House Education Committee
Video
Transcript
Bills discussed (4)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
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HB1294
· 2 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “HB1294”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB1364
· 2 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “HB1364”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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SB15
· 2 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “SB15”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB1353
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1353”
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Pre-2017 bill |
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Chair
Unverified
0:00
Some special guests that we're going to recognize in a moment, but if you would please make yourself comfortable, avail yourself of our coffee, the best coffee in the Capitol. We want to make sure that everyone feels as comfortable and at home as they possibly can. Members, I think our agenda is going to be very light. We have one bill that we're going to run today.
That's House Bill 1364, Representative Hobbs. Other than that, it looks like most of our bill sponsors are in other committees. A lot of things going on at this point in the session. But I would just want to remind you, if you are running a bill and you are on the committee, if you would either get with me and Mark, we want to try to accommodate you, but at the same time we want to make sure we get our bills cycled through the committee and to the House floor and then to the Senate
and expedite that as best that we possibly can. Today, in our continuing effort to try to expose our committee to people who have ideas, who are informed, who have opinions that matter and can help shape policy in terms of how we can improve education, thus improve our economy in the state of Arkansas. We have Mr. Andy Baxter, who is the Vice President for Teacher Effectiveness with the SREB.
And we're going to be talking more about the SREB as the session goes on and well into the interim. We have a couple of folks here on our committee, Representative Lampkin and Representative Cabot, who are involved with SREB. And Mr. Baxter is going to talk to us a little bit today about teacher effectiveness and teacher evaluation. Those are some things that we're going to talk about. And Mr. Baxter, if you would just head to the end of the table, and we will go ahead and listen to your presentation. We also have some folks here who I want to make sure that we recognize.
Dr. Herman Strickland from Jonesboro is here. He is a member of the SRE Board. He is an educator, been at Arkansas State University for almost 37 years, if that's correct, sir. And he's going to be a tremendous asset to the SREB and a gubernatorial appointee. We'll appreciate you. And, of course, we have our very, very special guest star with us today, the lovely Dr. Johnny J. Roebuck, former state representative who served on this committee with distinction for many, many years
She's a mentor to many of us, and, of course, Dr. Roebuck is also a member of the SREB Board, excuse me, and we're so very glad that you're here, and she's very, very involved in policy making. Her opinion is expert level, I've said that many times, and we just appreciate her service. We appreciate you being here. Thank you very much. Also I want to introduce some folks from Pulaski Tech, the Pulaski Tech Network for Student
Success is here with their director, Mr. Kareem Moody. Thank you gentlemen for being here today. You know, we've seen Pulaski Tech in the last few years become a really important educational institution in Central Arkansas, filling a very, very desperate need, putting people directly to work. We appreciate you all being here. We're honored that you're here, and please come back any time. And we know you all are under a time constraint, but we welcome you to stay as long as you possibly can.
And once again, we appreciate you all very much. Dr. Baxter, this morning I told you that we had a hard 15 minutes, but I think with a light agenda, if you want to be
Speaker 3
3:55
a little more leisurely, please feel free. But with that, ladies
Speaker 5
4:06
and gentlemen, Dr. Andy Baxter. Well, Mr. Chairman and the committee, thank you very much for the chance to be here. And I bring greetings from President Dave Spence of SREB.
Value your membership for all these years in SREB and hope that as SREB expands into this space of helping states with their educator effectiveness systems and policies that this This can be one more area where we have a strong partnership and where we can provide support where you need it. You certainly, I've spent the last two days with Johnny Roebuck meeting with about everybody I think in Little Rock, and that's why I look tired.
I don't know what she has for breakfast every morning, but it's a fast pace that I've been on. And one of the things that I've been struck by, both in reading your landmark legislation on the teacher excellence and support system, reading the rules that have come out of the department afterwards, and meeting you all, is I do believe that Arkansas is in a unique situation among SREB states. When we talk about where are the 16 SREB states on matters of teacher effectiveness, it's
easy to use words like who's ahead and who's behind and who's doing it right and who's doing it wrong. Those words probably apply more in situations where there's a definite right and wrong way to approach it. In this case, when we talk about whether we are ahead or behind or who's ahead, it's mostly in the sense of about time and implementation. There are states that are a little further down the road in terms of implementation, but that
doesn't mean that they're closer to getting it right. Those states might be Louisiana, Florida, or Tennessee. And there are states like where you are, Kentucky, in some ways North Carolina, that have done a lot of thought and introduced some legislation, especially in the case of Kentucky that's very similar to yours, with the goal of knowing that you get the legislation out, but that's just not even half the battle. That's just the very beginning.
And maybe battle's even the wrong word to use. Maybe it's more like it's just part of the journey. And I don't mean journey in the sense of any kind of like touchy-feely, we're walking together with no end or no accountability. I don't mean that. But what I do mean is that you are in, in a way, like frontier land. You passed great legislation. And it's easy. Well, it's not easy. It took a lot of work to get people around the table to stay together around that legislation. What will the
next step be? Will be in the implementation. It will be in once teachers start getting evaluation ratings in the pilot year and when this implements. And that'll be about the same time that the new common core assessments are coming out. And parents and teachers, if you're like every other state, are going to see lower scores than what they're used to. Not because the teacher suddenly got worse or the students are not as bright, but because you've raised the bar on what you've
expected of the students. When that all happens, there's going to be a tremendous amount of pressure on the system. I dare say your phones, your emails are going to light up. This is what's happened in Tennessee, for example. There'll be a lot of pressure and there will be mistakes that are made you can't roll out something this new this comprehensive and not have some mistakes and so my challenge to you would be to be proactive in setting up ways to learn about
from what is happening in the field and to hold people accountable to the implementation Where it's not going well, find out why. If it's not going well because people aren't trying, sanctions. If it's not going well because the system doesn't allow people to do well, some things need to be changed, then fix those things. Here's an example. So already, we've heard word around the state from meetings that I've had the last couple days that some principals might be looking to outsource the evaluation of their teachers by hiring an outside company to come in and provide the feedback.
Well, if you've read the bill, you would know that that runs very counter to the whole spirit of the bill, which tries to create an evaluator, evaluatee, a coach-player type relationship between the principal and the teacher. So why is that happening? Is it that the principals don't know how to do good evaluations? Well, in that case, it's a training issue.
Is it because the principles don't want to? Well, then in that case, it's a willpower and it requires discipline. Is it because there's no time in the existing part of the day? Something that a lot of principles would say. Then the answer in that case might not be penalizing the principles, but finding out what's happening in the course of the day. I was telling a group this morning of how we can learn from other sectors when they are doing this work.
And I heard a talk by a CEO of a big health care provider company in North Carolina. He was talking about they did a time study and they realized that their nurses on their 12-hour shifts were only spending about one hour of that shift actually with patients. now in an education setting sometimes our first instinct if we were to get information like that is we would set an evaluation and say if you're not spending more than one hour with patients you're going to get rated unsatisfactory right that would be kind of the mentality
but what they did is make an assumption that basically that the nurses are there to spend time with patients so something must be going wrong that's not allowing that and so what they did was they started following the nurses around to find out well what's going on and they realized that nurses were spending about eight hours of those 12 hours hunting for supplies that were supposed to be in the supply closet and they had an inventory problem. So they fixed the inventory problem and suddenly they redo the time checks and now nurses are with patients the vast majority of
the time. It's that type of exploration and learning what's happening and then responding to it that I think is going to be crucial to you as you move forward. It's easy in the abstract for people to read the bill and think that's great, but it's just human nature that once it's in place, once ratings come out, you're going to see strains on the system. And so I think setting up a reporting and accountability structure ahead of time so that you are receiving regular
updates from the department, including all the stakeholders in schools, the associations, et cetera, to hear how is it going, what do we need to fix. Sometimes the remedies might be legislative tweaks, sometimes it may be in the rules, sometimes it may just be in training and awareness. But that's what you'll need. And if you have some doubts about that, talk to your peers in Tennessee. After the end of their first year, there were so many glitches in the system,
so many teachers contacting legislators saying this is broken, it's not working, this is a huge mistake that they, at the last minute, had to commission with an outside group of various stakeholders to do a review. If they'd have thought ahead of time and said, you know what, this is going to be an iterative process, this is going to be, we are building it, we're testing, we're building, we're testing, and constantly evolving it, then I think you will be on the long journey, this will be something that will be sustained, something that people believe in, and most importantly, something that gets results for students.
it's always it's a truism but it's in worth keeping in mind every time that you talk about this that in the end it's about the students we know from all the all of our own experience of powerful teachers that we've had in the past we know what that means to us right those are the ways that teachers matter but they matter in lots of other ways economically for the life of the students those things are are crucial and that's why we're doing this work so
that would be my counsel and what I would ask of you or to let you know of is that SREB is here to support you sometimes that might mean connecting you with folks in other states if you've got questions about some of the latest research in the area we can come in and and provide summaries of that if there is technical assistance a national expert that you need and you would like to hear from we can help to bring that person in so that you can move further down the path on this I want to commend
you for what you've done and to know that we're supporting there supporting you as you as you proceed thank you mr.
Representative James McLean
Unverified
14:33
chair thank you dr. baxter excellent presentation I had the good fortune this morning to have breakfast with dr. baxter and something that struck me in the course of our conversation as we were discussing teacher evaluations and the differing styles and effectiveness in the SREB consortium groups and states was when you mentioned that everything we do is
about outcomes for students. And I think that's something that this committee needs to keep in mind as we do a lot of policy wonk-ish things, a lot of complex issues, but in the end, it's to achieve an outcome, a positive outcome for our students. Dr.
Chair
Unverified
15:13
Baxter, thank you very, very much for being here today, and before you go, committee, do we have any questions for Dr. Baxter? If not, thank you very much, and
Representative James McLean
Unverified
15:24
we look forward to working with you throughout the interim
and the rest of this session, and please, members, you know, the SREB
Chair
Unverified
15:33
is a resource for you and the level of research the professionals that are involved with it we need to take advantage of that so thank you very much for being here we appreciate you very much okay just during the time that Dr. Baxter was speaking our agenda has about tripled so instead of one bill it looks like we have three
is Representative Perry here So, Representative Perry, in our attempt to keep good relations with the Senate and the building, we are going to go ahead and listen to your bill first. And we will continue to listen to our Senate bills. Hopefully, there will be reciprocity when we go to the other end of the building. So, with that, Representative Perry, you are recognized to present Senate Bill 15. Thank
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
16:24
you to Mr. Chairman and committee. for lack of time I'm not going to read all 31 pages but I'll give you the
cliff notes if it's okay Senate
bill actually I'm trying to get this thing to
work here we go this one blank Senate
bill 15 has to do with a legislative compact it it's when Blue Rock Air Force Base is experienced. Thank you, sir. Little Rock Air Force Base and other military installations have problems whenever kids transfer in and out as frequently as
they do. A lot of the time delay in getting records so you can place the kids in school. This Senator Williams had a physical study done. He worked with the Department of Education And to get this with Colonel Robinson at Little Rock Air Force Base, worked on this for extensive time to make sure it all fit in. But what it does is allow them to place the kids more rapidly in school, pending receipt
of records, immunizations, and everything else. It helps the kids get back in school quicker, so I'd appreciate a good vote. Committee, do we have any
Speaker 23
17:49
questions for Representative Perry in regard to SB 15? Representative Radley. Is this going to
Speaker 26
17:58
have any physical impact on the state? No, sir. Representative Douglas.
Speaker 33
18:10
Thank you, Mr. Chair. How do you get around the immunizations? That might be the biggest
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
18:19
vote lock. Good question. About on the third or fourth page, it talks about immunizations. I think they have ten days. I don't know the exact days, but that is addressed. They're placed, but
they have to provide those records. Thank you. I would be reminiscuous
Representative James McLean
Unverified
18:35
if I did not ask the committee, are you getting the Senate bill on your tablets?
Speaker 23
18:41
Are we having any problem getting the information? Okay. Do we have any other questions from the committee? Representative Deffenbaugh. Thank you, Mr.
Representative Gary Deffenbaugh
Unverified
18:51
Chair. How did you say that, how are they going to speed this up? Representative, I forgot what you are. I didn't understand what you were saying. How do you speed up this process
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
19:00
of getting them in school? I mean, I hope that. What it does is, and this is my summary
of reading this bill, is it allows them, if a kid comes in from North Carolina and they were in 8th grade AP classes,
they're going to put them in the appropriate grade with AP classes depending the final receipt of their records showing that they had qualified for that, subject for them to be changed accordingly. But instead of waiting to those records, because sometimes it will take weeks, and that kid, let's get him back into school, and then we'll move him into proper placement if we need to. Okay, thank you. Representative Ratliff. Is anybody here from
Speaker 26
19:40
the Department of Ed would like to ask in support of this?
Speaker 23
19:44
Yes, sir. Do we have any other questions from the committee? Representative Douglas. Are
Speaker 32
19:54
you going to allow those students to immediately be in, like, say, join a football team or a basketball team day one? That is correct. Okay. That's addressed to you. Do
Speaker 23
20:10
we have any other questions? If not, do we have anyone in the audience who wishes to speak against the bill?
Chair
Unverified
20:18
Anyone who wishes to speak for the bill? Dr. Kimball, do you have anything to add,
Speaker 45
20:26
sir? Very well. With that, the chair will entertain a motion. Representative Eubanks,
Chair
Unverified
20:33
what's your motion? We have a do, pass motion. All in favor? All opposed? The motion passes. Thank you
Speaker 19
20:45
very much, Representative Perry. Thank you, committee. Thank you, Chair. I would also like to recognize another
Chair
Unverified
20:50
special guest we have today, Mr. B.J. Linderman.
Marmaduke FFA advisor is here. He is the son of Homer Linderman, state representative from Jonesboro. Where are you, Mr. Linderman? There you go. Come up here so we can see you. And let's get our students up here until we want to make sure the committee sees you and recognizes you. Come up around here where Mr. Linderman is. We'll get Mark to kind of get everybody headed up this direction.
And I think it is interesting to note that not only was Representative Linderman an ag teacher for many, many years in northeast Arkansas, So his daughter is an ag teacher, and, of course, BJ, his son, is an ag teacher. And we thank y'all, FFA from Marmaduke, coming up today and spending a little time with us. Thank you very much. Co-members, we are going to go ahead and listen to House Bill 1294.
Speaker 23
21:57
This is Representative Hammer. Are you here, sir? Representative Hammer, if you'd be so kind to make your way to the end of the table. And
Representative Kim Hammer
Unverified
22:12
when you are ready, sir, you are recognized to proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. This bill is the safety net bill for all the kids that are currently school-choiced. As you know, we're waiting on a ruling from the court system to tell us how they're going to handle the existing school-choice bill situation.
What this bill does is, as I mentioned, provides a safety net. So all those kids that are currently covered under school choice and up to the date that either the court rules or July 1st of this year, that they would be allowed to remain in the school system, which they have school choice to. And that impacts somewhere around 15,000, 15,500 is the number of kids that we're talking about throughout the state. Just maybe put some of you at ease and let you know that Dr. Kimbrell and his office are supportive of this bill, as well as the School Board Association, the Rural Ed, AEA, Mr. Merton's group,
and also the Attorney General does not oppose this bill. So there's been a lot of thought process put into this to make sure that for whatever happens after this point, the kids that are currently in will be able to maintain their placement of school and live lives that are not disrupted waiting on the court to make a decision. I will be glad to answer any questions that the committee may have. Thank you, Representative
Speaker 22
23:28
Hamlin. Do we have any questions from the committee?
Speaker 48
23:34
Representative Armstrong? What if the court's decision is not favorable to this school choice?
Representative Kim Hammer
Unverified
23:42
That's the purpose of this bill is if, as I understand it, and I have visited with the Attorney General's office to make sure that, you know, I'm fairly accurate on this or accurate on this, that this bill should provide a layer of protection for those kids that are in, regardless of what the Supreme Court decides. Thank you. Thank you. So,
Chair
Unverified
24:03
Representative Hammond, let me kind of, just for my own clarification,
if the Eighth Circuit rules that the current school choice law is unconstitutional,
Speaker 45
24:11
this gives children who are already transfers the ability to stay where they are, in the district they are, if they wish. Is that correct? This is the bill
Speaker 23
24:21
that gives us the best chance for that to happen,
Representative Kim Hammer
Unverified
24:24
but everybody knows in this room on any given day anybody can sue anybody and anybody can raise a question about anything. But this bill is one that gives those kids the best fighting chance. But as I understand it from the people that are in the position to know more about me
than the legal system, this is the safety net that will at least protect the kids that are already there. I would like to say one thing, just so everybody knows on the front end, and I was approached about adding an amendment to this bill because one of the ways in which this bill is structured currently, it talks about the sibling issue. What if you've got a 7-, 8-year-old child who's in school and they've got a 3-year-old sibling, and what are going to be the guarantees for them coming up?
The way the bill is currently written, it is pretty much mandated that that sibling would have to be accepted by that school, but I was approached by a couple of the organizations, and they just wanted a little latitude on that, it doesn't change, nor does it undermine the intent of the bill, and I'm going to add that on the Senate end when we get down there. And the reason I'm doing it that way is if I didn't, I'd have to get a new fiscal impact study, and currently there is no fiscal impact according to the study, so it's mainly just to keep the wheels moving so we can get this issue settled for those 15,000 kids.
Speaker 45
25:44
Well, thank you very much, Representative Hammer. Do we have any questions from the committee? Representative
Speaker 33
25:51
Douglas. So when you say siblings, this is going to include future children born into the family, stepchildren that may, you know, be there for future marriages? It would be covered
Representative Kim Hammer
Unverified
26:04
by the term siblings, however they determine to be siblings, whether they're present, future, or inherited.
Speaker 33
26:11
Very good. Thank you. Representative Catlett.
Representative John Catlett
Unverified
26:17
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like for Dr. Kimbrell to come down to the end table and ask a question,
Speaker 28
26:23
please, if that's appropriate. Yes, sir. Dr. Kimbrell, you are recognized. Thank you, sir. Tom Kimbrell, Commissioner
Speaker 55
26:30
of Education. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Kimbrell, I'd
Representative John Catlett
Unverified
26:33
like a better word. I'd like for you to elaborate on this bill. Is
Speaker 58
26:39
it something the Education Department finds useful? Yes, sir.
Speaker 55
26:42
I mean, we're talking close to 16,000 students who are choiced across the state right now.
if the Eighth Circuit finds that our current law is unconstitutional and we don't have a school choice, our only recourse, in our opinion, would be that those students have to return to their resident school district, which would, again, disrupt about 16,000 students. Not only the disruption to the students, but what the impact that may have on schools. We have school districts that have a large percentage of their students who are choiced in. We have schools that have lost a lot of students. So, you know, you have schools that would have empty space and you'd have
schools that don't have enough space. So we think this is a good some good coverage for the students. I think it's a pretty wise move on Representative Hammer's part to introduce this. Yeah, I feel the same way. Thank
Representative John Catlett
Unverified
27:35
you, Dr. Kimberl. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Representative Callow. Do we have any other questions? Dr. Kimberl, just one
Chair
Unverified
27:41
quick thing. Yes, sir. We've had to – the
Representative James McLean
Unverified
27:45
Eighth Circuit is going to reach a decision at some point in time regarding school choice. And I just want the membership to know, per my conversations with Dr. Kimbrell, we are seeking guidance from the Eighth Circuit.
We're not just, you know, going to wait. We have asked them to kind of guide us within the framework of a decision. Is that correct,
Speaker 55
28:05
Dr. Kimbrell? We hope that decision will have some guidance, yes, sir. But we can't say what they will do or won't do. But, yes, we're hoping that there's some guidance in their decision. And we will be
Representative James McLean
Unverified
28:17
speaking more and more and more about this through the session as bills pertaining to this come in our direction. Thank you very much, Dr. Kimbrell. Representative Hammer? There was just one thing I wanted to say.
Representative Kim Hammer
Unverified
28:29
This is kind of a one-two punch. This is the first punch, and this is what provides the safety for the kids that are currently in. There is a piece of legislation that may be filed this afternoon in working with the same entities just mentioned and with those in the legal field that are going to address how we can move forward to provide addressing issues into the future. So right now, this bill right now takes care of those kids, and I would appreciate a good vote so we can take care of those 16,000 that are out there. Thank you, Representative. Representative Dale.
Speaker 63
29:04
Could we hear from Mr. Richardson? Yes, we're going to
Speaker 23
29:07
get to Mr. Richardson. He was anxiously awaiting to make his way to the
Speaker 45
29:14
table. All right. Thank you. Representative Catlett, do you have a question just before Richard Richardson? I motion at the proper time, sir. Okay. Thank you,
Speaker 65
29:23
sir. Mr. Richardson, you're recognized. Good morning. Scott Richardson from the Attorney General's Office. We're fine with this bill. We
Speaker 66
29:29
think it's after the district court made its decision striking down our school choice law,
there were a lot of calls that the Department of Education received and our office received. People concerned about if their children could stay in the schools where they had gone to. And it was our position then that the current law allowed it, but it wasn't clear. This bill would clarify that those children do get to stay in their chosen schools. Mr. Richardson, just, and you
Representative James McLean
Unverified
29:59
may not be able to answer this, but when could we expect a decision from the Eighth Circuit?
Speaker 66
30:06
You're right. I cannot answer that. But hopefully soon. We've had all the briefs are in. We've had oral argument. And to the point that was asked earlier, I told the judges in oral argument that one of my main hopes for the case was that we could get some guidance from them on what the state's constitutional obligations were going forward in this arena of school choice and inter-district desegregation and segregation.
So I can't say when. It could be tomorrow. It could be six months from now. It could be a year from now. But hopefully it won't be that
Representative James McLean
Unverified
30:46
long. Will the state have any notice prior to a decision being made? I mean, do they call you up and say, hey, expect a decision next week, or is it just one of those deals where a decision is
Speaker 66
30:58
made and everyone is notified? It's that second option. And once they make a decision, it's published, and then everybody gets to know at once.
Speaker 23
31:06
Okay. Mr. Richardson, thank you very much.
Committee, do we have any other questions? Representative Douglas, do you
Chair
Unverified
31:13
have a question? Representative Douglas. Do we have any other questions from the committee? If not, do we have anyone who wishes to speak against the bill? Anyone from the audience who wishes to speak for the bill? If not, what's the pleasure of the committee? Motion to pass. We have a motion to pass. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Representative Hammer. Thank you, Committee. Okay, members, we are going to now take up House Bill 1364, Representative Hobbs.
If you would be so kind as to make your way
Speaker 23
31:45
to the end of the table. And when you are ready, ma'am, you are
Representative Debra M. Hobbs
Unverified
32:00
recognized to proceed. MS. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. If
it's okay, Mr. Chair, I'll have these two people join me. MR. Yes,
Speaker 19
32:08
if your two guests would not be so kind as introduce themselves. MS. Okay.
Speaker 76
32:12
I'm Misty Newcomb. I'm speaking on behalf of the Office
Speaker 79
32:21
for Education Policy today. MR. Thank you for
Representative James McLean
Unverified
32:25
being here. Hi, I'm Benton Brown for
Representative Debra M. Hobbs
Unverified
32:30
the Arkansas Teacher Corps. Mr. Brown, thank you for being here, sir. Representative House. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members, some of you were here in 2011 when we passed the Teacher Alternative Licensure Bill, and one of the programs included that in that alternative licensing was Teach for
America. Some of you heard testimony about the success of that program and how effective it was. And you may have seen the article in the Democrat Gazette recently that featured a Teach for America teacher who I believe taught biology or teaches biology in Clarendon and the success that the teacher had with that group of students. And as we heard earlier, the effectiveness of a teacher in the classroom makes a big difference in the lives of students and in what they achieve.
This is an amendment to that because I'm very excited that since then we have a new program called Arkansas Teacher Corps that has been developed, and this bill would add that to our list. It also will add any other accelerated teaching program that is approved by the Department of Education. And with that, I would like for Mr. Brown and Ms. Newcomb maybe to explain a little more about that program.
Speaker 76
33:51
MR. Go right ahead, ma'am. MS. Well, I'm just going to give a little introduction to the Arkansas Teacher Corps, and then I'll let you all grill Benton all you want. The Arkansas Teacher Corps was developed in a response to teacher shortages in parts of our state. It's good to talk about teacher effectiveness, and that certainly is one of the most – or most important determining factor in student achievement, but the concern in parts of our state is that not so much about teacher effectiveness, but also about teacher's presence in the
classroom. We have a real shortage of highly qualified teachers in parts of the state. Last year, Teach for America, I believe they testified before this committee that they they were not able to place. There were districts that were requesting 100 to 150 TFA members in their schools that they weren't able to place. And so this, the Arkansas Teacher Corps was developed to address that shortage with teachers from Arkansas. And so the way that the program came about, it's a collaborative effort of the Office
for Education Policy, the College of Education from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The dean has been very involved, Dean Smith from the College of Education has been very involved with the development of this program, and the curriculum and instruction department at the University of Arkansas as well. These groups have worked together to develop this program. The purpose of the program is to recruit individuals, high-performing individuals, from other departments at the University of Arkansas. So we could, for example, have a biology major coming into the field of education and serve
as a biology teacher in a district that has a teacher shortage. And so there are eligibility requirements for participating schools, eligibility requirements for participating individuals. The bill itself does not – what we are hoping to accomplish today is not to establish the program. The program is established, it's fully funded, and all these organizations are working right now to get teachers placed in the upcoming school year. What this bill does, it allows the teachers that are placed into these districts to be
eligible for a teaching license under the same guidelines that the Teach for America program licenses their teachers. You know, we're really excited
Speaker 78
36:14
about this program. We really want to be able to get Arkansas graduates into our classrooms and to give them a path, these bright individuals and high-achieving individuals, give them a path to teaching in the state that may not have been there originally. And that's really what we're hoping to do with this bill is be able to, you know, get those great, bright graduates from the state of Arkansas, these individuals that know the
Speaker 79
36:40
needs in the state of Arkansas into those classrooms. MR.
Representative Debra M. Hobbs
Unverified
36:47
Rifford, do you have anything to add? I believe they covered it, sir. And I'm sorry, I was busy getting into tears, so I don't know if Benton told you or not, But he is actually, I guess, a graduate maybe of the Teach for America program and did teach in one
of those areas that were in high need. Do we have
Speaker 23
37:05
any questions for Representative Hobbs? If not, do we have anyone in the audience who wishes to speak against this bill?
Anyone wishing to speak for the bill? If not, the Chair will entertain a motion. Representative Linderman. We have
Chair
Unverified
37:21
a do, pass, motion. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much, Representative Hobbs. Thank you, Ms.
Speaker 23
37:31
Chair. Thank you, Committee. Okay, Committee, we are now going to take up House Bill 1353, Representative Catlett. Are you prepared to present that bill today, sir? Well, Mr. Catlett, if you'd be, excuse me, Representative Catlett, if you'd be so kind
to make your way to the end of the table, and when you
Chair
Unverified
37:48
are ready, sir, you are recognized I ask to proceed with the
Representative John Catlett
Unverified
37:57
presentation of House Bill 1353. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members. Okay with you, Mr. Chair, I'd like for the
Speaker 19
38:03
Tony Wood, the Oxford Department of Education, to join me at the table. Mr. Wood is more than recognized, more than welcome.
Speaker 3
38:14
Mr. Wood, thank you for being here today.
Speaker 89
38:17
You are recognized. Thank you. I'm Tony
Speaker 90
38:21
Wood, Deputy Commissioner, Department of Education. Just a little background in regard
Speaker 92
38:25
to this effort. We have situations in the past where school districts in Arkansas that the children have not had the dollar amount of advocacy funding because of a collection rate of miscellaneous funds that is less than what's used in the formula. This bill simply would refer back to the prior calendar year of the miscellaneous funds collected,
and that amount would be used in the funding formula. And in the event that the federal government did not forward that amount of miscellaneous funds to the district, the department would make up that amount and true up to the dollar amount of miscellaneous funds. Bottom line is it
Speaker 90
39:05
would assure that each student would have the dollar amount of advocacy funding that you've determined
Speaker 22
39:12
is appropriate. Thank you, Mr. Wood. Representative Keller,
Representative John Catlett
Unverified
39:14
do you have anything to add? Yes. Members, I'm from a real rural area, and the schools in my district rely on miscellaneous funds,
unlike some of the urban areas that don't have them. And miscellaneous funds are, you know, monies in lieu of property tax from Federal Forest Reserve, federal grazing rights, federal mineral rights, federal impact aid, federal flood control, wildlife refuge funds, and severance taxes. The deal is that they're inconsistent. And I've tried to do a little bit of background on how come they're inconsistent, and I just failed.
I just don't know. Mr. Woods, he may be able to elaborate on that, but they're inconsistent. You might receive a windfall one year and four years later they're down. So it's hard for schools to budget at a yearly basis, especially if administrators change because priority changes, school board changes, management changes. So you might have to live with a decision from four years ago and your funding be considerably less than base funding.
And one of my schools suffered from this, Two Rivers School District. And they were probably $1,000 short per student at one year, and it really caused a hardship. So I felt like with working with the Department of Education that
this maybe would solve some of those management decision problems that have been faced. Tony, is
Representative James McLean
Unverified
40:47
there maybe a geographic basis or an explanation? Is this maybe centered in a particular portion
Speaker 23
40:53
of the state, or is it pretty much just broadly?
Speaker 92
40:57
No, sir. It's broad. Actually, statewide, in 11-12, there was slightly in excess of $16 million total for all the districts that participated in miscellaneous funds. It's also probably a shortcoming on my part not to have mentioned how this has been done in the past. There have been efforts in the past to try to equalize this so that districts would be treated fairly in regard to miscellaneous funds. And the current process takes the five-year average to the prior year,
and that dollar average for that five-year period is actually what's used in the formula in an effort to try to reference back to an average. As Representative Catlett has mentioned, that's not always been successful. Do you gentlemen have anything else we need to
Speaker 67
41:45
cover, or are we good? Okay. Do we have any questions from the committee? if not do
Speaker 23
41:50
we have anyone in the audience who wishes to speak against this bill anyone who wishes to speak for the bill if not the chair will entertain a motion
Speaker 45
42:01
Representative Dale what's your motion we have a do pass motion all in favor all opposed motion passes Representative Catlett
Chair
Unverified
42:13
thank you very much okay I believe that we have done Yeoman's work again in the education committee We appreciate everyone being here today. We are the most effective, equitable, and adequate committee in the legislature. We will now entertain a motion to adjourn. Meeting is adjourned. We'll see you Thursday at 10.
Agenda
PRESENTATION REGARDING TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS
SB15
HB1294
HB1364
HB1353
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 3
Speaker 5
Representative James McLean
Unverified
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
Speaker 23
Speaker 26
Speaker 33
Representative Gary Deffenbaugh
Unverified
Speaker 32
Speaker 45
Speaker 19
Representative Kim Hammer
Unverified
Speaker 22
Speaker 48
Representative John Catlett
Unverified
Speaker 28
Speaker 55
Speaker 58
Speaker 63
Speaker 65
Speaker 66
Representative Debra M. Hobbs
Unverified
Speaker 76
Speaker 79
Speaker 78
Speaker 89
Speaker 90
Speaker 92
Speaker 67