January 02, 2013 News » Cover Stories

Arkansas A+ puts art in academics 

Thea Foundation's teaching model puts kids in the mood to learn.

by
click to flip through (5) QUILTING MATH: A+ Director Annette Butler listens to Helena KIPP student Ariel Bland talk about his composition. - Brian Chilson
  • Brian Chilson
  • QUILTING MATH: A+ Director Annette Butler listens to Helena KIPP student Ariel Bland talk about his composition.
       
 

Arkansas A+ vs. A+ Arkansas

Arkansas A+ is a teaching methodology that incorporates the arts into academics. It's been shown to help students learn and retain knowledge no matter how they're wired to absorb new information, and its sponsor, the Thea Foundation, will work with any school — public, private, charter — that wants to implement it.

A+ Arkansas is an organization created by the Walton-funded Arkansas for Education Reform Foundation to promote charter schools and other school "choice" programs.

The name Arkansas A+ has been around since 2003, when the model, created in North Carolina, was first introduced to pilot schools here. Thea Foundation director Paul Leopoulos, concerned that the public would confuse the two organizations and think that Arkansas A+ was for charter schools only, asked A+ Arkansas leaders to consider a name change. He got nowhere with that suggestion, and is finding that educators are confused already — even some in North Little Rock, where Arkansas A+ is headquartered.

A+ Arkansas did agree to put a disclaimer on its website: "While we are strong supporters of the Thea Foundation, there is absolutely no affiliation between the A+ Arkansas Campaign and Thea Foundation's Arkansas A+ Schools whole school reform initiative."

Leopoulos hopes the Arkansas A+ Schools model will be adopted by the state Department of Education as a way to help struggling schools and enhance high-achieving schools.

A+ Arkansas, on the other hand, advocates for creating taxpayer-supported schools that operate outside the public school system, like e-STEM in Little Rock, rather than working with established school districts that must serve all students. Its spokesman is Laurie Lee, formerly known as Laurie Taylor, who is a right-wing ideologue: She has been a lobbyist for Americans for Prosperity, created by billionaires Charles and David Koch, and in 2004 created "Parents Protecting the Minds of Children," which sought to remove books from the Fayetteville public schools that Lee (then Taylor) said were pornographic and promoted homosexuality.

A way to remember the teaching method that Thea supports is that its name puts Arkansas first.

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"We know infusion works," Jeffress said. He said it was one reason why upper-income children succeed: "they have [these] experiences available to them."

"I've been aware of Paul and this program for a number of years," Jeffress said. "We've funded everything in the world except this."

Rep. Johnnie J. Roebuck, vice chair of the House committee and another supporter of Arkansas A+, asked to hear from Tom Kimbrell, the director of the state Department of Education.

Kimbrell's did not match the legislators' enthusiasm. "There are hundreds of programs that could make a difference," he said. He didn't think one method would work for every school.

It appears, however, that Leopoulos' doggedness is making inroads into the state's education establishment.

In December, the Education Department's Bednar said her office intends to ask its specialists to "spread an awareness of the A+ model." That's not the same as adopting it, but it's a start.

The A+ model is also cheap: $60,000 for three years of training for up to 30 teachers: only enough to keep it going. Bednar, the education commissioner for learning services, said program costs vary widely, some exponentially more expensive than A+, but "I believe the A+ Model certainly has promise and lends itself to not only helping improve student performance but also transforming schools and communities — something we can't put a price tag on."

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