Category Archives: Education

Teaching students to look behind the screens

Education, State government

Ella Beth Wengel, Gov. Asa Hutchinson's granddaughter, right, introduces Mattie Brawner to coding at an event at the Clinton Library.
Ella Beth Wengel, Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s granddaughter, introduces Mattie Brawner to coding at an event at the Clinton Library.
By Steve Brawner
© 2016 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson stood before the assembled students at the Benton High School auditorium and asked for a show of hands: How many were interested in a career in computer coding? What he described as a “smattering” raised their hands.

So then the 65-year-old governor proceeded to tell the teenagers why computers are important. Farmers use software to determine how much to water their crops, he said. Manufacturing is now done by robots controlled by computers. When he was an undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security, computers predicted potential terrorist attacks at ports so millions of containers didn’t have to be searched one at a time. He also showed the students a code.org video featuring a bunch of old guys, including Bill Gates, 60, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 32, talking about coding. When he asked for another show of hands at the end of his presentation, more hands were raised.

Benton High was the first stop among several where the governor is encouraging students to take the computer science classes he and legislators now require schools to offer. He said afterwards that he is trying to help students understand “the connection between their technology that they live by, and how that technology comes about.”

Arkansas is the first state to teach computer science in every public high school, leading “Wired” magazine to publish an online article headlined, “So, Arkansas is leading the learn to code movement.” The idea came when Hutchinson was running for governor in 2014 and his 11-year-old granddaughter built a smartphone application for his campaign. Hutchinson pledged to require every high school in Arkansas to teach computer science and then signed it into law in 2015 after he was elected. Students taking the course receive a core math or science credit.

During the past school year, about 4,000 students took computer coding classes, many of them through the state’s online Virtual Academy because so few teachers were trained in coding. Meanwhile, the state spent $5 million partly to train teachers to give in-person instruction. At Benton High, 28 students are taking the class this year under teacher Lauren Roseberry, compared to the 15 who took the course last year online.

Meanwhile, Arkansas is on pace to be one of three states where every public school is connected to high-speed internet by July 2017.

At one time, Arkansas’ economic development strategy might best be described as “Come to the home of everyday low wages.” The state has attracted manufacturers because it doesn’t have much of a union presence. In the past, empty spec buildings were built so companies would have a place to land. And, of course, like all states Arkansas still generously pays companies to locate here through taxpayer-financed subsidies and tax credits.

Globalization and automation make all of that much less effective. At first, there was always someone overseas willing to work cheaper. Now, the factories are starting to come back to America, but not so many of the jobs; the people have been replaced by robots.

A coding job, meanwhile, requires only a computer, a high-speed internet connection (still a problem in some places in Arkansas), and a place to sit down – be that in an office, a coffee shop or a spare bedroom. State and local governments don’t have to build roads or rail spurs or worry about permits from the Environmental Protection Agency. Many startups get off the ground without requiring taxpayer-financed incentives.

Software developers earned a median wage of $100,690 in May 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to code.org, there are currently 526,000 computing jobs open – 1,701 in Arkansas.

That’s where the jobs are – or a lot of them, anyway – not the 1950s factory work that’s never coming back no matter which presidential candidate Americans elect to re-negotiate those “unfair trade deals.”

Arkansas is a cheap place to live, and it has some nice scenery. The jobs will come here or, better yet, be created here, as long as the talent is available. How to create that talent? Encourage students to stop merely looking at their screens, and start exploring what’s behind them.

Letting boys be boys in school

Education

By Steve Brawner
© 2016 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Every year before students have taken their standardized tests, former principal Terri McCann, now a district administrator, has walked into the third grade all-girls’ classroom at West Memphis Bragg Elementary, told students what to expect, and reminded them to sharpen their pencils. It’s always been very calm and encouraging. Then she’s walked to the all-boys’ classroom, closed the door behind her, and shouted, like a football coach, “Are you going to let those girls beat you again?!”

“No!” they’d yell like they were ready to run out of a locker room and run over an Ole Miss Rebel.

Those motivational techniques are just one of many ways third grade boys and girls are taught differently at Bragg Elementary, and it all started when McCann and other school leaders looked at test results and realized that girls were outscoring boys just about everywhere in every grade.

Those problems mirror what’s happening throughout the rest of society. Academically, girls are outperforming boys and have been for a long time and in many countries, according to a 2014 study by the American Psychological Association. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, females made up 57 percent of all college students in the fall of 2015.

Of course, the educators at Bragg Elementary aren’t responsible for the performance of America’s youth. They’re responsible for their kids. So they asked themselves a hard question: At Bragg Elementary, how are we failing boys, and how can we help all students?

They decided to offer parents the choice of a boys’, girls’ or mixed-gender classroom. They trained with specialists who taught them about different learning styles. And then they implemented those ideas.

The differences in the boys’ and girls’ classrooms start with how they are arranged. In the girls’ classroom, desks face each other in neat, small clusters. In the boys’ classroom, desks are arranged shoulder-to-shoulder. Carpet is glued beneath the boys’ desks so they can rub their hands back and forth and release energy while they are listening.

Movement, in fact, is one of the keys to success in the boys’ room. While the girls typically work well at their desks, the boys are allowed to do workbook problems standing and pressing their paper against a wall, or they go outside and toss a ball while doing math problems. Teachers walk back and forth and expressively use their hands to keep students’ attention, and they skip from topic to topic.

Other communication and teaching styles differ. Boys are given simple instructions and then dive into the lessons, while girls, who are better hearers from birth, are given a much more thorough explanation. The boys’ room has a lot more competition, and because boys learn better under stress, they have many timed activities. Girls, on the other hand, compete less and are given more time. In math, boys use fewer math manipulatives, which become distractions and, inevitably, projectiles. The girls tend to learn better using those hands-on, concrete objects.

The results? In 2005 four years before the change, only 55 percent of third grade students were proficient in literacy and 78 percent in math. In 2014, it was 87 percent and 96 percent. The biggest recent gain has been in boys’ literacy – from 53 percent proficient in 2009, the first year of the change, to 87 percent in 2014.

True, test scores generally have increased throughout Arkansas. But McCann and her fellow educators are confident their methods have made a difference and have seen other successes, such as improved discipline. Moreover, students with special needs are mainstreamed into these classrooms rather than housed in special ed. Educators and parents alike have noticed that the students, particularly the boys in the all-boys’ classroom, rally around those classmates and make them feel part of the team.

Interestingly, Bragg Elementary didn’t see the same success with mixed classrooms in the sixth grade, so only the third grade offers gender-based classrooms. Still, the lessons learned have been incorporated in all grades.

To some, the model probably sounds politically incorrect, especially when society is debating the notion of gender these days.

But left and right ought to be able to agree that classrooms should fit the student rather than the other way around. This is how Bragg Elementary is doing it: by taking into account gender learning styles, giving parents a choice and, when appropriate, letting boys be boys.

Related: How two sisters and a cup of coffee changed a school

Why college? To get a useful degree and a job

Education, State government

Dr. Maria Markham is the new Department of Higher Education director.
Dr. Maria Markham is the new Department of Higher Education director.
By Steve Brawner
© 2016 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

What’s the purpose of college? In the past, answers to that question often have been relatively abstract: to get an education; to expand your horizons; to be exposed to new ideas. Or the answers would be completely wrong: because it’s the next thing to do after high school; to party; to play football.

Increasingly, Arkansas policymakers have a new, more concrete answer: to earn a degree or certificate that leads to a job.

Last Friday, the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved a funding framework that would change the way colleges and universities are funded – emphasizing completion versus enrollment.

Traditionally, the state has funded institutions based on head count, meaning the more students enrolled, the more tax dollars rolling in. That’s an imperfect incentive because it places too much of an emphasis on getting students in school versus getting them through school. In 2011, the funding formula was tweaked. Now, 10 percent of a school’s state funding is based on various performance-based measures that haven’t really changed anything.

Now what’s being proposed is a totally different, outcomes-based funding formula. The framework is still light on the details, so this explanation will be light. Funding would be based less on enrollment and more on the number of students earning degrees and certificates. It would provide incentives for schools to help students move to a degree faster – the opposite of the current model, where institutions make more money if students switch majors three times and stay in school six years before quitting with nothing. How well students do once they leave college would figure into the mix.

Are there potential unintended consequences? Sure. The state does not want to encourage schools to accept only the best and brightest, so the model will provide extra money for helping underserved and at-risk students complete a degree. The other big concern is that schools will water down their academic requirements so students more easily complete their courses. Dr. Brett Powell, former ADHE director, said the state will have to trust that faculty members won’t let that happen.

How colleges are funded is important because obtaining an education after high school is both expensive (for taxpayers and students) and necessary. A study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce found that of the 11.6 million jobs created since the recession, 11.5 million went to those with at least some education after high school.

Obviously, it’s better to have not just some college but a degree or certificate and a set of skills, and here’s where Arkansas has some challenges and opportunities. The state ranks 48th in its percentage of adults with a college degree, 29.8 percent. But Arkansas ranks fourth highest in the percentage of residents with a career and technical education certificate. And these days, those certificates can be really valuable – as well as relatively cheap and fast to obtain.

The Arkansas Department of Higher Education and higher education officials have crafted a plan, Closing the Gap 2020, which seeks to increase the percentage of Arkansans with a degree or certificate from the current 43 percent to 60 percent by 2025. To meet expected workforce needs, the state needs to increase its percentage of residents with a career and technical education certificate from 9 to 22 percent by 2020; its percentage with an associate’s degree from 7.2 to 12 percent; and its percentage with a bachelor’s degree, but no higher, from 15.1 percent to 18 percent.

The new outcomes-based funding formula has a long way to go before becoming law. The Legislature must approve the bare-bones framework next year. Then Higher Ed must add some meat to those bones under the leadership of its new director, Dr. Maria Markham. Then the Legislature has to approve the final plan in 2018.

Making the task easier is that some of the state’s higher education leaders are on board. The chancellors of the University of Arkansas System and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville have expressed support. So have Arkansas State University President Chuck Welch and Dr. Robin Bowen, president of Arkansas Tech University.

For change to occur, that support will have to hold as the details become known. Somebody’s going to lose something, including institutions that don’t make the transition well. And who will be the winners? Students who complete their programs and are ready to make a living as productive citizens.

If that’s not the main purpose of college, it should be.

Related: Is college worth it?

How two sisters and a cup of coffee changed a school

Education
Tyler Cope, 17, already has her certified nursing assistant license.
Tyler Cope, 17, already has her certified nursing assistant license.

By Steve Brawner
© 2016 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Pea Ridge High School senior Tyler Cope, 17, was a waitress. Now, she’s a certified nursing assistant making $11 an hour. More importantly, she’s well on her way to a good-paying future in nursing. Thirty of her fellow students also have CNA licenses, while others are learning skills in other career fields.

Cope and her fellow students have that opportunity partly because of two sisters and a cup of coffee. The sisters both were carhops at a local Sonic, where Rick Neal, then the high school principal, would stop. One had been a good student and earned a high school diploma. The other had dropped out. Both were working the same job making $8 an hour, which bothered him.

“We’ve gotten (students) to a point of handing them that diploma and saying, ‘Head on out the door. You’re good. You’re good to go,’” Neal said. “But we’ve never really given them a true vision of where they can possibly go.” Continue reading How two sisters and a cup of coffee changed a school →