Arkansas Educator Volume 40, No. 1

ARKANSAS

EDUCATOR PROUDLY PUBLISHED BY THE ARKANSAS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

VOLUME 40 N O 1 | SUMMER 2018

EDUCATORS ENGAGE aeaonline.com

INSIDE: Legislative Update Education Issues at Special Session • Spreading the Word Sharing Student Success

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EDUCATOR VOLUME 40 NO 1 SUMMER 2018

CONTENTS 3 A Letter from the President

PRESIDENT CATHY KOEHLER VICE PRESIDENT MARY KNIGHT SECRETARY-TREASURER BRENDA BROWN AEA-NEA DIRECTOR CAROL FLEMING

4 Legislative Update: Education Issues Play Surprising Role in 2018 Fiscal & Special Session

AEA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TRACEY-ANN NELSON

7 At a Glance: State Standards Slipping Away

EDITOR KYLE LEYENBERGER

8 Be Prepared: Voter information for this November

14 ESP Profile: Like Clockwork: ESP works behind the scenes to keep the building operating

9 Save the Date for PD Conference VISIT US ONLINE AT: aeaonline.org/AREducator Follow us on Twitter @ArkEducation Become an AEA Facebook friend.

ARKANSAS EDUCATOR is published as a service to all members of the Arkansas Education Association 1500 West 4th Street Little Rock, AR 72201 t: 501-375-4611 f: 501-375-4620 tf: 800-632-0624 ADVERTISERS Advertising contents should be addressed to the Editor. Advertising rates are available upon request. Advertising is printed as a service to readers and publication does not imply Association endorsement. The Association reserves the right to refuse any advertising.

18 Member Profile: Hitting the Ground Running: Young professional educator encourages peer participation

10 Read Across America at the Capitol 12 Education Forums Spreading the Word: Educators share stories of student success

22 Q&A: House Education Committee Chair Bruce Cozart 24 From the Desk of the Executive Director 25 Rewind: Educators March on Capitol

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SUMMER 2018

A L E T T E R FROM THE PRESIDENT Inspiring! Stirring! Encouraging! Rousing! Motivating! These words and many more have been used to describe the walk-outs of educators in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina and those being discussed for the near future.

In April, the Arkansas Education Association hosted a Tele-Town Hall meeting with more than 1,300 member participants. On the call, members heard West Virginia Education Association (WVEA) President Dale Lee share the background that led up to the walk out, the experience during the walk out, and their current reality. There is so much AEA can glean from the WVEA experience and that of other states.

First things first – Take the time, as WVEA did, to build partnerships throughout your school districts, communities, local associations and state organizations that share your values and concerns. The greatest opportunity for success comes through partnership.

Know the issues – We limit our ability to make sustainable change when we know what we need but cannot communicate why to others. Why does it matter that vouchers divert public funds to private schools? It matters because the students and families in Huntsville School District (HSD) have legislators who vote in favor of vouchers, but they don’t have a single private school. HSD DOES have the third highest number of miles covered by buses daily (790).

Increased funding HSD needs to cover the transportation costs is not available because money is being spent on something that doesn’t benefit a single Huntsville student.

Engage – Beginning on August 8, 2018, we’re asking educators across Arkansas to wear #RedForEd every Wednesday.

Post pictures of yourself wearing Red on social media. Tag AEA and use the hashtag #RedForEd so you will be united with educators across the country who are doing the same. Red pants, red socks, red ties, red shirts, red dresses and red shoes all signal that you support students, employees and public education in our state and nation.

It’s all about relationships – Even though Arkansas’s state legislature is not in session again until January, 2019, AEA members have the opportunity to advocate for full funding and resources now by speaking with all candidates for the Arkansas Legislature before they are elected. Building a working relationship where your input is valued takes time.

Sending an urgent email when a piece of legislation is submitted and action is being taken is also important, but it’s not a relationship.

Together we are stronger – Seeing the unity in actions across the country reminds us that we are not islands, disconnected by an ocean. We are individuals who share the same passions, values, and goals for our students, professions and public education.

We can be Inspiring! Stirring! Encouraging! Rousing! Motivating! for our students, our professions, and public education in Arkansas. Our path may not be the same as other states at this time, but we do not have a minute or day to waste as we become fierce advocates for what we know is right and true.

Cathy Koehler, President, AEA

ABOUT PRESIDENT KOEHLER: AEA President Cathy Koehler’s career began as a teacher in Central Arkansas parochial schools, and she spent 24 years as a library media specialist in Little Rock School District. She is a longtime AEA board member and is a National Board Certified Teacher in Library Media/Early Childhood through Young Adulthood. Koehler served as President of the Little Rock Education Association for the last ten years and completed one term as Vice President of the AEA. Koehler led membership through the state takeover of the LRSD in 2015 and kept a professional negotiated agreement in place under 3 different superintendents.

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LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: EDUCATION ISSUES PLAY SURPRISING ROLE IN 2018 FISCAL & SPECIAL SESSION The 2018 Fiscal Session and the Special Session that immediately followed were full of disappointing choices that will make it harder for the state to provide an excellent education for every student.

A strong effort from AEA members and public affairs staff to support students and public schools at the Capitol fell on deaf ears early this year as lawmakers and the Governor’s office left critical public education needs underfunded while expanding funding for charter schools and vouchers and creating a new tax cut on private school tuition.

While lawmakers increased public education funding by 1.01 percent again this year, the number is less than half of the amount lawmakers were told was

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needed to keep up with inflation. This is effectively a cut, and schools will need to provide the same services with less spending power.

In addition, $50 million in General Funds set aside for public education were not appropriated to public schools after the Governor said the money was no longer needed. He said the money could be used elsewhere thanks to lower than expected student growth and higher than expected property tax collection. Calls to use the money to

recruit and retain quality educators to address the teacher pipeline shortage went unanswered.

Education issues played a much bigger part in this year’s Fiscal Session than in previous years, and public education advocates managed to block an attempt to slip a major policy change in through the state treasurer’s budget.

Fiscal sessions, by law, are supposed to focus only on budgetary bills, but lawmakers continue to test the line on what can be considered.

The most egregious attempt this session centered around HB1122, the appropriation bill for the State Treasurer’s Office. Late in the session, lawmakers added language to HB1122 that would effectively create a new backdoor voucher program via the Arkansas tax code.

Lawmakers added the program through a little-known process called “special language.” The committee is supposed to be used to clean up mistakes or fix problems in Arkansas code. Instead, Senator Jason

Rapert and Representative Jim Dotson used the committee to add a multi-million dollar back door voucher program through 529 college savings plans.

AEA strongly opposed this proposal and was the only organization to testify in opposition at the committee hearing. The 529 plans were designed to help parents save for college, and the state offers a tax break for contributions. The “special language” expanded these benefits to private school tuition.

Supporters of this proposal needed 75 votes to pass the measure. Arkansas Education Association members mobilized quickly to help block the program from sneaking into law, and after 2 failed votes, the measure lost more support leading up to the third (and final) vote in the last few days of the legislative session. Legislators were at an impasse. The controversial language that had been added to create the voucher program was stripped from the bill.

AEA members played a critical role in the defeat of this bill by reaching out to key lawmakers across Arkansas.

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Unfortunately, just days later, the bill was back after the Governor added the 529 expansion to his call for a special session.

Unlike the Fiscal Session which requires all bills to receive a super majority of votes in both the House and the Senate to gain approval, these stand-alone bills only required a simple majority of votes to pass. Within 2 hours of the 529 expansion bills being filed publicly, it was heard in the House Education Committee where it easily passed.

AEA members again called and emailed their lawmakers, but the lightning speed of the special session didn’t allow for a proper public debate.

HB1008 and SB6 sailed through both chambers and gained final approval in just 49 hours.

HB1008 was sponsored by the Speaker of the House, Jeremy Gillam, R, Judsonia and SB6 was filed by Sen. Jason Rapert, R, Conway.

Before the final votes on the bill, the Governor expressed concern about the cost of both HB1008 and SB6, saying that the future impact could grow further as more parents use 529 plans to send their children to private schools. Governor Hutchinson said, in part: “...the cost associated with the bill could be significant, based on the DFA analysis. What’s more, the future impact of this legislation could grow further, if more parents and extended family utilize the advantages offered by a new 529 plan to send their children to private school.

Therefore, I ask that the Legislature monitor the ongoing costs of deduction 529 expenses for K-12 education, view this bill as a pilot initiative, and make adjustments in the future, as needed.”

The legislature is bound by the Arkansas State Constitution to provide a free public education for every student. The Constitution does not provide for incentives or direct payment to pay for private school tuition.

In addition to the 529 expansion, lawmakers approved increased funding for charter school facilities and the state’s voucher program.

Governor Hutchinson, via a mechanism called a “Governor’s Letter,” added nearly a quarter of a million dollars to the deceptively named “Succeed Scholarship” voucher program. This program sends public funds to unaccountable private schools.

Even worse, the program primarily targets students on an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and requires parents or guardians to waive

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the child’s federal civil rights protections to participate. This proposal was added to SB37.

This program effectively throws public funds, and more importantly our state’s most vulnerable children into a dark hole, with no way to see if they are getting the resources they need to succeed. AEA shared these concerns in a meeting with the Governor just weeks before he asked for the increased funding.

A second Governor’s letter increased charter school facilities funding by $1.5 million dollars. The Governor’s support of these programs adds pressure to an already strained state budget by creating additional lanes of state expenditures. This additional spending was added to SB33.

These proposals erode the state’s ability to adequately resource our public schools as required by the Arkansas State Constitution.

The Joint Budget Committee also defeated an attempt to increase funding for students with special needs. Three times, lawmakers voted down an amendment to SB33 by Rep. Michael John Gray that would begin to address the demonstrated need in the state’s catastrophic special education fund.

This severely underfunded part of the budget helps school districts around Arkansas meet the needs of the most vulnerable students in our public schools. AEA supported this amendment. Voting against funding for this special education proposal was: Sen. Scott Flippo, R, Bull Shoals Sen. John Cooper, R, Jonesboro Sen. Missy Irvin, R, Mountain View Sen. Jane English, R, North LR Sen. Lance Eads, R, Springdale Sen. Jim Hendren, R, Gravette Sen. Bart Hester, R, Cave Springs Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R, Texarkana In addition to the two bills to expand the 529 savings plan, the legislature also approved SB3,

by Sen. Alan Clark, R, of Londsdale. This bill changes the way siblings are calculated in determining the percentage of the student body that exits a school district through school choice. This bill will allow school districts to more accurately calculate the number of students leaving a school district.

The General Assembly adjourned sine die on Thursday, March 15.

AT A GLANCE: STATE STANDARDS SLIPPING AWAY

Districts can use the waiver process to roll back the hard fought gains made to protect students, including limits on class size, providing a school nurse, duty free lunch and even due process for educators.

This map shows where the greatest number of waivers are being granted for teacher licensure, meaning students in these schools can be taught by unlicensed educators.

DISMANTLING EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS HARMS STUDENTS, EDUCATORS AND COMMUNITIES

Once approved, these waivers have no timeline and can be granted indefinitely. In addition, there is no review process or academic performance requirements attached to the requests. These waivers can leave Arkansas’ most vulnerable population – our children – unprotected.

In 2015, the General Assembly created ACT 1240, which allows school districts to waive many of the safeguards put into place to protect students and their educational outcomes.

Educators, parents and community members must stay vigilant and monitor school board agendas to ensure their district is not seeking waivers which erode critical safeguards and educational standards.

ACT 1240: SCHOOLS THAT CAN HIRE UNLICENSED TEACHERS

For more information, visit AEAonline.org.

Lower Third 1-18 Middle Third 18-35 Top Third 35-52

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BE PREPARED:

VOTER INFORMATION FOR THIS NOVEMBER

Elections are how we hold our elected officials accountable. For this reason, educators must be involved. You can send a powerful message at the ballot box this November by voting for friends of public education.

Make sure you, your friends and family are registered to vote

by October 9th (the deadline to register to vote in the November 6 General Election).

Students should come first in Arkansas, and we can show that we will stand up and fight for our kids by voting for public education champions across the state.

Election Day: You can vote at your poll on Election Day, November 6, 2018 from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Bring your ID: In March 2017, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed into law a bill requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls. Under this law, a voter who does not possess the required form of identification may cast a provisional ballot after signing a sworn statement attesting to his or her identity.

You must register to vote by October 9 to be eligible to vote in the November 6 election. You can find your polling place and more information about elections in Arkansas at the Secretary of State’s website:

https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/elections/

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D E r o f d e R # GOh on the State Capitol to

Marc ducation E c li b u P t r o p Sup

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Follow AEA re information Twitter for moducation @ArkE

2018 AEA PD CONFERENCE

SAVE THE DATE

ED

RESEPECT SUPPORT CONNECT

NOVEMBER 1 & 2

Join AEA and hundreds of educators from across Arkansas as we come together to ensure educators are RespectED, SupportED and ConnectED! The Arkansas Education Association is focused on ensuring every student has a caring, qualified, and committed teacher. To help educators be their best, we host the most comprehensive annual professional development conference in Arkansas. Join us for the 2018 AEA Professional Development conference in Little Rock on November 1-2.

Apply to Present at the conference: AEAonline.org/pd-presenters

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STUDENTS, EDUCATORS CRASH THE CAPITOL FOR NEA’S READ ACROSS AMERICA DAY Students from the Cabot School District traveled to the state Capitol to join millions of their peers across the country in celebrating the annual National Education Association’s Read Across America Day on Friday, March 2, 2018.

This year Governor Asa Hutchinson joined AEA Members, state legislators, state board of education members and Arkansas Department of Education staff to read Wodney the Wat with the students to show our state’s children the joy of reading and to increase literacy.

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SPREADING THE WORD: EDUCATORS SHARE STORIES OF STUDENT SUCCESS Andretti Murphy is more comfortable in front of a group of first graders, but she recently traveled to Texarkana to share some of the exciting things happening in Magnolia Public Schools with a packed house of parents, legislators, community members and other educators.

Jonesboro school board member Chris Harrell says it’s important to celebrate each district’s accomplishments.

“What’s celebrated is what’s replicated,” Harrell says. “You hear all these good stories and I think it stirs the creativity and imagination of every school district represented here.”

“We’re concerned about not just the schools, but the parents, the community, working together,” Andretti says. “It takes all of us.”

Murphy’s presentation was part of a statewide series of education forums hosted by AEA, the state school board and administrators associations, and a number of other community partners.

“We’re always telling our teachers and our staff that we have to tell our own story,” says Texarkana Public Schools Superintendent Becky Kesler. “Every time we can tell something positive that’s going on in our schools, to our parents, our community, we encourage them to tell someone else.”

She says the forums are important opportunities for the community to learn specific ways local school districts are improving student achievement, and how they can help to ensure successful strategies are implemented statewide.

“That’s the best way to get the news out there,” Kesler says. “Let everybody hear all at once and hopefully they’re going to go back and tell someone else.”

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Arkansans for Quality Education formed to push for proven, consensus-based education reform at the Capitol.

Its members include the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, Arkansas Education Association, Arkansas Parent Teacher Association, Arkansas Opportunity to Learn Campaign, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, Arkansas School Boards Association, Arkansas Rural Education Association, Arkansas Citizens First Congress, and Rural Community Alliance

The events, held in Texarkana, Jonesboro and Springdale, also offer a different perspective to the negative narrative being pushed by special interests looking to privatize public schools.

“It’s really easy to be confused by details when you only get half of the story,” says Fayetteville Education Association President Anna Beaulieu.

“It’s always important to make sure that we’re telling people about the great things we’re doing, and it’s so important that they know that public education serves all students.”

While the main goal of the forums is educating the community, the presentations also provide valuable information for state legislators looking for ways to support public education.

“It helps us to go back to Little Rock and explain that the public schools really are offering just a wide variety of options for their students and really doing a great job in making sure that all of the students are well educated and well taken care of,” says Rep. Jimmy Gazaway (R - Jonesboro).

when you’re setting them up to fail,” he says. “We’re seeing that at the Capitol right now.”

Gazaway says public schools, which serve every student who shows up, are the fabric that binds local communities together.”

“It’s that public school that the grandparents went to, the parents went to, now their kids are in those schools,” he says. “If you tear down the public schools, you’re tearing down your community.”

Laura Kellams, Northwest Arkansas director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families says the excellent reputation of schools in Northwest Arkansas is a result of the community fully embracing – and investing – in their schools.

Rep. Michael John Gray (D - Augusta) was happy to see educators from his northeast Arkansas district getting recognition at the Jonesboro event.

“With all due respect to my colleagues in Northwest Arkansas or central Arkansas, it’s great what you’re doing up there, but we’re doing some pretty good things over here too,” Gray says. “When a legislator takes the time, or parent takes the time, or community member takes the time to see presentations like this from the schools, it helps you be a better advocate for the schools you represent or from the community you’re in.”

Strong public school advocates are a necessity these days, as privatizers aggressively lobby for voucher programs and other education fads. Gray says this push is distracting lawmakers from ensuring every student in Arkansas has an opportunity to succeed.

“Privatization is the biggest threat to our public schools because it is the divestment in the public infrastructure for our students,” Nelson told the crowd in Texarkana. “As an immigrant, it is the reason people come to America. We come for the education, because we can’t get it anywhere else in the same way.”

“The commitment in Arkansas is to an equitable and adequate education for every child, no matter their station in life, and privatization is a threat to that.”

Gray says the current trends – including the state’s failure to fully fund the catastrophic fund for students with special needs – are not putting all schools in a position to deliver.

“You can’t simply pull funding away from them and then say, ‘See you’re failing,’

“When the child in poverty goes to school with the CEO’s child, in the same high school, that’s when our communities really thrive,” she says. “Our children thrive and we all learn really what it is to be in a community.”

And Murphy, standing on stage next to administrators and community advocates to deliver that message, hopes the partnerships will encourage more parents and community members to get engaged.

“When we come together, as an organization, as a community, and work together it might make someone think, you know maybe I should really get involved in that and try to do my part in helping to educate the kids,” she says. “You don’t necessarily have to be an educator to be an educator. We really want to push parental involvement and I think when they really see us coming together as a unit working together I think it helps them want to say hey let me do that too.”

“We can disagree on ideology, or how best to educate our kids, but the thing is it has to be about the kids,” Gray says.

“Unfortunately, lately it’s become about a profit model, or what looks best for a particular party platform.”

AEA President Cathy Koehler and Executive Director Tracey Ann Nelson also spoke about attacks on public education.

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Audrey Nichols is a morning person. That’s pretty much a job requirement for Nichols, who has been the office bookkeeper at Landmark Elementary for nearly twenty years. rom the moment the children arrive, Nichols is thrown into a whirlwind of logistical triage. She’s greeting the students with hugs and encouragement, figuring out which teachers need subs, adjusting the fill-in schedule on the fly, making sure there are staff members on duty where they need to be, unlocking doors, answering phone calls, ensuring that children in need of medicine are taken care of, stopping in the hallway to correct misbehaviors or give cheerful pep talks, handling any influx of visitors or work orders, and solving problems wherever they pop up in the building.

“That little clause that says other duties as assigned,” she says with a laugh. “They’re not really assigned, they just kind of fall on you, because it has to be done!”

Picture a school and your first thought is probably a teacher engaging students in a classroom, or perhaps the buzz of activity in the cafeteria, or the energy of an assembly in the auditorium. But none of that would be possible without the coordination and communal spirit in the building’s heart and hub: the school office.

In countless ways, out in the hallways and behind the scenes, Nichols is the cog that makes the school days at Landmark hum along smoothly.

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“It’s a job with many hats, a multi-tasking job, but I love it,” Nichols says. “Just being able to know that everybody’s happy is my main goal. Every teacher has what they need, every child has what they need, and every parent has an answer to their questions.”

The seed was planted for Nichols’ interest in becoming an education support professional (ESP) when she was a high-school student herself, in Arkadelphia.

“When I think back to the role of support staff when I was in school, they all played a major part,” Nichols says.

“They were always willing to go that extra mile for kids.

Everybody was on the same page, it was about educating our kids and that made a world of difference in my life.”

In fact, the ESP who had the biggest impact on Nichols held the same job that Nichols holds today. “Mary Hill, the young lady who worked in the office, was someone I really looked up to,” Nichols remembers. “She ran that place!

In my world, the school was all about her. I said, ‘I can do that, I would love to do that.’ She was one of those people who was like a mother hen. There was no child who did without, because she was always there, always present, always willing to go that extra mile for us. If you had a problem, you could go to the office and talk to Ms. Hill.

She always had a kind smile for you, a kind word.”

Like her mentor Ms. Hill, Nichols does much more than making sure the bills are paid, taking an active role in shaping the lives of students, as well as outreach to parents and the community.

ESP PROFILE

ESP WORKS BEHIND THE SCENES TO KEEP THE BUILDING OPERATING

AUDREY NICHOLS

It’s a job with many hats, a multi-tasking job, but I love it. Just being able to know that everybody’s happy is my main goal. Every teacher has what they need, every child has what they need, and every parent has an answer to their questions.

“So many of the kids, all they want is for somebody to give them a smile, ask how their day is,” she says. “If somebody needs a hug, I’m there. When they come in to the office, if there’s an issue, they know they can talk to me. The kids know that I’ll go out of my way to help them and that’s important to them.”

Nichols’ office is covered wall-to-wall in photos, notes, and drawings from current and former students, and every one of them has a story. One former student, now in junior high, used to walk down the hallways unhappily until Nichols pulled her aside.

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“She would tell me, ‘I hate school,” Nichols recalls. “I said, ‘oh baby, that’s not what I want to hear.’ So she became my project for that year. After that first conversation, she wrote me a poem. I told her, ‘you’ve got a gift. I need a poem every day.’ After that, she wrote me a poem every day, and never missed a day at school.

“She was a very smart child but she wasn’t pushing herself.

And then I saw her blossom, her grades went up, she became more outgoing and positive, and school became more interesting to her.”

Nichols kept encouraging her to write those daily poems and still has all of them today. She never throws anything students give her away, and every single item serves as a symbol of a connection that Nichols has made. As is often the case, the family kept in touch even after the student left Landmark; when she was in junior high, her mother called Nichols to say that she was acting up in school again.

“I said okay, I’ll go and talk to her,” Nichols says. “And that’s all she wanted--she said, ‘I’ve been waiting for you to call me!’”

One of Nichols’ passion projects at Landmark has been helping to lead an annual fourth-grade field trip. Leaving Wednesday night and returning on Saturday, the students take a charter bus to the Gulf Coast in Mississippi, for educational activities in the water and the classroom at the University of Southern Mississippi.

“It’s just something they talk about forever,” Nichols says.

“They learn about estuaries, have classes out on the beach, take a boat ride out to the Gulf. They’ve dissected squid and cooked calamari, they’ve seen dolphins and sharks and sea turtles. I have done it every year and every year I’ve learned something.

“It’s totally fun and instructional, and it brings them life skills. They get a chance to learn to be independent, to spend the night in the dormitories where the college students live and eat in the cafeteria where the college students eat. It’s become like a rite of passage.”

Nichols also takes a leadership role with Landmark’s Backpacks for Kids program, providing nutritious food for students in need to take home over the weekend, as well as taking students with special needs to the Special Olympics, which she has been actively involved with for more than 20 years ever since her own son, who has Down Syndrome, first participated.

In addition to her work at Landmark, Nichols has been active in AEA and NEA. She is in her seventh year serving in the AEA governance, working on multiple committees, and she helps lead NEA trainings around the country. She is particularly passionate about her role on the NEA Bullying and Sexual Harassment Prevention and Intervention cadre.

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AEA has afforded me opportunities to be in leadership and it makes me understand more clearly the workings of what’s going on.

“I tell the kids in this building that it’s very important that we don’t bully because if you start out now bullying then you continue on and become an adult bully, and those are dangerous,” she says. “And we teach the adults how to intervene in those situations.”

Nichols is also on the state and national Every Student Succeeds Act teams, giving her the opportunity to be a voice for ESPs and for the community.

“It took somebody pulling me along and telling me, ‘I see something in you,’” Nichols says. “AEA has afforded me opportunities to be in leadership and it makes me understand more clearly the workings of what’s going on. Our communities and our families are left out of the education loop. AEA and NEA have empowered me to ask questions and buck against the system if I don’t think it’s right. I’m supposed to be an advocate—that’s where I see myself.”

Interacting with other educators nationally has provided Nichols with ideas and resources that she has brought back to Landmark.

“I come home and share with my administrator, talk to my teachers, and I talk to parents about it,” she says. “We’re always thinking about pushing our kids forward.”

Nichols sees a special value in her involvement in leadership and training roles as an ESP. “I’m always saying ‘educator,’ stop just saying ‘teacher,’” she says. “When you say educator, you’re inclusive of everybody. And my mantra is, it takes a village. It truly does.

It takes us all to educate a student.”

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aeaonline.org

SUMMER 2018

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YOUNG PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR ENCOURAGES PEER PARTICIPATION

Hitting the Ground Running 18

ARKANSAS EDUCATOR

aeaonline.org

MEMBER PROFILE ASHLEY KINCANNON

When Ashley Kincannon graduated from high school, she was nine months pregnant, recently married, and working part-time at Walmart while she kept up with school.

“Lots of people thought I would never be something,” she remembers. “But my teachers still believed in me.”

Kincannon grew up in the Hot Springs area in what she describes as a dysfunctional household, with her mother and three siblings (her father was incarcerated). “My home life was unstable,” she says. “It was just a house of chaos, lots of turmoil, lots of fighting. Lots of hate, and hurt. My mom worked all the time. I was the oldest, so from the time I was 13, I was taking care of my brothers and sisters. I never really got to be a child. I had to grow up early.”

While she was in high school, an English teacher and a Consumer Science teacher—both of whom Kincannon still keeps in touch with today—took an interest in her and helped to steer her toward a better path.

“School was my safe haven,” Kincannon says.

“My teachers were my support. They were the people who were rallying behind me and believed that I could do something.

“I had nobody. I had my books. I read my books and I went to school. I’m a very passionate person—I had all this love and nowhere to put it. I was doing all these things and no one could see my work. I was in cross country, I was in choir, and nobody was there to watch me. My teachers filled that gap.”

These teachers didn’t just help her survive a difficult childhood, they inspired her to go into the profession herself.

“I wanted to make a difference because I know: A lot of kids are hurting, and they need someone to support them,” she says. “I always knew I wanted to help kids.”

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When Kincannon, now 27, sets her mind to something, she finds a way. Raising her daughter and working full-time at a day care, she got her associate’s degree at in education at National Park College, graduating ahead of schedule in December of 2010. Then came a second daughter, more part-time jobs, and commuting back and forth more than an hour to Henderson State University to get her degree in English in 2013, with a focus on 7-12 grade education. Still happily married after nine years, Kincannon says her family kept her focused as she pursued the teaching profession.

“School was my safe haven.

My teachers were my support.

They were the people who were rallying behind me and believed that I could do something.”

Just four years after being told by some that she wouldn’t amount to anything, she got her dream job. In 2013, she was hired as an English teacher at Lake Hamilton Junior High. In addition to teaching eighth and ninth grade English, she has also team taught special education English. She continued her own coursework while she was teaching, and in 2016, she earned a Masters of Science in Education degree with a focus on English as a second language. In May she completed an Education Specialist degree with a focus on curriculum, and says her family encouraged and supported her throughout her continued education.

“My husband has been my rock throughout this journey,” she says. “My family is so important to me, and they’re the reason why I’ve been able to get to where I am today.”

This school year, she also began teaching two sections of English designed specifically for ESL learners.

“As someone who comes from a background of struggling,” she says, “I really connected with these English-language learners who are struggling against all odds to learn not only how to speak English but also how to be academically proficient in a language other than their own. They want to do well. They’re willing to achieve the unachievable. They just need an advocate.

They need someone to help them.”

Kincannon says that she’s still learning how to navigate the challenge of meeting those needs in an ESL classroom.

“I had a big epiphany that I needed to tailor my curriculum,” she says. “As an ESL teacher, we really need to break down words for these kids. They need careful explanations so they understand and don’t get defeated. They need engagement, interaction, opportunities to speak and listen. Just because they have the conversational English does not mean that they have that academic terminology down. That’s the biggest misperception.”

During Kincannon’s first year of teaching, as her school began to implement Google applications and Chromebooks, she was eager to get a crash course in using technology in the classroom.

“I didn’t know what a Chromebook was,” she remembers. “So I went to a conference called ‘Schools without Walls.’ And I fell in love! I went back to my classroom and fully implemented all these Google apps. I was determined that I was going to make it work for my kids, and my kids loved it. It was like turning on a switch. Kids like educational technology.”

Kincannon began giving presentations on using technology in the classroom for other teachers at conferences and trainings, and she quickly found that she had a passion for professional development. She’s now given 19 such presentations throughout the state, and works with teachers and staff at Lake Hamilton.

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ARKANSAS EDUCATOR

aeaonline.org

At this year’s AEA Representative Assembly, Kincannon successfully brought proposals to create new networking opportunities for both ECEs and under-35s.

“Early career educators and under-35s are the future of our association,” she says. “So the focus is not only to support them and keep them in education—we need them in our association.

We need to empower them to be activists.”

Kincannon plans on continuing to take an active role in professional development as well as nurturing support programs for ECEs and under-35s.

“I want to continue to support other educators however I can because education is under attack,” she says. “We need to create a support system and we need to help each other, by working together to ultimately give our students what they need, and to protect our livelihood. It’s going to take all of us standing together to save the future of public education.”

“Sometimes teachers need someone to help them,” she says.

“We all have our own strengths, and we’re all experts in our fields. But in other areas, we need someone to help us. I’m a professional development junkie! I just love to learn, and I’m a sharer, I’m not a hoarder of information.”

Kincannon’s passion proved a natural fit for engaging with early-career educators, a mission that she has been empowered to pursue with her recent involvement with AEA (Kincannon now serves as a building representative). AEA leadership encouraged her to apply to participate in a NEA summit in Orlando for early career educators (ECEs – teachers in the first five years of their careers). Kincannon was selected and attended the conference in February.

“It was absolutely incredible,” she says. “I really learned how to network with ECEs, and why there is a need for support for them.

“We know that that’s when teachers are leaving the profession is that first five years. So they desperately need a support system. If you’re an early career educator, you are a minority in school districts and you don’t always have that support system when you are at school. Many of them are struggling—they need help with classroom management, they need specific professional development tailored to their needs, and they need mentors who will support them and encourage them along the way.”

Kincannon’s own experience growing up has helped to foster that commitment, and still colors her approach to teaching today.

“There is some child who has a home like mine, who is unhappy, who doesn’t feel valuable,” she says. “I want to be that person for that child, like the teachers who hung in there with me—because I was not an easy to kid to work with— and encouraged me. There’s no telling where I’d be if I didn’t have that as a student.”

“Early career educators and under-35s are the future of our association. So the focus is not only to support them and keep them in education—we need them in our association. We need to empower them to be activists.”

Even as teachers gain experience, educators who are younger need targeted support, Kincannon says.

“I personally and passionately believe that we need to support not just ECEs, but also under-35 educators, who may have been teaching longer than five years, but we’re lacking the life experience,” she says. “Sometimes under-35s don’t understand being political advocates, or they may need coaching in other areas of learning how to be professional.”

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SUMMER 2018

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with REP. BRUCE COZART Representative Bruce Cozart (R) Hot Springs Chairman of the House Education Committee.

Tell us a bit about yourself, how you came to serve in the legislature?

“The AEA is very active in watching over everything that comes before the legislators that has anything to do with education.”

- Rep. Bruce Cozart

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ARKANSAS EDUCATOR

aeaonline.org

I’ve always been someone that loves to serve others and help my community. Serving as a state representative is one of the ways that I could bring something to my district such as many before me have, but in a way that I feel is the need at this time You previously served on the Lake Hamilton School Board. How has this experience shaped your thoughts on how we can strengthen public schools?

My service on the Lake Hamilton school board gave me a lot of different experience, including an understanding of school finance and all the other factors it takes to run each school. I learned how important everyone in the school is, from the person who mows the grass to the bus driver to the custodians, teachers, cafeteria staff, office staff, principals and superintendents.

It takes everyone to make that school perform properly.

Garland County has shown a commitment to supporting public education through a meeting of the various school districts in the county.

How has this convening served as a platform to support local schools?

We are very lucky in Garland County. All seven superintendents and most of our legislators from the area meet on a quarterly basis to talk about what we can do to help make our schools better in Garland County.

This has proven very beneficial for our area, and it has lessened the fear of competition between the different school districts.

Now they try to work together and not against each other.

Educational adequacy is a process by which lawmakers decide how to best resource public schools two years at a time. The last adequacy recommendation fell far below the amount the Bureau of Legislative Research found was needed to keep up with the Consumer Price Index. The next adequacy funding recommendations are due by November 1, 2018. What direction do you expect the adequacy committee to go?

Do you expect to see an increase in

You have served as Chair of the Education Committee in the House of Representatives for nearly 4 years. What advancements in public education are you most proud to have supported during your time as Chair?

I believe there are many accomplishments we’ve made over the past four years. As a group, the committee has done a great job.

We have all brought some great legislation to the table, some of it has passed, some of it has failed. I think one of the best bills that I was a part of was the professional learning community legislation. This is now showing great results after the first year of implementation with the second year coming up. As more schools are able to have the money granted to them through the program I believe Arkansas education is going to be step ahead and climbing to the top.

I am also happy that our educational adequacy program is starting to move up the ladder. It was stagnant for so many years and we’re now looking at adequacy in a new light and in a new way that’s actually starting to fund it properly.

As we fund educational adequacy in the proper way and with the added categorical money that we are putting into the [funding] matrix we are starting to see

What are your thoughts on how lawmakers can improve working conditions, benefits and pay for public school educators in Arkansas?

What are the biggest challenges facing public schools in Arkansas today?

As we prepare to clean up outdated laws that are on the books, we hope that this will reduce the paperwork load that teachers have, but I’m not sure how much of that we will be at able to do this time.

One of the biggest challenges facing public schools is a shortage of good teachers, good quality principals, and superintendents. We need more educators with passion and a love for teaching.

Public school educators are experts in what their students need. What advice would you have for educators so they can ensure their voice is part of the education policy making process?

Educators need to get active in the process of making policy. Don’t just leave the policy up to the superintendents and principals, have a say in what’s being done. Call your legislators and talk with them about the needs of your district. If there is not a group in your school that monitors education issues then start one.

AEA is at the Capitol every time lawmakers are discussing public education. Please describe your experience working with AEA leadership and members.

The AEA is very active in watching over everything that comes before the legislators that has anything to do with education.

I have worked beside them and I have been on the other page against them, but every time we come together and discuss our differences. We don’t always see eye-toeye but we are both trying to work for the bettering of education.

REPRESENTATIVE BRUCE COZART (R)

Educational adequacy is a process that is very hard to hit exactly every time. I believe over the past four years we have been as close as possible, but it is not what people thought it would be or should be because it has always been a flat number across the board. We are working to be as efficient as possible with our adequacy recommendation. [I believe] the [consumer price index] research we were presented was incorrect and we went with the numbers we believed to be correct. We will be looking closely at the various new forecast numbers that will be coming out soon as we work on the next adequacy funding cycle.

the gap close. This is the goal, closing the educational achievement gap and getting all our students on the right level that they need to be to succeed in life.

Q&A

school funding that at least keeps up with inflation or goes beyond that to move us beyond adequacy and toward excellence?

There are a lot of factors that come into play with working conditions, I believe that student behavioral issues is one of the worst conditions that teachers have to work under. The pay for teachers is on the rise, as we have been working on that over the past 4 to 6 years, and are bringing their salaries up. I know insurance is a big factor that cuts into a teacher’s salary. We have worked trying to increase those benefits without increasing the cost of insurance.

That’s a very hard thing to do but we’re still trying.

In the past two general legislative sessions, the legislature passed $150 million dollars in tax cuts. There is a proposal to cut taxes another $180 million for the top earners in the state in the next legislative session. How might this continuation of tax cuts affect the state’s ability to fund public education, Medicaid, highways and other issues affecting educators and students?

Tax Cuts are often done as campaign promises. I’m not saying that the Governor has promised in his campaign that he would continue to cut taxes to where we can’t [fully fund public education], but as long as the general revenue is still coming in to offset the amount of the taxes going away then I don’t think there will be any harm to education being funded properly.

We don’t want to continue to cut taxes without revenue staying steady and above or we could have issues such as other states like Oklahoma. I believe we need a good balance of gain and reduction.

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PEOPLE POWER Elected officials are making important decisions on public education yearround, from your local school board meetings, all the way up to committee hearings in Little Rock at the state legislature. The AEA is at the Capitol any time public education issues are being discussed, and we do our best to ensure members are informed and know how to get involved.

These decisions have a direct impact on daily interactions with your students and what your work day looks like.

For this reason, it is essential for educators to be involved in both local and statewide politics. You know what your students need to succeed, like small class sizes, safe schools, successful learning environments and well qualified educators.

Unfortunately, there is a coordinated and well-funded attack on our public school system playing out both on the national level, and at the state level here in Little Rock.

We’ve seen lawmakers ignore evidence-based policies that we know will work to improve student success in favor of experiments being pushed by advocates of school privatization.

It is frustrating to watch documented needs – like the catastrophic fund for special education – go underfunded while our state expands voucher programs like the wildly misnamed ‘Succeed Scholarship’ program.

While the people working to privatize education may have deep pockets, the 90% of Arkansas students in public schools have something stronger. You. As educators, you are some of the most knowledgeable – and trusted – experts in your community. Your voice matters, and AEA can help you amplify your message. When we are at the Capitol, some lawmakers are willing to listen to our team not because we are big campaign donors (like the privatizers pushing to profit off of Arkansas’s children), but because of you. Our political strength is based on members, real educators working in classrooms and school buildings every day.

The people in your community trust you with their children, and they trust your opinion when it comes to what is best for public education in our state.

It’s time to ramp up sharing that information.

AEA members, along with many other education partners recently hosted a series of public events where we shared some of the many good things happening in Arkansas public schools. At those events, we shared a document (check it out at AEAonline.org) outlining researchbased improvements we can make to increase student success. We need to direct our lawmakers to focus on these policies rather than draining public dollars to unaccountable private players.

We’ve seen just how powerful educators’ collective action can be, and now, more than ever, we must stand together for our students, our schools and our profession.

The 2018 mid-term elections are coming up quickly. On November 6th we need to send a strong message to our lawmakers that we expect them to prioritize an excellent public education for every student.

In addition to voting, and spreading information about our schools, I also encourage you to get involved in the Arkansas Committee for Children and Public Education. The ACCPE is AEA’s political action committee. It is through the ACCPE that local associations can recommend candidates for public office and donate to help fund friends of public education. We need every willing member to get involved and join their local’s process. You can speak to your building rep, local president, or visit AEAonline.org/ ACCPE to find out more.

Tracey-Ann Nelson AEA Executive Director

EDUCATOR This is YOUR magazine – Let us know what you would like to see.

Send story ideas to kleyenberger@aeanea.org 24

ARKANSAS EDUCATOR

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REWIND: Looking back at AEA’s past The AEA is, and has been, the collective voice of Arkansas educators for nearly 150 years. Together, we are stronger, and educators have a long history of standing together to enact meaningful change for students and public education in this state.

In 1981, Arkansas was one of several states ordered by courts to improve distribution of financial aid to local school districts.

In addition, many teachers became outraged when some school districts attempted to change contracted teacher salary amounts in the middle of the school year to make up for shortfall in the state budget.

When the call for a special session was read at the RA, educators learned education issues were not included. In an unprecedented move, AEA delegates attending the 1981 November RA voted to defer almost all business items to April and march on the State Capitol for a rally.

Relief came quickly. On the following Wednesday, Governor (Frank) White announced he was adding 3 education items to the agenda for the special call.

The Special Session resulted in four major wins for AEA members: • A one-time bonus for teachers of $265 (712 in today’s dollars) • A fair contract law that prohibits any reduction in contracted teacher salaries • Establishment of a commission to study the school funding formula for financing Arkansas’ elementary and secondary education • A $1 million appropriation to apply toward school employee health insurance

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