Some people may get glum around certain times set aside for celebration (i.e., the broken-hearted are usually none too happy on Valentine’s Day); however, we hope this week, National Teacher Appreciation Week, gives everyone a reason to celebrate.  Here at the OEP, we’re reflecting on Cindy Barker, a 9th grade geometry teacher at Fort Worth Christian in Fort Worth, TX who made proofs fun and understandable with her wit. We are also thinking about John Sanders, who taught AP English at Greencastle Antrim High School in Greencastle, PA and took a chance introducing his class to Albert Camus and existentialism. More locally, we are thinking of Kim Boyd at Eastside Elementary in Rogers, AR. These individuals impacted the lives of our OEP Staf, and served as models to us in our own work within the field of education.

We hope you all will reflect on your wonderful teachers this week, and perhaps be in a position to communicate your successes with them as Donna Moss does below:

You can learn more about Teacher Appreciation Week on the NEA website. They are even promoting a Twitter hashtag:  #ThankATeacher. We would like to see your own tweets for National Teacher Appreciation Week with this hashtag show up in our OEP Twitter Feed.

Although we are going to be a bit late, we at the OEP will be showing our appreciation of teachers and all the work they do at this year’s OEP Conference when we hand out OEP Awards Certificates to the top performing schools across the state in the various categories recognized in our Annual OEP Awards. These awards are earned through teachers’ hard work and dedication to student learning, and we appreciate them everyday for it! (you can see the schools earning awards at this year’s conference by clicking this link).

We hope you will be able to join us for the OEP Conference at the Peabody/Marriott in Little Rock Wednesday May 15, 2013. The cost is FREE and we have set up an online registration page where you can quickly and easily register. Attendees will get a rundown of the bills passed in the most recent legislative session, an update on PARCC testing (related to Common Core implementation) and the new TESS teacher evaluation system. We will also have presentations of research…and a keynote panel chaired by John Brown III discussing student achievement beyond math and literacy. Of course, we will wrap up the day with our ode to teachers…and schools…and administrators for their hard work ultimately leading to their school earning an OEP Award. Click here to view a more detailed schedule for the OEP conference and be sure to follow the registration links on the page!!

We at the OEP are no strangers to fantasy sports, where we gather with our colleagues and draft the “dream team” of players that we think will produce the best result. Sometimes…just sometimes it’s fun to take this approach with non-sport areas. That said, OEP readers, Imagine if we were to hold a “draft” for Education Conferences!  Our early draft picks would look something like this:

APSRC Conference TODAY!

First, we have a hot one that we need to act on quickly!  The Arkansas Public School Resource Center (APSRC) is having a “Charter School Law” Conference today, April 30, 2013 at the Holiday Inn Airport in Little Rock.  Click here to view the agenda. Although it may be too late to attend, anyone can follow along with the APSRC’s live Twitter feed with updates from the conference.

OEP Annual Conference: Wednesday May 15th, 2013

Next on our list is a DEFINITE pick for us! On May 15th, the OEP will host our annual conference in Little Rock at the Peabody Hotel.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Arkansas’ Educational Future: Literacy, Math, and Beyond.“ We are planning for a ½ day conference that will include the following:

• 

  A student and two teachers from Caddo Hills High with their OEP Award certificate

  Legislative Review of the education bills proposed and passed during legislative session

• Legislative Panel featuring members of the Arkansas House and Senate Education Committees
• Keynote Speech from Commissioner of Education Tom Kimbrell
• Panel/Speeches on Expanding Education Beyond Just Academics (arts/extra-curricular education/community involvement)
• Presentation of the annual OEP Awards (our favorite part of every conference!)

This conference will be FREE to all attendees. Better yet, since our sessions will take place the morning, you will be dismissed after lunch (at which time you can return to your school or enjoy the amenities of our state’s capitol city).

If this sounds interesting…visit the registration page and sign up to attend…we look forward to seeing you there!!

University of Central Arkansas 2013 Summer Leadership Institute: Friday June 7th, 2013

 

The last conference on our fictional “fantasy conferences drafting sheet” is the annual Summer Leadership Institute hosted by the University of Central Arkansas College of Education. You can view the 2013 Arkansas Summer Leadership Institute Flyer here or visit the website for more information.

The topic for this year’s Summer Leadership Institute is “Building Trust Among School Stakeholders” and will feature Keynote Speaker Megan Tschannen-Moran who is a Professor of Educational Leadership at the College of William and Mary. Dr. Tschannen-Moran earned her PhD from The Ohio State University and has 14 years of experience in education. Her research on trust in schools explores how teacher, student, principal, and parent trust are related to important outcomes such as teacher professionalism, academic press, and student achievement.

The $50 advanced registration fee ends June 1st!  Act quickly and register here (or, if you need a few days, you can pay the $65 on-site or $35 students registration fees after June 1).

It’s going to be a GREAT conference season…and we are pretty excited about our picks so far! Keep checking back as we continue to bring you more information on interesting conferences!

It is an exciting time in for schools and students in Arkansas…

With the passage of Senate Bill 66 (now Act 601), the General Assembly has paved the way for Districts of Innovation. SB66 was filed by Senator Joyce Elliott (D-Little Rock).

Senator Elliott described that the bill was designed for districts with a “brilliant idea” that “want to do things differently from what the rules say.”

Interested schools will apply to the Arkansas Department of Education to become a School of Innovation (more than one school in any district can apply). An applying school must create a plan that will increase academic performance by improving teaching and learning. To create the School of Innovation plan, the applying school must create a School Council of Innovation that is composed of teachers and classified employees (elected by the school), the principal (or an administrative appointee), parents, community members, at least two students, and other stakeholders. The School Council of Innovation is to lead the creation the School of Innovation plan. After the plan is created, a minimum of 60% of eligible employees in the school must vote to approve the plan.

The commissioner will determine if an applying school is accepted to become a School of Innovation.  By becoming a School of Innovation, a school will receive the necessary waivers from laws, rules, and local policies to implement an Innovation plan. A School of Innovation will be approved for up to 4 years and then can apply to be renewed every 4 years. The ADE will now create the governing rules that must  be approved by the State Board of Education. The governing rules will provide more specific details on the application and ongoing process.

The idea behind a School of Innovation is similar to the idea of District-Conversion charter schools. Currently, there are 14 District-Conversion charter schools. District-Conversion schools ares started and run by their local school district (unlike open-enrollment charter schools) but receive freedom from certain rules, regulations, and policies of the  traditional public school.

The ADE, with the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions, has opened the Office of Innovation. The Office of Innovation will research innovative practices in education to promote increased student achievement.

Districts of Innovation are found in other states across the United States:

• The Boston Public School Districts established pilot schools in 1994, and currently, there are 21 pilot schools in the district. Pilot schools are granted autonomy over certain regulations and policies, so that the schools can increase academic performance. The National Bureau of Economic Research has conducted a study on Boston’s pilot and charter schools.
• In Colorado, in 2008, the “Innovation Schools Act” was passed and allows schools or groups of schools can apply to be an Innovation School. As of the 2012-13 school year, there are 37 Innovation Schools. The Colorado Department of Education has information and a number of resources for Innovation Schools.
• In the 2010-11 school year, the Houston Independent School District implemented a program, called Apollo 20, in 20 low-achieving schools. This program, in partner with Harvard University’s EdLabs, is seeking to mimic best practices from charter schools, including five main strategies: effective leadership and teachers, more instructional time, use of data to drive instruction, intense tutoring, and a culture of high expectations. Early results show increases in math scores and attendance rates, as well as a decrease in suspensions. The success in math is attributed in part to intensive tutoring that the students receive. We highlighted the model in a policy brief this past fall.
• In 2012, Kentucky (a state without charter schools) passed a bill that allowed traditional public school districts to become Schools of Innovation. The bill will become law in the spring of 2013; but the Department of Education in Kentucky has already released the application draft for school districts to apply in 2013-14. Arkansas’ proposed bill is seemingly modeled after Kentucky’s bill; therefore, there is room to believe that Arkansas’ application will be similar to Kentucky’s application and rubric. Additionally, the Kentucky DOE has released a number of helpful resources for districts applying.

It is exciting to hear about the innovations occurring in schools districts across the United States; and so, we look forward to the future of Arkansas’ Schools of Innovation.