Opt-out clause raising concern
Posted on Thursday, September 21, 2006
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/167298/
Applauded for leading the nation in their efforts to make Arkansas’ public high schools more rigorous, state lawmakers and education leaders Wednesday began building a case to take the rigor up another notch.
That could be done by requiring all students to take the tougher “Smart Core” curriculum and eliminating the existing provision that lets students — with parental permission — opt out of higher-level math and science classes.
Education Commissioner Ken James, who co-hosted with Gov. Mike Huckabee a two-hour conference on high school education at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock, told several hundred educators and community members that the existing opt-out clause sends a mixed message to the state’s 452, 000 students and their parents at a time when state leaders are convinced that higher-level academic classes are essential to a high school graduate’s success in the work force or in postsecondary education.
“It’s time for the state to begin to have that conversation on whether the opt-out clause is something we should continue as we go forward,” James said at the conference during which a multifaceted media campaign to promote the tougher courses to parents and students was unveiled.
“The data tells us very clearly what kids need to know and be able to do, and how they can [acquire ] that by taking a rigorous course of study.”
Others serving on a panel at Wednesday’s “Next Step for Arkansas’ Future” conference agreed.
“We need to revisit the whole policy decision behind the optout provision,” said state Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock. “It was part of a compromise to get to where we are now, but it is time to revisit it.”
Rep. Linda Chesterfield, DLittle Rock, said adults too frequently permit students to skip harder classes because they did not take the courses themselves.
“Nothing is like when we were in school,” said Chesterfield, a retired junior high social studies teacher. “More is demanded of us than ever before. We have got to find a way to say that it is not an option to have a mediocre education. Until we do that, we will continue to have people who opt out because their parents opted out. We have got to make them opt in.”
Linda Beene, director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education and a panel member, suggested that parents be encouraged to keep their children in the tougher classes by withholding most, if not all, state college aid to those who take an easier slate of classes.
Last year, parents of nearly 10 percent of the state’s seventhand eighth-graders — about 7, 000 students in all — signed forms permitting their children to forgo the 22-unit Smart Core high school curriculum in favor of an easier course of high school studies.
The Class of 2010 — this year’s high school freshmen — is the first class that must complete the Smart Core requirements as a minimum for graduation unless the students’ parents have waived that for them. In that case, they won’t have to take anything more difficult than geometry and biology.
The Smart Core includes four units of math: algebra I, geometry, algebra II and a math course beyond algebra II such as trigonometry, statistics or a calculus-based course. Also required are three science courses to be selected from physical science, biology, chemistry and physicsrelated courses, in addition to the traditional four units of English, three units of social studies, six units in a career focus series of classes and courses in health, physical education, oral communication and the fine arts.
Tom Kimbrell, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, warned that math courses will be the “bottleneck” in terms of moving all students through Smart Core.
Dan Marzoni, president of the Arkansas Education Association, said increasing teacher expectations for student achievement “is easy to accomplish” but motivating students and their parents is “tremendously hard.” In his own experiences as a classroom teacher, parents told him that certain courses were too difficult for their children or that their children didn’t want to take particular classes.
The average student in the state’s community colleges is a 25- or 26-year-old who “gets education religion” after trying to make it in the job market after high school, said Ed Franklin, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Two Year Colleges. “If we [only ] could get that message back to the high schools,” he said.
The campaign to promote Smart Core homes in on the future earning power of high school graduates.
“My Future: What I thought was the end is just the beginning,” is a slogan that will appear on posters sent to each of the state’s middle, junior and high schools. It is the theme of radio and television public service announcements and a student magazine insert.
“I hope I never make enough money to take a vacation,” states a happy teenager in a television spot about the consequences of an easy course load. “Someday, I’m going to get the worst car my minimum wage job will give me !” proclaims another teen in a companion ad.
The Arkansas Department of Education has created a Web site on Smart Core that has links customized for students, parents, educators and business people. The Web site is http: // www. nextsteparkansas. org.
In Arkansas, 20 percent of ninth-graders do not graduate. More than 50 percent must take a noncredit remediation course in college.
Matt Gandal, executive vice president of the Washington, D. C.-based Achieve Inc., pointed out that Arkansas was one of the first two states to turn the old college-preparatory track into the default course load for all students. Achieve Inc. has been working with Arkansas educators for more than a year to align the content of high school courses with the skills that are needed by employers and by postsecondary education institutions.
“We just encourage you to stick with it,” Gandal told the Arkansans. “We know you are starting to see results here on the ACT and other measures such as college-going results. It’s very, very impressive. We just want to applaud you and everyone in the state for the very bold steps you are taking in exactly the right direction.”