AGENDA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION - real facts omsd

Public Comments: Rules Governing Educator Licensure – July - September 2012 (Second Public Comment Period)
support the proposed K-6 license and the B-K/Integrated license. I have reviewed the draft curriculum for
the B-K/Integrated proposed license and I know most of the participants working on this program of study
and I can assure you they are an immensely talented group! Their proposal is great, but I do not believe
that the B-K/Integrated license by itself it is sufficient to meet the early childhood needs in our state.
In the Comment Summary & Response: Rules Governing Educator Licensure – June - July 2012 it was
stated that, “The Department does not believe that the state’s institutions of higher education have the
capacity to provide both a P-4 program of study and a K-6 program of study.” I disagree! There has been
no systematic review to see which campuses would offer which preparation programs if P-4 and K-6 were
both an option. As a former director of one of our state’s programs I can tell you that we have 18
excellent, nationally accredited teacher education programs. All of the Colleges of Teacher Education and
their leaders are strongly committed to listening to local superintendents and school partners and wish to
continue strong partnerships in order to prepare excellent future teachers who are ready for classrooms.
These programs are also highly regulated and like other Higher Ed programs are driven by market
demands and viability numbers. In short, if the K-6 model meets their market and is more viable than the
P-4 program, you can bet a college is going to offer it. Maybe not all of them need to deliver preparation
for every licensure area, but they should be allowed to continue their already developed and nationally
recognized P-4 programs while developing K-6 programs if their market will allow for it and meet
viability. We need authentic choices for our future teachers and also for the programs that prepare them.
Increasingly federal programs, including Race to the Top and other competitively funded initiatives
require early childhood programs to be included in the state’s comprehensive planning. The national trend
has been to move from the traditional K-12 model of education toward an integrated P-12 system of
education. In comments (57 pages of them) detailing why Arkansas was not awarded Race to the Top
Funding we were told that we did not have or did not describe “an adequate plan on Early Childhood
Educator development, advancement, and retention.” We were also advised in those comments to
“integrate and align resources and policies across participating state agencies,” in order to improve the
quality of early learning and development programs in our state. We have been told plainly what we need
to do in order to advance on the national front. I feel the new licensure proposal if adopted will set us
back. My personal perspective is that continuing P-4 licensure is a critical component of educational
reform initiatives in Arkansas.
Here is what WE KNOW: Learning Begins W-A-Y before Kindergarten and as a state we do not want to
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