Campus Talk: Education Board Exempts Alternative Schools From Grade Rankings

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EDUCATION BOARD EXEMPTS ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS FROM GRADE RANKINGS: The Arkansas Board of Education decided Monday that students in Alternative Learning Environment schools, or those needing extra academic help, will be included in their districts of origins for the purpose of grading schools.

Following federal guidelines, all schools must now receive a letter grade of A through F based on student standardized test scores. Board member Diane Zook expressed concern during a teleconference that district superintendents would lose discretion to have separate higher and lower achieving schools for the purposes of grading. Read more in this KUAR report.

ARKANSAS RESEARCH ALLIANCE TO UNVEIL 5 NEW FELLOWS: The Arkansas Research Alliance will launch a new program to recognize and reward research talent in Arkansas on Wednesday morning, Dec. 3rd. ARA Fellows will compliment the ARA Scholars program, which recruits research talent to the state. The Fellows program will recognize distinguished university research leaders who are already working in Arkansas. Five research universities – ASU, UA, UALR, UAMS and UAPB – will be involved in the new effort. A press conference is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Wednesday at the state capitol.

COLLEGE ATHLETES WILL BE PAID, AGENT SAYS: Paying college athletes a small stipend in addition to their scholarships is inevitable, the sports agent for former Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback Ryan Mallett said during a speech before the Clinton School of Public Service Monday.

J.R. Carroll, a partner at the Fayetteville office of the Kutak Rock law firm and one of two Arkansas-based agents representing NFL players, said the NCAA will no longer be able to rely on the justifications it has used in the past to avoid paying players. It calls players “student-athletes” when they really are college employees, and it uses their likenesses and names without compensating them. Meanwhile, the economics of college sports demands that the athletes be paid.

“The money has gotten to be so big and the pie has gotten to be so big that at some point, you’re going to have to give a piece of that pie to the individuals who are actually generating that income,” he said. Read the full story at this link.

UALR SCHOOL OF MASS COMMUNICATION RECEIVES $1.4 MILLION BEQUEST: The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) received a $1.4 million bequest from the Johnnie A. Winn Revocable Trust to benefit the School of Mass Communication. The gift, worth $1,407,786, establishes the Dan and Johnnie Winn Memorial Scholarship in the College of Social Sciences and Communication at UALR.

The funding will provide financial assistance for any education-related expense, including but not limited to tuition, books, and fees for students pursuing degrees in the School of Mass Communication, with preference given to those majors whose career emphasis is journalism or radio. Funding for the gift comes from the estate of Dan and Johnnie Winn, both of whom had careers and appreciation for mass communication, especially radio.

ASU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION TO HOLD UNIQUE BARN RAISING EVENT: The Arkansas State University Heritage Sites program has overseen the renovation and restoration of the Historic Dyess Colony and the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home, but the site is still not complete. The home place still needs a barn, similar to the one that Cash grew up playing in.

As a part of the national #GivingTuesday event on Dec. 2, the A-State Alumni Association is asking alumni and friends of the university, as well as fans of Johnny Cash, to make a gift to Arkansas State to help construct the Cash farm’s barn. ASU plans to use the barn as a classroom at the boyhood home site. Read more here.

GATES FOUNDATION PUSHING FOR OPEN ACCESS TO ACADEMIC RESEARCH: The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation believes that more academic research should be free and open to the public. Vox reports, “Starting in January 2017, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will require all of the research it funds to be published in a manner that is free for the public to read.”

The Gates Foundation rules are in conflict with current policies at many top journals such as Science, which generally charge for access for at least the first few months.

Still, the organization has a lot of clout and may be able to push for more open access.

Vox says, “The Gates Foundation spends about $900 million each year funding scientific research — which results in about 1,400 research papers on various aspects of global health.”

Under the new policy, the researchers that the organization funds will only be able to publish papers that are “immediately freely accessible to the public.” Go to this link to learn more about the Gates Foundation’s new policy and the growing movement it has joined.