SPRING 2014
Dear Parents and Community, I hope the spring semester has been full of exciting and fun activities with your child. From academics to athletics and the arts, it has been a banner year for Arkadelphia Public Schools. We are pleased to highlight the accomplishments of our schools and students in this edition of the Voice. As the end of the school year approaches, please be reminded that the last day of school will be June 3. Also, we look forward to our commencement ceremony for the AHS Class of 2014 on May 24 at 10 A.M. on the campus of Henderson State University. We hope you can join us for this day of celebration! Communication with our school-community is a top priority, and we are excited to announce the launch of our official mobile app. I believe you will find this tool to be a convenient, user-friendly way of finding information about our schools. Fully redesigned web sites are also coming soon. Never before have there been so many ways to connect with us online. I encourage you to download the app and let us know what you think. We will continue to improve these resources so that they provide the best experience possible. Look for more details in this edition of the APS Voice. Arkadelphia was chosen to pilot the new PARCC assessment this spring at several of our campuses. This assessment is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and will take the place of our current state Benchmark exam starting next year. The test will be administered online and will replace the traditional pencil and paper standardized tests that have been in place for many years. Our instructional team is already preparing for the transition in format and we look forward to implementing these changes over the next year. For more information, please contact your child’s principal or counselor. Finally, we hope you’ve had a chance to visit our campuses and attend the outstanding activities and events that showcase our talented students. Our young people are the pride of our community and their talents are demonstrated daily in the classroom and through their extracurricular activities. We encourage you to be a part of these special moments. They’ll be graduating before you know it! Go Badgers! Sincerely, Dr. Donnie Whitten Superintendent
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Goza students publish books Young writers experience the entire process of publishing a book in this unique project in Goza Middle School’s eighth grade literature classes. The finished product is something many of the students will cherish for a lifetime.
AHS: Top 1% in nation
The Washington Post recently released their rankings of the nation’s most challenging high schools. AHS earned No. 4 on the Challenge Index for Arkansas, and placed within the top 1 percent of schools in the nation.
2 APS Superintendent Dr. Donnie Whitten APS Communications Dept. Sean Ruggles, Director McKenzie Cranford, Intern
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Arkadelphia Public Schools Voice is a publication of the Arkadelphia Public Schools Communications Department. Questions regarding this publication may be directed to: E-mail - sean.ruggles@ arkadelphiaschools.org Phone - (870) 246-5564 x1214
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Quiz Bowl takes 3rd state title Televised live from AETN’s studio in Conway, the AHS Quiz Bowlers defeated Maumelle High to bring home the program’s third state championship.
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Mail - Arkadelphia Public Schools attn: Dept. of Comm. 235 N. 11th St. Arkadelphia, AR 71923
Arkadelphia Public Schools Board of Education
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State legislators meet at AHS Arkadelphia was chosen by the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet to host the Joint Education Committee meeting.
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Dr. Jeff Root, President Dr. Kenneth G. Harris, Jr., Vice President Terri King, Secretary Karrie Goodman
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Badger Spirit
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FCCLA
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Go Big Blue!
Andrew Stanley elected as Arkansas’s only National Officer Candidate
Spring Musicals
Photos from our campuses’ spring musicals
Official APS mobile app
We’re mobile - see the back page for more details!
Billy Groom Randy Turner Dr. Casey Motl
Goza students publish books
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Goza Middle School literature teacher Phyllis Watts helps a student make the finishing touches to his manuscript so that he can prepare his book for printing. Watts’s students publish books as a year-long project designed to teach her classes about the creative process while also incorporating grammar and literature lessons.
interesting enough to others for it to make a good book. sense of urgency spreads through Phyllis Watts’s “We read a few excerpts aloud to the class and the eighth grade literature classroom as the students settle into their laptops; the only sounds in the room are the questions he raises stirred up some controversy,” Watts said. “His ideas made other students ask questions and they keystrokes on the keyboards as the hyper-focused students work to quickly finish the manuscripts of what will soon be wanted to know more.” Almost every genre of book is their first published work. acceptable for the project, but there are “The deadline is when?!” a student “Ultimately, students come certain conditions. For example, several asks. “I will have to work all night!” out of this project as far students are working on cookbooks, but “That might be what it takes,” Watts better readers and with the recipes must all be family recipes. says. “You need to focus on moving Students pen fiction, non-fiction, your story toward a resolution.” a better appreciation of biographies and memoirs. One student But the student is plagued with wrote his book about his relationship formatting issues that are troubling him, creating stories.” with his father, and then gave the book too. None of the tabs and paragraph -Phyllis Watts to his dad as a Father’s Day present. breaks in his text are transferring correctly into the page design software. GMS literature teacher Watts, a veteran teacher of 36 years, says her only regret about this yearly He’s frustrated, but after a few minutes book project is that she didn’t start her of problem solving, he fixes the issue. classes on it much earlier in her career. For the last seven Several more students are paired up in the hallway, years, she’s guided her classes through the full process of reading their manuscripts aloud to each other to catch authoring and publishing their own books. Beginning in mistakes and help refine their wording. Student Jordan September, her students experience all aspects of producing Allen is working on his cover design for Wake Up, People, which is a collection of his ponderings on a range of current topics. Allen was concerned his writing might not be continued on page 7
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AHS: Top 1% in nation
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rkadelphia High School was recently ranked in the top 1 percent of the nation’s high schools, and No. 4 in Arkansas, by the Washington Post. Earlier this month, the Washington Post published the annual High School Challenge Index, which rates the nation’s high schools in terms of each school’s academic rigor. According to the article’s author, Jay Mathews, “The Challenge Index is designed to identify schools that have done the best job in persuading average students to take college-level courses and tests.” “It is outstanding for AHS to be recognized in this manner,” Dr. Donnie Whitten, Superintendent at the Arkadelphia Public Schools, said. “We are proud of our faculty, staff, students and administration for their hard work and dedication to excellence.” Whitten continued, saying “AHS’s rankings as No. 213 in the nation and No. 4 in Arkansas demonstrate a commitment to challenging our students with the most rigorous curriculum possible.” AP, or Advanced Placement, classes are college-level classes offered to high school students in a wide variety of subjects. If a student scores high enough on the AP exam, then they can earn college credit for that subject. The curriculum of these classes offers students challenging course work and an example of the increased demands of college classes.
In 2012-13, AHS administered 561 AP exams to 199 students, 34 percent of AHS’s enrollment. All core subjectarea teachers at AHS are Pre-AP or AP certified and, during the 201314 school year, AHS offered 11 AP classes in subjects such as Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, Government, Biology and Literature. AHS also offers AP tests in two additional classes where teachers mentor students who excel in specific, advanced subjects. “The most important aspect of the AP curriculum is to challenge these students early so that they are better prepared for college,” David Maxwell, AHS Principal, said.
“It is outstanding for AHS to be recognized in this manner. We are proud of our faculty, staff, students and administration for their hard work and dedication to excellence.” -Dr. Donnie Whitten APS Superintendent College retention rates of AHS graduates reinforce the claim that exposing a greater number of high school students to more rigorous curriculum does increase their chances of success after graduating high school. “The freshman to sophomore college retention rate for AHS graduates is 15 percent better than that of the national average,” Maxwell said. “Our kids can afford to stay in college because of the Arkadelphia Promise, and just as importantly, can make the grades to stay in college because of the education we’ve made available to them.” “Our students wouldn’t be able to achieve at this high of a level without
the tireless effort of the AHS faculty and the support of our community. It is truly a blessing to be part of a community so dedicated to academics and education,” Maxwell said. To calculate the Challenge Index for the Washington Post’s rankings, Mathews divides the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or other college-level tests a school administered by the number of graduating seniors. The article states that, while not a measure of the overall quality of the school, the rating can reveal the level of a high school’s commitment to preparing average students for college. “I designed the list to identify the schools working hardest to challenge average students with Advanced Placement tests, good preparation for both college and the workplace. This is in contrast to the usual ranking of schools by test score averages, which is more of an indication of how affluent the parents are than of how good the school is,” Mathews said. I decided not to count passing rates in this way because I found that many high schools kept those rates artificially high by allowing only top students to take the courses. AP… [is] important because they give average students a chance to experience the trauma of heavy college reading lists and long, analytical college examinations. Research has found that even lowperforming students who scored a two on an AP test did significantly better in college than similar students who did not take AP,” Mathews said.
To view the full Challenge Index rankings and report, and to learn more about how the Index is calculated, visit their web sitehttp://apps.washingtonpost.com/ local/highschoolchallenge/
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Quiz Bowl wins third state title
Arkadelphia High School won the 4A state finals of the Arkansas Governor’s Academic Competition “Quiz Bowl 2014” Saturday, April 26, against Maumelle High School. The team includes (front, from left): Kaleb Reid, Seth Daniell, Noah McMillion, Dalton Huerkamp, Matt Savage; (back) Johnathan Miles, Sierra Westberg, Julie Williams, Chase Masters, Race Craft, Tyler Sanders, Devan Moses. Finals were held at the Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN) in Conway.
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rkadelphia High School’s Quiz Bowl team brought home their third state championship as well as $3,000 in prize money on Saturday, April 26, defeating Maumelle High School 335-185 on live television. The match was broadcast from AETN’s studio in Conway. “This quiz bowl win represents the culmination of successful teaching through our overall ‘K’ through 12 experience,” Head Coach Steve Patterson said. “As a senior high level quiz bowl coach, my job is not to teach the material, but to coach them to compete in quiz bowl and how to be a cohesive team.” AHS jumped to an early lead and carried the momentum through the match. “We really saw in this match how well our players could anticipate the answer,” Patterson said. “A lot of coaching is involved on how to pick
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“This quiz bowl win represents the culmination of successful teaching through our overall ‘K’ through 12 experience.” -Steve Patterson Quiz Bowl Head Coach
up clues early when a question is being asked; narrowing down the answer before the question is completely finished.” AHS excelled at this critical strategy and consistently beat Maumelle High to the buzzer, allowing AHS more opportunities to answer correctly and build their lead.
Although they sailed through the match, senior Dalton Huerkamp said keeping their cool was not as easy as it may have appeared on TV. “The majority of players went to Conway on Friday ahead of the match,” Huerkamp said. “This helped us stay calm, and we were able to preview and tour the AETN set. We answered several warm up questions and were just able to get settled.” “We stayed focused before and hit the ground running as soon as the match started,” team captain and senior Noah McMillion said. “And I think the other team had some whiplash from that.” Senior Seth Daniell said the momentum AHS built early in the match helped them stay quick on the buzzer and keep Maumelle High on their heels. continued on page 9
Badger Spirit!
SPRING SPORTS The Badger baseball and soccer teams are wrapping up their season fresh off their appearances in the 4A State Tournament. The Badger baseball team entered the tournament with a 23-5 record and won the 4A South Regional tournament at Star City with wins over Monticello, Hamburg and Ashdown. The Badgers were also the 4A-7 District Tournament champions as they defeated Central Arkansas Christian and Ashdown. The Badger and Lady Badger soccer teams returned to the State Tournament at Burns Park. The Lady Badgers were the 3rd seed from the 4A-2 conference and the Badgers earned the 4th seed from the 4A2. Both teams faced Maumelle in the opening rounds of the State Tournament. The soccer teams were both led by a core group of seniors which aided significantly in the teams return to the State Tournament. The Lady Badger softball team ended its season at the 4A-7 District Tournament with a 5-3 loss to Arkansas Baptist. Seniors Kaylee Bridges and Amarya Jones helped
lead head coach Lynn Rook’s young squad which featured at some times 5 freshmen on the field at the same time. The Lady Badgers will return 7 starters. VARSITY BASKETBALL The AHS basketball teams finished their respective seasons in post-season play in Nashville. The Badgers held down the top spot in the 4A-7 by starting the schedule with a 9-1 record and earning as high as a No. 3 ranking in the state of Arkansas in Class 4A by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The Badgers were the regular season 4A-7 Conference Champion and AHS coach Donnie Williams was named the league’s Coach of the Year. The Badgers earned a berth to the 4A South Regional tournament which was held at Nashville High School, but suffered a last-second loss to the top-seeded Monticello Billies. The Lady Badgers featured wins over Arkansas Baptist, Nashville and Ashdown in the always-tough 4A-7. The league’s teams found themselves behind Malvern and CAC, which squared off in March for the 4A State Championship.
SWIM & DIVE Sophomore diver Alexandria Hunter won the 1A-5A State Diving Championship at the AAA State Swimming and Diving Championships in February at UALR. Hunter’s score would have defeated several qualifiers competing in the 6A-7A championships as well. Hunter was the only representative of the AHS swim team who qualified for the State meet as the team was comprised of mostly freshmen, boding well for the future of AHS swimming. FOOTBALL It was a season for the ages for Arkadelphia football as the Badgers finished the season with a 12-1 overall record, an appearance in the 4A State Quarterfinals, a perfect 10-0 regular season record and the program’s second straight 4A-7 Conference Championship. The Badgers, under the leadership of third-year head coach J. R. Eldridge put together one of the best seasons in continued on page 7
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AHS hosts Joint Ed Committee
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rkadelphia Public Schools was selected by the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet to host the Senate and House Committee on Education joint meeting on Tuesday, May 6. The joint legislative committee, comprised of 40 senators and representatives from across Arkansas, heard presentations related to national Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs. AHS students led a tour of the three STEM-focused programs on their campus, which are New Tech, Project Lead the Way (PLTW), and the Environmental and Spatial Technology (EAST) Initiative. AHS was one of the first schools in Arkansas to be actively involved in all three programs, and was one of the first districts chosen by the state to become part of the New Tech Network. Real-world application of learning, critical thinking, problem solving, and the use of modern technology are emphasized in the project-based learning environments of these programs. “The Governor’s Workforce Cabinet chose Arkadelphia High School as the venue to highlight the success of STEM Works to the General Assembly,” Artee Williams, Chair of the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet, said. “Under the leadership of their board and administration, Arkadelphia High School is implementing New Tech, Project Lead the Way and EAST. With these programs, combined with outstanding outreach to the business community, Arkadelphia rightly deserves the ranking in the top 1 percent of the nation’s high schools.” “We are pleased to host the House and Senate Education Committees in Arkadelphia next week,” Dr. Donnie Whitten, Superintendent of the Arkadelphia Public Schools, said. “Our students have planned an outstanding STEM showcase.”
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Arkansas’s Commissioner of Education, Dr. Tom W. Kimbrell, discusses the New Tech program at AHS with Bud McMillion, lead New Tech instructor at AHS. McMillion’s GeoDesign class, amongst others offered through Project Lead the Way, EAST and New Tech, are part of STEM Works. AHS was one of the first schools chosen to implement New Tech and is one of the only campuses in the state with all three STEM components. Kimbrell was one of many state and local education leaders participating in the student-led showcase of AHS STEM projects prior to the Joint Education Committee meeting.
“The Governor’s Workforce Cabinet chose Arkadelphia High School as the venue to highlight the success of STEM Works to the General Assembly.” -Artee Williams Chair of the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet STEM Works education models are revolutionizing the classroom experience for today’s high school students. Anyone would agree that teamwork and collaboration on projects is an important aspect of the workplace,
which is why STEM programs make this a priority in the classroom. “New Tech has allowed me to learn how to work with others and share responsibility,” Mackenzie Suggs, AHS sophomore and New Tech Ambassador, said. “Because I am learning this in high school, I am better prepared for college and my future career.” Increased exposure to a variety of cutting-edge technologies is also a primary element of STEM Works. Often, students discover their natural talents and find more opportunities to thoroughly explore their interests in these classes. “EAST has given me the opportunity to learn new skills with technology,” continued on page 8
Books, from page 2 a book: Brainstorming, storyline, continuity, research, gathering sources and ideas, writing, proofing, editing, rewriting, finalizing manuscripts, page layout and cover design. Before
the conclusion of the school year, the students receive a hard copy of the book they’ve written, the finished product resulting from much hard work, as an individual, in proofing-pair teams and as an entire class. During the process, students utilize online collaborative
resources to help classmates proof manuscripts. “Ultimately, students come out of this project as far better readers and with a better appreciation of creating stories. This offers the students a different perspective on the creative process and it becomes a
cycle of reading to learn to become better writers, and the writing leads to the desire to read more,” Watts said. She also incorporates the typical grammar lessons covered in her class into the proofing process of her students’ own writing.
At left, Watts gives feedback on a student’s cover design for his book and checks another student’s work. Students read each other’s manuscripts aloud in a proofing-pair (top, center) and (above) examples of finished books from previous students are proudly displayed in Watts’s classroom.
Badger Spirit, from page 5 AHS football history thanks in part to a senior class of 18 young men, 14 of which have been in the Arkadelphia school system since Kindergarten. The Badgers won two playoff games, meeting one of the program’s goals of ending the winless playoff streak that dated back to 1999.
At the end of the season, Eldridge was named 4A-7 Coach of the Year for the second straight year and three players were named to the 4A All-State team: seniors Kris Oliver and Jakahari Howell and junior Emmanuel Cooper. Oliver and Howell were named finalists for the prestigious Landers Award, given by KATV channel 7 to the state’s top high school football player and Cooper was named to the
All-Arkansas team by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The Badgers had 11 All-Conference players: Jake Knight, John Franklin Matros, Jahlon Mitchell, Austin White, Alex Buckley, Adavion Perry, Adrian Barrett, Jeff Blake, Cole McAnally, Ty Kosters and J Brooks Burnham. AHS also had two Honorable Mention All-Conference players in Dalton Huerkamp and Anthony Jenkins.
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HS’s Andrew Stanley was elected to represent Arkansas as the state’s only FCCLA National Officer Candidate. Stanley will travel to San Antonio, Texas, for the National Leadership Conference where he will compete against students from all 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Washington D.C. with hopes of obtaining one of 10 officer positions on the National FCCLA Executive Council for 2014-2015. The National Leadership Conference is designed to expose students to the best in
leadership development with a focus on Family and Consumer Sciences. Stanley will have the opportunity to work closely with STAR Events Competitors, professional development adviser sessions, Leadership Academy courses, and workshops on FCCLA and FACS programs. “Family remains the central focus,” Stanley said, “and involvement in FCCLA now presents a variety of opportunities to all students, male Andrew Stanley, pictured above with and female; opportunities they would Sandy Spavone, Executive Director otherwise never have known existed.” of FCCLA.
Joint Ed, from page 6 Rylee Maxwell said. Maxwell, who is also a sophomore and New Tech Ambassador at AHS, said that he has gained valuable experience with professional-grade video equipment, a green screen, and editing tools. “These skills can help me once I get out of high school because I feel like I want to go into the film industry later. EAST has given me the opportunity to see what I want to be when I grow up,” he said. Critical thinking in hands-on learning scenarios means students go beyond memorizing information. Instead, teachers guide students through a project, which promotes a deeper understanding of the core concepts. “I have learned how to take the information my teachers provide, and apply it to the problem the project presents. We need to know how to solve problems, not just answer questions on a test,” Suggs said. Following the student-led tour, the legislative portion of the meeting was held, during which the committee members heard presentations from national and state education leaders
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Arkadelphia High School student ambassadors Mackenzie Suggs and Alexandria Hunter welcome state legislators and education leaders to the Joint Education meeting. Suggs and Hunter presented an overview of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and New Tech programs at AHS and explained Echo, an online resource used by students, faculty and parents. After the welcome and overview, students led a tour of the STEM classrooms where recent projects were displayed. including Williams, who delivered an overview of STEM Works. Also presenting were New Tech Network’s Director of New School Development, Dr. Kristin Cuilla; Program Coordinator from the Arkansas Department of Career Educations for PLTW, Tim Johnston; President and CEO
of EAST Initiative, Matt Dozier; and the Director of Arkansas Department of Higher Education, Shane Broadway. The meeting concluded with the presentation of the Arkansas Digital Learning Study from Dr. Ed Franklin, Chair of the Quality Digital Learning Study Committee.
Spring musicals
Central Primary
PreK Quiz Bowl, from page 4 “Being able to recognize phrases that always lead to certain answers were crucial,” Daniell said. “Experience allows us to know when to be comfortable answering early or knowing when to wait for more information.” In round one, where 20 toss-up questions are answered by individual team members, McMillion, Daniell, Huerkamp along with Chase Masters developed an early lead by racking up a lot of unanswered points. AHS maintained their lead in round two. Sierra Westberg joined the match as both teams struggled to provide correct answers to several challenging questions. “There were some tricky questions at the end of that round over things that are hard to prepare for,” Huerkamp said. “And both teams were missing those questions.” Maumelle High made up some
Peake Elementary
Perritt Primary ground in round three. With AHS’s starting four back at the helm, Maumelle proceeded to answer nine of ten lightening round questions correctly. One more correct answer and they would have tightened the gap significantly. “We were really relieved when they missed their last one,” Daniell said. Matt Savage, Julie Williams and Devan Moses entered the match to close out the fourth and final round for AHS, who only needed to maintain a comfortable lead in order to take the win. “About half way through that round we knew we had it won,” McMillion said. “Several of the last questions fit subs’ strengths, and they were able to answer.” This is such a great senior experience for us,” McMillion continued. “We’ve been playing together since the third grade. We’re honored to bring AHS their third state championship.” And while the state championship
was perhaps the biggest cause to celebrate, it wasn’t the only occasion Daniell was celebrating that day. His birthday was also the same day. Patterson attributed the team’s success to their solid academic backgrounds as well as their dedication and hard work. Over the last two years, four of AHS players attended the Arkansas Governor’s Quiz Bowl Association (AGQBA) camp. Patterson said Daniell, McMillion, Savage and Westberg benefited from their experiences at the camp. “As their coach, all I can do is direct them during practice, and prepare and inspire them to compete at a higher level,” Patterson said. “They’ve all become stronger players.” We’ve been working to get back to finals for many years. The stars aligned this year and we had the right talent and the right questions. We are grateful for the support we received from the parents, teachers and administrators,” Patterson said.
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