Real-World Experience Welcomed in Class (Commentary by Beverly Williams)

For years, school administrators have asked the Arkansas Department of Education about the possibility of asking a local professional to teach a class for which they have no teacher on staff. Usually, the pairing would have been a great fit – a local engineer taking on a single physics class or a pharmacist teaching a couple of chemistry class periods.

But again and again, we at the department would have to say no. Until now.

With our new Arkansas Professional Teaching Permit, we’ve finally developed a means to allow professionals to bring their experience to the classroom and at the same time ensure that our students are taught by qualified teachers who are knowledgeable in the subject areas.

These are not the only benefits the Arkansas Professional Teaching Permit offers. Consider these:

• One of the buzzwords often repeated in education circles these days is “relevance.” We know that students master concepts and skills much easier when they understand how those lessons are used in “real life.”

So say a local pharmacist teaching high school math explains how she has used the very calculus formula she is teaching that day to determine drug interactions for hospital patients. All of a sudden, that lesson is more than a seemingly abstract concept; it’s a potentially life-saving equation.

• Arkansas has a number of critical shortage areas for teachers, including art, math, science and foreign languages. This problem is being exacerbated as baby-boomer teachers retire and fewer college graduates are entering the profession immediately after college. People who teach with a Professional Teaching Permit will help alleviate this problem.
• What easier way is there for a working professional to inspire a young person than in the classroom?

Teachers know of the intrinsic reward experienced when a student masters a concept or develops enough interest in a subject to pursue a related course of study and career. Professionals who obtain a Professional Teaching Permit will no doubt experience it too!

• For anyone who has ever thought about trying his hand at a new career, the Professional Teaching Permit presents a great way to experience a different profession without giving up the present one.

And for those who decide they’d like to make teaching their full-time career one of these days, we’ll be more than happy to guide them through the licensure process.

• Professionals will have the chance to identify future talent for their own companies. In fact, we envision internships and other opportunities for students and companies to partner in programs that will benefit both.
• The Professional Teaching Permit is another way that the state of Arkansas and the Arkansas Department of Education are working to ensure that we prepare our young people to be productive citizens in a world defined by a global economy.

To qualify for a Professional Teaching Permit, a working professional must:

• Have a bachelor’s degree with a minimum three years of working experience in the content area of the class to be taught
• Be currently employed in a field related to the class to be taught
• Be offered employment to teach one or no more than two regularly scheduled, for-credit courses in an Arkansas public school
• Complete the Professional Teaching Permit application
• Pass the appropriate Praxis II Content Knowledge test
• Pass a criminal background check
• Successfully complete a 40-hour Professional Teaching Permit pedagogy training within the first year of teaching.

Applications are available at www.teacharkansas.org. Link to “Non-Traditional Licensure” and then to “Professional Teaching Permit.” For more information about the program, contact Barbara Culpepper in the ADE Office of Teacher Quality at 501-682-4311 or at [email protected].

Beverly Williams is an assistant commissioner for human resources and licensure at the Arkansas Department of Education. E-mail her at [email protected].

Headline: Applause for Innovate Arkansas (Editorial)

Bit by bit, Arkansas appears to be working its way into building the base it needs to develop a healthy economy for the 21st century. The latest move came recently with the startup of Innovate Arkansas.

Winrock International launched the private, not-for-profit business entity, which will develop and manage a state technology commercialization initiative for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

Innovate Arkansas, headed by Tom Dalton, a former Little Rock city manager and former director of the Arkansas Department of Human Services, has a goal of building knowledge-based companies that pay wages of at least 150 percent of the state average.

It will seek to find independent emerging technology-based entrepreneurs, university research facilities and existing technology companies and provide assistance to advance them.

Innovate Arkansas hopes to help technology-based firms by accelerating the commercialization process; creating an environment that supports technology-based businesses; facilitating partnerships between firms, Arkansas’ universities and economic development organizations; helping firms obtain early-stage capital; providing mentoring services and expert assistance in technology, business, organizational management and marketing; and helping with legal and intellectual property matters.

Winrock has developed a team of state resources for the project, including the University of Arkansas, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Arkansas State University, the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority, the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, venture capital firms, chambers of commerce, economic development entities, small-business development centers and other businesses.

We’ve heard a few people say the program isn’t what it could be, that it doesn’t take the concept quite far enough.

Too, Innovate Arkansas is located in Little Rock, away from what we consider the technology hub and future of technology in the state, Northwest Arkansas.

We back that up with stats from the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority, which last year noted Washington County as its most active county with 13 projects in its technology transfer assistance program. Also, of the ASTA’s $1.692 million in research and development tax credits, $1.608 million went to companies in Benton and Washington counties.

That criticism comes not from rancor or a petty squabbling over central vs. northwest, but from a continued desire from many to improve Arkansas and the quality of life for its residents.

Any program – wherever it’s located and whatever its shortcomings – that strives to increase knowledge-based, high-tech jobs is worth having.

We applaud Winrock International and, in advance, we thank it for all Innovate Arkansas will do for the Natural State.