President's Column: Community engagement - Arkansas leads the way

By Mossi W. White

6/4/02 – Every school board member knows this: You won't be able to accomplish much without the support of the community you represent.

That's why NSBA made community engagement a critical piece of the Key Work of School Boards, a framework for raising student achievement.

The Key Work consists of eight elements–vision, standards, assessment, accountability, alignment, climate, collaborative partnerships, and continuous improvement–and all of these involve community engagement.

For example, the framework calls for boards to "engage in a comprehensive planning process to establish a clear vision of student achievement as the top priority of the school board, staff, and community."

School boards throughout the nation are using open forums, focus groups, polling, e-mail networks, and other community engagement strategies.

A unique example of a statewide community engagement effort is being carried out in Arkansas. On April 4, 91 forums were held in communities across the state, drawing nearly 6,000 parents, students, teachers, administrators, school board members, business people, and other citizens.

Concerned Arkansas citizens gathered in high school gymnasiums, community centers, and chamber of commerce offices to talk about what they want their public schools to do to educate their children. The forums were broadcast live on the Arkansas Educational Television Network.

The effort, known as "Speak Up, Arkansas!," was organized by the state's Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education. The state legislature created the commission last year to study the state's public education system. A month later, a Pulaski County circuit judge ruled on a state equity case, giving the effort greater urgency.

The judge's ruling on a lawsuit filed against the state by the Lake View school district says the state doesn't spend enough on schools and what it does spend isn't distributed fairly to districts across the state. The decision has been appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

The Arkansas School Boards Association (ASBA) played a major role in organizing "Speak Up, Arkansas!" and trained nearly 200 facilitators to lead discussions at local forums.

Hundreds of recommendations were presented and discussed at the forums. For example, at the forum in Rogers, Ark., the most frequently mentioned issues were the need for more funding, smaller class sizes, alternative education at the elementary level, parent involvement, and less emphasis on standardized testing.

In Forth Smith, forum participants stressed the need for higher teacher salaries, prekindergarten education, smaller class sizes, and more funding for special education. The most commonly mentioned concerns at a Little Rock forum were parent apathy, teacher retention, and the need for improved offerings for minority students.

"The momentum that began on April 4 will swing us into action once again this fall with study circles across our state," says ASBA Executive Director Dan Farley.

These two-hour sessions, to be held once a week for four weeks, are being organized by ASBA along with Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families. Farley says the study circles will give citizens an opportunity to be engaged in deeper and richer conversations about public schools and how they can better promote academic success.

Each study circle will have 10 to 12 participants, and each community can have one or many. Any community member can be a participant in a study circle, Farley says, because everyone who lives in a community is a stakeholder in the community's public schools.

After the four-week period, all the study circles in a community will join in an action forum to pull together their best ideas. ASBA will synthesize all of the recommendations and come up with a plan to present to the legislature.

More than 25 percent of the participants at all of the Speak Up, Arkansas! sites have expressed an interest in participating in the study circles.

Even though this initiative was created by the Arkansas legislature, it offers a model that can be adapted by any state school boards association or local school board.

When this type of community engagement strategy is carried out on a statewide basis, it creates great excitement and enthusiasm around education issues. The public's attention becomes focused on our public education systems–its successes and challenges. Similar results can be achieved by local school boards in their communities.

When local citizens take part in these kinds of events, they view themselves as partners with their local school board in working to make their school system the best it could be.

A school board that is committed to public engagement becomes more visible in the community, and as a result, the public develops a better understanding of the board's role and value.

And a board that seeks input from all community members–not just parents with children in public schools–gains credibility as the community's true leadership voice in creating the next generation of leaders and citizens.