Smart Core, smart move

Arkansas moves ahead again in education

Editorials

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Friday, September 22, 2006

WE MISS the old “Cosby Show” on TV. Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable. Also Clair, Rudy, Vanessa and Denise. Oh, yeah, and Theo. Who could forget Theo? Here he is in the first season of the show, explaining to his father why he shouldn’t get punished for getting a bad grade in school: 

Theo: You’re a doctor and Mom’s a lawyer, and you’re both successful in everything and that’s great! But maybe I was born to be a regular person and have a regular life. If you weren’t a doctor, I wouldn’t love you less, because you’re my dad. So rather than feeling disappointed because I’m not like you, maybe you should accept who I am and love me anyway, because I’m your son. 

(After a pause, the live audience applauds. Theo is probably a sharp lawyer by now.) 

Cliff: Theo . . . that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life! 

WE WERE reminded of Bill Cosby’s tough love and high standards for his TV kids when we visited the education confab at the Statehouse Convention Center on Wednesday morning. How times have changed, friends, how times have changed. We remember when the new big thing in education was the dual-track high school curriculum. 

That was way back in 2005. 

You’ve heard the old theory, and we mean old: Some kids know by the 10th or 11th grade that they’re not college material. So the kids going to college take harder classes, and the kids that aren’t going to college should have it easier. Hey, we want everybody to get a diploma, right? Forcing all kids into Calculus or English Lit isn’t smart because a lot of them would just drop out of school, and how many options does a high-school dropout have in 2006? So just let the average kids take shop, give ’em that Gentleman’s C, and they’ll go into the work world after graduation. And that’s that. 

Folks, that was never smart and these days it’s not practical, either. 

Ken James, the state’s education commissioner, explains that the skills a young person needs to qualify as an incoming freshman in college these days are much the same as those he’ll need to get an entry-level job down at the factory. That is, if the factory hasn’t closed and given way to a high-tech outfit. 

Most of us knew that the higher-paying jobs out there demand a college education. But even to make a living these days, a young person needs to take advanced curriculum in high school. 

Want to be an iron worker? You need physics. Want to be a pipe fitter? You need algebra and trig. Want to be a sales professional? You need advanced math and communication skills. Everybody needs computer skills. You can’t very well live and work in this world without them. 

Going into the military? Great! They’ll feed and clothe and house you. But do you want one of those technical assignments with the bigger signing bonuses? Then you better take advanced math classes in high school. 

This isn’t your father’s career path anymore. Or even your older brother’s. Things are changing. Fast. Just about the only thing that hasn’t changed is the need for a liberal education for its own sake—and the Republic’s. No, it was never very smart to assume a democracy could survive without an educated Demos. 

STARTING with the Class of 2010, students in Arkansas will take the Smart Core classes unless their parents sign an opt-out form. Smart Core is a rigorous curriculum of mostly English, math, and social studies—with some health and fine arts thrown in. Only 10 states are doing this Smart Core thing—and Arkansas is one of them. 

When Ken James mentioned that little fact at Wednesday’s confab, the room burst into applause. How about that? Arkansas is among those states leading the nation, setting an example for the rest of the Union, and in public education no less. 

You’ll soon hear radio and TV public service announcements promoting Smart Core. The worry is that too many parents will sign an opt-out form for their kids, which would defeat the whole purpose of the program. 

Ken James wants to opt out of the optout. He says it sends a mixed message. Raise standards in high school, but then let parents sign their kids up for lower ones? We can see the occasional child with severe academic problems having to opt out of Smart Core, and making some provision for them makes sense. But they ought to be the exceptions, not the dangerous rule. The state needs a way to preserve this option without letting just anybody take the easy—and self-destructive—way out. It sounds like something Theo would’ve done if he hadn’t had parents like the Huxtables. 

Consider: Already a fifth of Arkansas’ high schoolers don’t make it to graduation, and 76 percent of employers in Arkansas say most kids coming to their first jobs aren’t prepared. Most college students in Arkansas need remedial courses before they can even begin the work of getting a degree. 

Something has to change in high school. 

In Arkansas, it just did.