House Education Committee
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Transcript
Bills discussed (3)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
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SB93
· 5 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “SB93”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB1230
· 2 mentions in transcript, chapter
Matched: “…kay. Chair and committee, I've got a small bill here that's House Bill 1230, and it's going to amend the requirements for school report…”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB1231
· 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “…. Okay, Representative Ratliff, are you prepared to present House Bill 1231?”
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Pre-2017 bill |
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Next up is a presentation on Arkansas A-plus by Mr. Paul Leopolis, and he has been so kind to come this morning for about 15 minutes. He's going to talk a little bit about his program. This is a very, very interesting program. It's an arts enrichment program that's really having great success in terms of developing critical thinking skills, and kind of an out-of-the-box way to reach children who maybe have difficulty
learning. And Mr. Leopolis, thank you so much for being here today, sir. You are recognized to present your
Speaker 3
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program. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for
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inviting me, Representative McLean. I really appreciate being here. Okay, I'll just sit there. My wife and I are here today. Our foundation is 11 years old this year.
Many of you probably know our story. Thank you very much. Many of you probably know our story about our daughter. We lost her in 2001. What we've done since then was to honor what
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happened to her her junior year of high school. She transformed from a C&D student to an A&B student. She transformed from not liking math or science, not wanting anything to do with it,
to making an A&Trig and signing up for calculus and physics. She transformed into a person who knew she could do anything that she put her mind to. So when we lost her, we followed that thread. And here we are today, 11 years later, and it's very exciting for a guy like me and our organization to be able to come in here and show you a real solution for our schools. This is not just another program.
This is not somebody who just came up with an idea that's making millions of dollars, consultants and all these kind of things. This was put together in North Carolina in 1995 because they were sick and tired of high school kids going to college and having to be high school kids again in college. They were sick and tired of truancy. They were sick and tired of all the things they were going through. And 11 years later, we now are doing what they transformed their school systems with, and we call it Arkansas A-plus schools.
Very quickly, I hate to be, I'm not trying to be negative, but I have to clarify something. There's another group out there that, I just have to say it, lifted our name and is using it for their purposes. And we are getting phone call after phone call from public schools around the state saying, what are you guys doing? when we are really out repairing schools and making them what they ought to be, and we're now getting flack.
So please, there's a differentiation here. Arkansas A-plus schools is the Thea Foundation. We're a not-for-profit. We don't charge millions of dollars to do this. We have no agenda. The other group can speak for themselves, but we are not them. Is that all right? Thank you. Now, let's be positive. I have some great news for you
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and it's going to start with this video. out.
and low income. In fact, more than 60% of the kids receive free or reduced lunches.
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Only a very brave person could have done all them things.
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This elementary school in the deep south of Arkansas is beating the odds, though. More like crushing the odds. Not only is it not failing, its test scores rank among the highest in the state, but that hasn't always been the case. Back in 2005, Hugh Goodwin students tested at 23% proficiency in literacy and 37% in math.
So what changed? Writing is very difficult for students. They've all created something and told something about the class that they've created. According to principal Connie Reed, it's because this is now an 8-plus school. school
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with the April program we focus on integrating some type of art into each lesson or
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whatever school that's being taught but what does that do when you incorporate the art into it it creates a different intriguing factor and makes
them excited about it a new level that has parents taking note of changes in their children Cynthia Meadows has a first grader named Caroline so she wakes that excited to go to school. She comes ready to learn and she loves everything about being here. Matthew Shepherd can also see his
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first grader flourishing. I think her strengths are more in the arts and being creative and drawing and painting and
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so it's been nice that she's been able to incorporate the school incorporates some of the things that she really likes and use those
things to teach what you know the traditional subjects of math and science his third grader eli
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has even come out of his shell he's actually has a solo coming up in
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a school play and so that's really a big deal for him eli's teacher toby sprawl says lesson
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planning takes a bit longer but once you've done that the assessment you're going to say is they got it they understood it you know test scores are going to go up a long long long
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goodwin's test scores for 2005 the year that they implemented a plus the next year proficiency and literacy more than doubled and jumped 28 percent in math it increased over the next four years and now stands at 82 and 88 percent so from the time a plus started to now literacy is up 59 percent math up 51 percent with the a plus part of it brings out that positive feel and just makes people happier to be here makes it better you know better work environment okay guys we're
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going to work on our water cycle boogie now and it's all paying off for
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teachers for students none of us can ever advise
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them until we're there and for their parents we are a dominant in the rough. Hugh Goodwin has given her everything that I believe we could have had anywhere else in the
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United States. Dawn, there are currently 12 schools in Arkansas like Hugh Goodwin and we here at today's TV are launching Project A plus Arkansas to see if
El Dorado is a fluke or if this teaching model really pays off. So Rockefeller, Boone Park, and Highview Elementary School, here we come. We're going to track these three schools over
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the next few years. So that's the Hugh Goodwin story. Let me very briefly say the vision of what we're trying to do for education in the state of Arkansas. Number one, I'm educating the governor.
I'm here today, and I've been to the joint committee twice, and I'll come back with more and more proof every time it comes out, Just so you'll see, this is not a flash in the pan, and this is comprehensive for every school in Arkansas. Dr. Laura Bednar of the Department of Education has invited me to educate her team who goes into the worst of the worst schools in the state. But this is not just for them. This is for every school.
Our schools today are teaching kids to memorize. A-plus schools teach kids to think. And it's obvious. I'll show you the statistics. I'm meeting with the deans of education across the state. Dr. Diana Pounder at UCA is totally fired up about A+. They're looking to infuse it into their teacher education at UCA and that's my dream for every teachers college in the state. And then we go to school by school hand-to-hand combat educating people on this, parents
and everyone let me tell you the rest of the Hugh Goodwin story in 2005 they had 84 expulsions that was the year before they implemented it 2006 after one year eight referrals to the office no expulsions the third year zero referrals to the office and we're needing to spend money on truancy this will take care of truancy uh...
Hugh Goodwin is called the arts focused school in El Dorado so you would stereotype it as being oh this is just about the arts the arts are what open kids minds and when you infuse into the everyday curriculum and it makes common core fly like a fly like an eagle one of our new principals at Pikeview will tell you that they were struggling with common core when they took their A plus training. It met all the sense in the world, and it works together beautifully. So this school
is the arts-focused school. Joachim is the math-focused school in El Dorado. Guess who has the highest math scores? Hugh Goodwin. There's an environmental sciences school in El Dorado. Guess who has three times as many science fair winners? Hugh Goodwin. Because Because when you teach through creativity, you're teaching kids to think, use their imaginations, come up with new conclusions. That's why this is a whole school reform model that every school needs.
Here's ten years of research in Oklahoma. They've been doing this for ten years. Every year, the A-plus schools outperform every other school in Oklahoma, hands down. The legislature saw it, and now they have given them a budget. There was a match study done, 400 students. They matched them on this criterion. The question was, do Oklahoma A-plus students outperform their demographically matched counterparts
in math and reading? And this study that was privately done said yes. Now let's look at one of our schools that we just trained last August. In this school, there's too much stuff on this slide, but the bottom line is their disciplinary issues dropped to the bottom. The eight teachers that we were able to train in the summer, this school only had five teachers
missing and hadn't hired new ones yet when we trained them. So the eight teachers that were trained had eight disciplinary issues all of last semester. The year before, those same eight teachers had 21. The teachers that weren't able to go through our training had 41 disciplinary issues. Let's look at reading in that same school. I'm told that this reading test, normally when I test in mid-year, they have a few students
at level 1, a few students at level 2, and a few students at level 3. They almost never see kids who have raised their reading levels 4, 6, 7, 8, and 11 levels. There is research. What is a plus? It's these four states right now. It started in North Carolina. It was brought to Oklahoma, and then now to Arkansas, and Louisiana is coming on board.
This is our structure here at Thea. We have three people at the Thea office. We have about 20 fellows. Those are the people that go in and do the training with the schools, the professional development training. And by the end of August, we'll have 40 of those people. They're educators. They're artists. They're all kinds of people who believe in the only way to motivate a kid to love school is to make it fun and use arts and creativity in the curriculum.
These are the schools that have adopted us so far. We don't see the politics of schools. We have charter schools. We have public schools. When we'll train private schools, this is about the kids. My wife and I are concerned about the kids. We got a spark of this from our daughter, Thea, and we're trying to push it forward. But this is a national movement. I would love you all to think about doing a five-year study, letting us do it, five schools a year,
added each year along with the the money to keep track of what's happened in those schools and five years later I guarantee you if you're still here you'll say every school in Arkansas needs to be an a-plus school I've had my 15 minutes I've
got a lot more to say I I'd miss the office thank you so much do we have any questions a representative Hobbs with
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remiss that we take a couple questions Okay, we have one from Representative Deborah Hobbs.
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Thank you, Mr. Chair. A real quick one. How does, where does North Carolina rank in achievement? I
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don't have their numbers. Okay. I mean, there's
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40 schools there that have adopted it. So there's probably 1,200 schools or something there. Okay, so it's not in every school in North Carolina. Oh, no, no, no, no. Okay. No, there's 70 schools in Oklahoma.
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That's what those statistics were based on. Thank
you, Mr. Chair. Representative Edwards has a question, Mr. Leopolis. Yes, sir.
Representative John Charles Edwards
Unverified
15:03
First of all, I commend you and your family for what you've done. I think you are an example of what love and commitment and caring can do for anything, and it's very humbling to be here in the room with you today. my question is you talked about the fellows who do the training give me some feedback about when they come into a school
what are some of the challenges they have to overcome when they're working with personnel trying to adopt well we all know the challenge in our
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schools you have a lot of poverty in the state you have But it's not just the poor kids that are not doing well in school. Most kids aren't doing well in school. And if you look at the numbers of how many of our smart kids go on to college and don't go through college, it'll scare you. But our model is a whole school reform model.
It's the only way this can work. We don't just train two or three teachers in the third grade. The principal has to get it and believe in it, and we educate the principal on it. And then the teachers, they have to get 85% of the teachers have to vote to do it. So if there's not good leadership, if the principal is not saying, oh, yeah, this is it, and the teachers don't say, we definitely want to try this, then we don't try to do it because it's not going to work. It's about leadership and about commitment. It's a three-year program.
It costs us, or the schools, we have to charge because we don't have the money to give it to them. Well, it's about, over three years, about $90,000. Check what school districts spend on things that aren't this holistic and aren't this effective. It's amazing. And every time we walk in those doors, the training is customized for those teachers, for that principal, for that school. That's why we have so many fellows, because we match the fellows with the personality
of the school. We work our tails off every day, and then we follow up. There's seven days of training the first year, five the second year, three the third year, and we're in the schools every month. So there's a lot of not hand-holding, but if you're going to transform how you teach, it has to be a progressive process. But you've seen, like those numbers this school we just trained, already they're seeing results they've never seen before.
Representative John Charles Edwards
Unverified
17:46
And just to reinforce something you said, the principles are really key to this. Thank you. Representative
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Armstrong has a question, and then we're going to take one more
Representative Eddie L. Armstrong
Unverified
18:03
question from Representative Douglas. Can this program be used as a professional
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development tool in the schools? Sir, I didn't get through my whole presentation because I took too long on the other stuff. It is a professional development program. And I don't call it a program, it's a model that infuses the whole school at once.
And let me just do one quick thing. A-plus versus STEM. STEM's a great program. It's great to teach science better and technology better and all that and to relate to all the kids that are interested in that. A plus is the whole school, comprehensive, and STEM is not. And I've got nothing against STEM, but we want all the kids to move forward and not just some of them. Thank you.
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Representative Douglas. Thank you, Mr. Chair. As an old anatomy teacher, I have seen a lot of research on how the arts, you know, kind of prepare and work with those pathways in the brain that also help you with your math skills. And I wondered if that was ever a part of
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your research. That's the basis of it. Right. I mean, we are honoring what we call our eight essentials, which are these right here.
experiential learning you have to map the curriculum we have to deal with every child's way of learning there are multiple intelligences all that is built in to our model and that's our bible and so that's why all these schools that's why Hugh Goodwin has higher math scores in the math school because we teach from a
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perspective through creativity so it's not just about motivation it's actually about creating those learning patterns the
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learning pathways is a major part of our professional development training.
Okay. It's these eight essentials. Yes, ma'am. I just can't do it justice here. I would invite all of you and any of you to come to our office, and I'll give you a two-hour presentation with videos of how the classes are taught, with the superintendent saying this is the best thing we've ever done, with Scott Shirey from the KIPP school saying we should have done this from day one. So we're all about the holistic approach of really affecting every child's brain.
Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Lewopoulos. This has been a wonderful presentation. I've known about A-plus for a while now because my mother-in-law is a fellow. So I understand she goes to these schools and trains teachers. And for her, she's a retired educator, and this is almost a second career. It's been transformational for her in terms of her educational experience. And I'm so glad you came today. I hope we can come back because I believe that learning more about A-plus, a five-year
study funded by the state, I think is a good idea. And
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thank you so much for being here. We appreciate you very much and the work
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that you do. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Those handouts, please look at them. Please read the article that was in the report card, which is the Association School Boards. It was a very in-depth investigative article about how A-plus works. Thank you.
Okay, members, we are going to hear momentarily. I'm moving
to our agenda. But shockingly, there's a problem with the tablets. So we are going to get the tablets up and running. I believe that Representative Lowry is going to represent Senator Chesterfield's bill, and there is an amendment, and the amendments apparently are a gremlin to the tablets.
So we're working right now to get the tablets
corrected. We're going to give you plenty of time to read the amendment, Make sure that you're familiar with the information, and then we will per mark telling me that the tablets are fixed. I believe they're all fixed.
Okay. Okay, go ahead, and if there is an amendment.
Okay, are y'all getting the amendment to Senate Bill 93? Okay, we're going to give you just a moment to look over the amendment. Representative Lowry, if you want to make your way to the end of the table, sir, and Representative Deffenbaugh, are you getting the amendment? Okay.
If anybody does not have the amendment popping up
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on your tablet, Mark has a hard copy. Lots of marks,
right? Okay. Okay. I believe everybody either has a hard copy or the amendment is now on your tablets. Representative Lowry, you are now recognized to
present the amendment to Senate Bill 93, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think it's
only fitting that it's a gremlin amendment since it's kind of probably some of you think it's a troublemaker amendment. But I wanted to make sure, especially because of the importance of this issue in being able to address school violence, that the House Committee is completely engaged in this activity as well. And that's what the amendment does. It's a very simple amendment to make sure and clarify that the House Education Committee is also engaged with the Senate Education Committee on facility response.
Okay. Thank you very much, Representative Lowry. Representative Edwards, do you have a question, sir? Motion. Motion. Do we have anyone who wishes to speak against the amendment from the audience? Anybody wishing to speak for the amendment? Representative Edwards, what is your motion, sir? Motion to adopt the amendment. We have a motion to adopt the amendment. All in favor? Aye. All
opposed? Motion is adopted. Representative Lowry, you are now recognized to present Senate Bill 93 as amended.
Excuse me. Thank you, Chairman. And thank you, committee, for your forbearance with me on this simple clarification. I think it
actually is fitting to be able to say this is just a little bitty old amendment that don't do much. As Senator Chesterfield pointed out the other day, this is for us to engage in a study of how we can make our schools safer and be able to protect our students. It's obviously something that is at the forefront of our minds after the Shady Hook incident
and other incidents that continue to happen across the country. And I know all of us, both in the education field but also engaged here at the legislature, want to be fully involved in this process, and that's what this amendment does. Thank you very much for that
presentation, Representative Lowry. Do we have any questions from the committee pertaining to Senate Bill 93 as amended? 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, what is the pleasure of the committee? I have a motion. Representative Edwards, what is your motion? We have a do passed into Bill 93 as amended. All in favor? Say aye. All opposed? Motion as amended passes. Thank you very much, Representative Lowry. Thank you, committee. Okay, Representative Ratliff, are you prepared to present House Bill 1231?
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Yes, I'm 30. Excuse me, 1230. I'm sorry.
Representative Ratliff, you are recognized to present your bill,
Representative James Ratliff
Unverified
26:46
sir. Okay. Chair and committee, I've got a small bill here that's House Bill 1230, and it's going to amend the requirements for school reporting district course offerings for other purposes. And what we're going to do is we're trying to amend this law to, it said after 20 days in the school year, they had to mail a course offering home to each parent. And what this is going to do is it's going to save the schools,
right now, 46 cents a student in their district. And if you heard the news yesterday, it could go up to $1.08 per letter. But anyway, we're going to do that. There's no physical impact on the state treasurer, but there will be a physical impact on the school saving all those stamps, mailing that home. That's all this little bill does.
Commede, do we have any questions for Representative Ratliff? If not, do we have anyone in the audience who wishes to speak against this bill, anyone wishing to speak for the bill?
With that, do I have a motion? Representative Lenderman has a motion. do pass. All in favor? All opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much, Representative Ratliff. Committee, I don't believe we have any other bills to be presented today. With that, thank you very much. It is 1030. We once again are the most efficient committee in the legislature. I will now take a motion to adjourn. Meeting adjourned. Thank you.
Agenda
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Speakers
Representative Mark Lowery Chair
Unverified
Speaker 3
Speaker 5
Speaker 8
Speaker 10
Speaker 13
Speaker 15
Speaker 19
Speaker 20
Speaker 24
Speaker 28
Speaker 29
Speaker 17
Speaker 30
Speaker 37
Speaker 39
Speaker 38
Representative John Charles Edwards
Unverified
Representative Eddie L. Armstrong
Unverified
Speaker 53
Speaker 41
Representative James Ratliff
Unverified