Week 23: LEARNS Update

Happy Friday!

Thank you for all you have done this week to help us reach our district goals. We should have an update on our on-level reading percentage by next Tuesday’s board meeting to accompany the other data we are tracking and I look forward to sharing that with everyone soon.

As we learn more about the LEARNS plan, it is apparent that our grade-level reading will be a very important part of our work for years to come; so, I will get right to the subject at hand for this week’s Wrap-up.

Arkansas LEARNS

Secretary Oliva zoomed with superintendents this morning to provide us with more information about the details of the Governor’s plan and I will share what he told us in this Wrap-up. He did explain that there are things he still does not know as more questions get asked but added that he and the department will work with school districts to make sure that this plan is successful.

Before starting, he did warn us that there are still many nuances and uncertainties about this plan because it is not finished and will take multiple years to implement.

* Early Childhood Education

The major element of this is to relocate the Division of Early Childhood Education from DHS to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. A new Office of Early Childhood at DESE will oversee all of the Pre-K programs, including privately run systems, to ensure Kindergarten readiness. There will be no mandatory Pre-K but the state will create a dashboard for parents to inform them of effective early childhood education centers near their homes and provide information related to costs, accountability, curriculum, student-teacher ratios, etc. They will also work with faith-based, independent, and private programs to give guidance and assistance on these items of educational interest and establish ways to close gaps in service in areas that do not have high-quality early childhood.

Secretary Oliva pointed out that we know that students who come to Kindergarten without being Kindergarten ready tend to stay behind grade-level reading standards. DESE will define Kindergarten readiness and that will be the mission of the Office of Early Childhood

* Early Literacy

The big question related to early literacy was the language related to the retention of those students who were not at grade-level reading ability by the Third Grade. Secretary Oliva was clear that this is not a mandatory retention policy. He went on to explain that students that went on to Fourth Grade and were not on grade level will be given a safety net in later grades so as not to fall further behind. He used examples such as extended reading blocks of time, being placed with the highest quality teachers, and focused RTI. Furthermore, parents will be provided with funds to pay for additional tutoring if their child is not able to read at grade level.

DESE will develop a unified progress monitoring system for schools and the department to use and accurately measure students’ reading levels. This is encouraging because we have a concern here in our district about being accurate with our measurements to track our progress. Schools not meeting the level of expectation will be provided with reading coaches from DESE to improve reading instruction.

Secretary Oliva stated his belief that 90 to 100 percent of our Third Graders should be on level when the system is put into place over the next couple of years. There is no doubt that we will see a renewed focus on our K through 3 literacy instruction with the Science of Reading establishing all of our teaching practices. DESE will be contracting with an outside agency to independently evaluate what their department and our schools are doing to reach this goal.

There is a similar plan being built around numeracy, as well.

* Career Readiness

We saw the first step in this plan happen this week with the House Education Committee recommending a ‘do-pass’ for HB1329. This bill, if it becomes law, will require DESE to establish ways for students to take elective Career and Technical courses to substitute for core academic courses.

The LEARNS plan contains within it the goal of creating a career-ready diploma for high school students who want to learn a trade or other skills not taking the traditional university route. School districts will be developing ways for these diplomas to be developed locally with local needs in mind. Core components of academics will still be required and the diploma must still provide a post-secondary pathway should a student want to continue a traditional post-secondary education at a later time.

Community service will be a part of graduation requirements but DESE will give schools flexibility to define that because of the differences in resources available from district to district for community service opportunities.

* Low Performing Schools

Local boards will be allowed to contract with other educational entities to run low-performing schools instead of suffering state takeover. A takeover is still an option but in LEARNS there is now one more step to be taken at the local level before the state takes over.

* School Safety

Funding will be available for schools to improve safety. However, the funding is prioritized according to the priorities set forth by the Governor’s School Safety Advisory Council. One of the top priorities schools must use funds for is the hardening of the schools through controlling access to buildings and students. Door systems and fencing will be the starting point for safety efforts followed by the addition of trained individuals who can respond to threats in a fast, effective manner. The good news is that our schools at Mena already have many of the top priorities in place.

Schools will also be provided with more mental health support by providing more training for current staff on threat assessment and increasing the number of mental health professionals available to assist the schools.

There will also be an alert system for teacher licensure when educators are placed on administrative leave for the investigation of abuse. This is to prevent the individual from leaving the state to work in another state.

* Teacher Salary and Incentive Pay

The minimum teacher salary will be increased from $36,000 to $50,000 putting Arkansas in the top five states for teacher pay. For the 2023-2024 school year, all teachers will also receive a $2,000 raise from this year’s salary. There will no longer be a law that dictates a mandatory salary schedule but that does not mean that salary schedules will no longer exist. Whether or not Mena has a salary schedule will depend on what can be afforded and that will not be known until the foundation funding amount is released.

We were told by the Secretary that the money needed for the new minimum and the $2,000 raise will come from a separate fund and we will continue to receive foundation funding as we have in the past. This makes the overall teacher pay situation much more tenable and gives schools a mechanism through foundation funds to increase classified salaries.

The state will facilitate a bonus program for educators to earn up to $10,000 more per year based on growth. We were not given any more details about that but I will add that the state’s facilitation of this program makes better sense than schools doing it. It will be more fair and consistent this way. The only insight we have on this system is that the senate proposed a system of incentive pay similar to Louisiana’s.

Schools will also have an option to opt-in to a 12-week paid maternity leave program with half the pay being provided by additional funds from the state.

* Contracts and Teacher Fair Dismissal

Contracts will remain at 190 days for teachers. There was a rumor of 195 days. Also, we will be allowed to continue with our modified calendars that are based on a minimum number of hours instead of days.

People who go into the teaching profession will have more opportunities for scholarships and loan forgiveness. Again, I encourage all of our non-licensed staff to consider earning a degree in education because it will be practically free and the pay will be worth it.

Superintendents’ contracts will be required to have performance targets built within. There was not much detail as to how that would look and the Secretary could not elaborate because he did not know.

Many teachers are afraid that the repeal of the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act would mean that they could be fired for no reason but that is not the case. Due process is still a requirement. The change in TFD will be more about the bureaucracy and red tape involved. The process should be much easier and still provide protections and opportunities for teachers and administrators to improve before being terminated or non-renewed.

* Parent Empowerment

The Secretary said that the local school should be the school of choice for every parent and he wants to ensure that through the implementation of Arkansas LEARNS. He went on to say that when the school cannot meet the needs of a child the parent should be given the tools necessary to make a change. That does not mean that the state will be giving parents money to educate their own children. He said the “Universal School Choice” part of LEARNS would be implemented over the next few years as the plan will take time to develop.

* Societal Forces (CRT)

The Secretary did not speak much about this except to say that this language was intended to be more preventative than reactive. Our emphasis will be to teach students how to think, not what to think. I believe this is what we do at Mena Schools and most schools in our state and do not feel that we will have to face a lot of new policies based on this facet of the plan. Just be a teacher, not an activist. Be kid-centered and not idea-centric. There will be a section of K-5 prohibited topics related to adult-level concepts and ideas such as sexual orientation. There were no more specifics about this topic.

Closing

That ended his discussion with us and there were still many questions unanswered. The Secretary stated that he was open to creating work groups to develop the rules and procedures of the LEARNS plan and the bill that will create it. He is open to collaboration and wants to take every step to ensure the success of our educational system.

Here is the latest from the Thought Exchange and it remains open at this link.

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

Have a great weekend!