visioning sessions and master plan writing would commence in August with the over-arching goal of starting at least some of the foundational ninth-grade freshman academies at some of the high schools as soon as August 2020. Career academies would be phased in a grade at a time in the next years, with the possibility of some campuses starting sooner than others.
Chamber President and Chief Executive Officer Jay Chesshir said the rare opportunity for collaboration of the four Pulaski County districts can lead to their collective enrollment growth rather than district leaders worrying about competing for students.
"Students will have choices based upon which college and career pathway that they are most interested in, which will make their learning more relevant, which is going to mean a more well-rounded and educated student," Chesshir said.
He also said that the school planning will be customized to Pulaski County.
"This isn't a Ford NGL plan that we are buying off the shelf and trying to implement," Chesshir said. "This is a framework of how plans have worked elsewhere and now our county will weigh in on how we want ours to be."
James Reddish, the chamber's executive vice president, said what the academies might be is an unknown and that there is still very much to be determined.
"We need a process that is transparent, that is fair, that people can trust, that has local input," he said, "but is driven by data, that looks at what the community needs, and looks at what best represents real opportunities for students for jobs in high-wage and high-growth areas in our community."
In Nashville, planners essentially put out a call to schools, asking them what they thought they would be good at and what programs they already had in place, Reddish said. Then, an overarching group took that and looked at ways to provide equity of choice and opportunity in schools across that city.
Patrick Schueck, president of Lexicon Inc., was among the 39 Pulaski County-area business and education leaders to attend the Ford initiative's conference last month in Nashville.
Schueck called the career academy initiative student-centered, inspiring and "a generational game changer for central Arkansas."
"I visited several schools in greater Nashville," he said. "In each school, I was able to sit down with a group of kids and discuss school and what it means to them. In every circumstance, the kids had chosen an academy that meant something to them. They believed in the academy, their teachers, coaches and principals. They all had a plan for their future as well as a backup plan. Most of them wanted to go to college, but all of them recognized that they could use their industry-recognized credentials to support them in the pursuit of their future plans."
He also said that the success of the initiative is believed to have had a $100 million effect on the regional economy.
Hugh McDonald, retired Entergy Arkansas executive and now chairman of the state's Career Education and Workforce Development board, also found much to like in Nashville, including the school-business partnerships that enable business people to assist specific academies and groups of teachers with team-teaching, project-based learning and field trips.
"That is key," McDonald said about the structured partnerships. "It is hard for businesses to find a real tangible way to be involved in the public school system other than writing a check. That's all good but you don't have any confidence it is making a difference."
Planners for the Pulaski County initiative know there will be costs for facilities, equipment and training associated with the academies, Reddish said. That funding will likely have to come from multiple sources, he said.
The cost of the Ford initiative's consultants over the next three or more years will be $350,000 to $400,000, which will be the responsibility of the four districts over that time, Chesshir said.
The costs of the Phase I study were underwritten by Entergy Arkansas.
Laura Landreaux, president and CEO of Entergy Arkansas said that educational excellence is essential to Arkansas.
"We saw this as a great opportunity to facilitate the progress and potential of our students and workforce," she said.
Superintendents in the four districts were enthusiastic in their comments about the initiative and the opportunity for their districts to collaborate with one another and businesses.
Little Rock Superintendent Mike Poore said the model will "deliver real, relevant learning that will create a win for students, parents, educators and the business community."
Jacksonville Superintendent Bryan Duffie said the "endeavor represents the commitment of multiple organizations to enhance career and college opportunities for all scholars in Pulaski County."
Bobby Acklin, superintendent of the North Little Rock district, said, "Our goal is to help students to become successful, productive adults by any means possible."
Pulaski County Special Superintendent Charles McNulty praised what he called the "continued substantial engagement of the business community" to provide "viable and empowering educational experiences."
The 30-page Ford Next Generation Learning report on Pulaski County included in its list of strengths for the county the six months of collaboration of the four superintendents and their senior teams and the leadership of the chamber.
Other strengths included the focus on equity among all segments of stakeholders, the availability of diverse career fields in the community, and the existence of career education programs and elements of freshmen academies.
The Ford team observed that there was little interaction between schools and community employers in Pulaski County.
The report includes no recommendations for specific career academies at specific schools but did include sections on each high school, noting what career-related programs they currently offer.
The organization recommended that at least one high school from each of the four districts be included in the initial schools to start academies.
It also noted the "prevailing negativity" among the general public toward public schools in the county and said business leaders are "tired of committing their people to initiatives with little follow through."
"Create a timeline and set sights on early wins that can build momentum among all stakeholders," the Ford team recommended in response.
Metro on 05/01/2019