By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

How does a public school reinforce character traits like humility and integrity without wading into the culture wars or crossing into parental territory? The Cross County Elementary Technology Academy may have figured it out.

Located about 45 minutes south of Jonesboro, CCETA weaves seven such values into its daily learning activities. 

“The way we think of it is, character education is not something else on your teacher’s plate,” said Kathryn Pruiett, the school district’s character education master teacher. “It is the plate that everything else rests on.”

Superintendent Dr. Nathan Morris decided years ago that the school district needed to be more intentional about teaching character along with academics. A committee started determining what that would look like at the elementary school. The school surveyed teachers and parents about the values the community wanted to instill. 

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Micah Bradley is on track to graduate the Hope Collegiate Academy with her associate’s degree.

By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Micah Bradley played shortstop and third base for the Hope Bobcats softball team this past year as a sophomore. She wants to go to college and become a nurse anesthetist, and she’s getting a head start. Thanks to the Hope Collegiate Academy, she’ll graduate high school in two years with both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree, for which her family will have paid nothing. 

Students at Hope can earn a two-year associate of arts degree by taking concurrent classes at the nearby University of Arkansas Hope-Texarkana campus. They get their basic courses done and can be well on their way toward a four-year degree.

Since the academy’s founding in the 2018-19 school year, 89 Hope students have completed the program. This year, 14 graduated with their associate’s degree three days before they received their high school diploma.

Arkansas High School in Texarkana has a similar program. Students take classes at UAHT’s Texarkana campus. Started a year later, 54 students there have graduated with an associate’s degree. Eighteen did this year. Continue reading →

Bentonville West High School last school year hung pouches in classrooms where students stored their phones during class periods. Principal Dr. Jonathan Guthrie, left, said that compared to the previous year, there was a 57% decrease in verbal or physical aggression offenses and a 51% reduction in drug-related offenses. Eighty-six percent of teachers like English teacher Amy Groves, right, said they saw a positive effect in student engagement.

By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

 Ninth graders walking into English teacher Amy Groves’ classroom at Bentonville West High School slip their cell phones into pouches hanging on the wall, where they remain throughout the 90-minute class period.

The school instituted the practice last year for a simple reason: Students weren’t paying enough attention in class. 

The results? In a survey, 86% of teachers believed the practice had a positive effect on student engagement, while 77% believed it had a positive effect on classroom behavior and 75% said it increased classroom interaction and socialization. Compared to 2022-23, verbal or physical aggression offenses fell 57%. Personal electronic device offenses, where students were using a phone when not allowed, fell 94%. Drug-related offenses such as the use of THC vapes fell 51%. The principal, Dr. Jonathon Guthrie, suspects it became harder for students to plan meetups. 

Groves said the practice has “improved my students’ focus immensely.”

“What that provides is the opportunity for students to actually talk to each other in person and listen to the teacher and look at the teacher when they’re talking,” she said. “I very rarely have any issues with them following the phone policy. And because they’re paying attention, their communicating is better, their grades are better, their understanding is better, so overall it has created a more peaceful environment for us here.”

What Bentonville started last year is now happening on a statewide level. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has created an $8 million pilot project where schools can apply for grants to pay for magnetically locked Yondr cell phone pouches and mental health services for students. According to the Department of Education, 112 districts planned to participate this year.

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By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Today I’ll write something that close to 100% of us will appreciate: All motorists must stop when a school bus deploys its stop sign and flashes its red lights. But 100% of us aren’t doing it.

I know this from experience. When I’m not scratching out a living as a writer, I drive a school bus for the Bryant School District. Almost everyone stops when I deploy my stop sign. But so far this year half a dozen cars have zoomed past while my bus was lit up like a Christmas tree and students were preparing to board or depart. 

I attribute the incidents to inattention, distraction, impatience or ignorance of the law – and also, I’m sure,  my own experience.  Most have been the equivalent of trying to beat the yellow light.

None of those motorists wanted to hit a student, but then neither did the driver who killed Isaac Brian. That was a fourth-grader in the same Bryant district who lost his life in 2004.  Continue reading →