OVERVIEW AND BACKGROUND

“I would choose to do this again over any other two years in my entire life.”

-ASMSA Alumna

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts (ASMSA) was created by the Arkansas General Assembly in 1991 to establish a public residential high school serving talented and motivated students from throughout the state. When the school first opened in 1993, the focus was on students with a strong interest and aptitude for mathematics and sciences but was expanded in 2003 to include humanities and the arts. Today, the school serves approximately 250 students in grades 10 through 12 and has consistently been recognized as one of the top public high schools in America.

Alumni

At the time of its founding, ASMSA was simply called Arkansas School for Mathematics and Sciences. When ASMSA became part of the University of Arkansas System in 2003 as a result of Act 1305, “fine and performing arts” were added to the school’s original math and science mission, resulting in the school now referred to as Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts.

In the last decade, campus leadership and program stakeholders set about to fulfill the arts mission that had still not yet been fully realized. By 2014, ASMSA had hired its first full-time art instructor, while also expanding the digital arts instructor role to full time. In 2018, ASMSA hired additional instructors in art and music, thus making the Arts Department a fully staffed division of the school.

ASMSA engaged Boyette Strategic Advisors (Boyette) to complete an analysis of the overall impact of the school and its programs and services to enhance understanding of the value and importance to the Hot Springs area and the State of Arkansas. Clearly, the impact of ASMSA goes well beyond the quantifiable data associated with expenditures and employment. To fully understand the impact, this study explores the educational and community development values, as well as the community engagement opportunities offered by ASMSA. By exploring the social and cultural effects that ASMSA has in preparing some of Arkansas’ and the United States’ brightest students for careers in mathematics, sciences, the arts, and beyond, Boyette prepared a comprehensive and holistic impact analysis.

As ASMSA enters its fourth decade of academic excellence, the importance of the visual and performing arts component of the curriculum cannot be overstated. While arts-based programs and student interest in them has grown over the years, faculty and campus leadership are constantly seeking to better meet the needs of students. As a result, a working group of ASMSA faculty and administrators convened during the 2020-21 academic year to create a new visual arts curriculum.

The Program of Distinction, or P.O.D., seeks to connect students with their academic emphasis program of choice. Students in the Visual Arts and Design P.O.D. must still satisfy all the Arkansas Department of Education graduation requirements, as well as the ASMSA Concurrent Core expectations of graduating with at least 30 hours of college credit.

Methodology

The comprehensive look at the overall impact of ASMSA programs required significant qualitative research, stakeholder engagement, and economic impact modeling. This approach examined and evaluated various factors such as capital investment, employment, labor income, tax implications, and benefits. Boyette has customized the impact analysis around the unique components and assets of ASMSA and its programs. This process models the holistic effects an organization or system has on a specific geography. While examining and evaluating quantifiable economic impact factors, Boyette also considered societal effects such as education and workforce development; student opportunities; media recognition; and public/private partnerships.

Process Overview

Quantitative Research

Construction Investment Impact

Job Creation

State & Local Taxes

Indirect & Induced Impact

Qualitative Research

Primary & Secondary Research

Identification of Contribution Factors

Programmatic Impact

Effects on High-Achieving Students

Analysis of Findings

Written Report

Summary of Secondary Research

Backup Data

Talking Points & Summary Findings

The data utilized for this analysis was provided by ASMSA. The data is based on 2017 – 2021 employment, payroll, operating expenses, and capital investment. The economic impact has been estimated for the effects it will have on the State of Arkansas broadly and Garland County specifically

The economic impact is measured in direct effects, which gauges the change in final demand of directly impacted industries; indirect effects, which captures business-to-business spending; and induced effects, which represents increased household spending. The impact values include payroll generated; contribution to the Gross State Product (GSP) of Arkansas and Gross Regional Product (GRP) for Garland County; state and local tax impact; and total output, which includes the initial investment.

Data Parameters

For purposes of this assessment, the following variables were utilized to measure the impact of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts. It includes employment and payroll, operating expenses, and capital investment for 2017 – 2021. If these data variables remain constant, it could be assumed that the annual impact of ASMSA would be very similar to the findings of impact in a single year from this study.

The following are key findings of this impact analysis:

ECONOMIC IMPACT State of Arkansas

§ ASMSA had an economic impact of more than $104.4 million in Arkansas between 2017 and 2021, which is 122% above the base investment in the school.

§ This total impact includes an impact on Gross State Product (GSP) of more than $79.2 million at the state level, along with total labor income of $57.6 million.

§ State and local tax impacts total $4.1 million in Arkansas during the study period of 2017 through 2021.

§ ASMSA’s annual employment of approximately 100 over the five-year period supports nearly 200 jobs in Arkansas, which includes supply chain (indirect) and consumer spending (induced) employment.

§ ASMSA has received private gift revenue of more than $1.7 million since 2017.

§ The total impact from ASMSA employment, payroll, and operating expenses exceeded $18.7 million in 2021. Future annual impact would be similar assuming employment and expenses remains steady.

Garland County

§ The ASMSA five-year economic impact in Garland County exceeds $98.4 million, more than 109% greater than the base funding

§ The impact in Garland County includes growth in the Gross Regional Product (GRP) of $76.1 million, while labor income totaled $56.4 million between 2017 and 2021

§ State and local tax impacts resulting from ASMSA’s presence in Garland County exceeds $3.8 million for the five-year period.

§ Total supported jobs exceeds 180 when measuring the impact of ASMSA’s employment, payroll, and operating expenses.

§ At the county level, the 2021 total impact of employment and expenses was $17.8 million. This outcome can be utilized to estimate future impacts of ASMSA assuming employment and expenses continues at 2021 levels.

Qualitative Research

§ ASMSA has many partnerships that present opportunities to the City of Hot Springs, the State of Arkansas, and beyond.

§ ASMSA is one of 17 residential public high schools in the United States. Only 14 states have institutions of this type.

§ The impact of volunteerism in the Hot Springs community from students, faculty, and staff is valued at more than $182,000 per year.

§ The Class of 2022 received $22 million in offered scholarship funds. This is higher than any year in the previous six years.

§ Generally speaking, about 60 percent of graduating seniors attend an Arkansas university, with the remaining 40 percent attending a university out-of-state. More than 35 percent of students enrolled in a University of Arkansas System institution.

§ ASMSA has received more than $300,000 in grants since 2020.

§ Students at ASMSA have been admitted to top colleges and universities across the country, including such respected institutions as Yale University, Dartmouth College, Stanford University, Duke University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

§ The school has been recognized as a top public high school in the United States and in Arkansas by a number of national publications and websites. It has received an A+ grade by Niche.com and has been included on the list of Public Elite schools in The Washington Post and the Jay Matthews Challenge Index.

Stakeholder Engagement

§ Alumni see ASMSA students as high achieving, with education as a priority. In fact, one said, “All the smartest kids in Arkansas are gathered in one place.”

§ These ASMSA graduates cited several factors that they believe better prepared them for college and their professional careers, including being deep, independent thinkers; greater independence resulting from the residential component; and access to more challenging classes than were available at their home high school.

§ They believe part of the impact of ASMSA extends well beyond the campus to include Hot Springs and the state of Arkansas, because the school “creates productive citizens” in Arkansas, the United States, and the world.

§ Students are described as successful at ASMSA because they have buy-in and want to be there to learn.

§ Faculty and administrators at ASMSA offered a long list of characteristics that make the school unique. Most said it goes beyond academics to include supporting students as they mature, time management, academic capacity, and general preparedness.

§ The depth of academic instruction is also important among the ASMSA team, with one faculty member saying that students do research projects, not science projects. They also benefit from the cross connections in the curriculum, including research that is similar to Master’s level work.

§ ASMSA faculty also work with other educators across the state to allow districts to expand their curriculum into areas that may not have previously been possible.

§ In general, ASMSA students are viewed as self-regulating and tolerant of others. As a result, disciplinary issues are a rarity for students. Because of this, instructors believe they have more freedom to teach their subjects instead of dealing with disciplinary cases.

§ Parents of ASMSA students believe the residential component at the school is very important for their children’s formative years, saying it “springboards them into life.”

§ They also appreciate the challenging curriculum and the fact that students want to learn, which creates a better environment in the classroom for high achieving students. Additionally, parents praised the early college mindset of ASMSA, saying it provides children with an unlimited future.

§ ASMSA parents believe the school raises the bar academically, challenging students to assimilate information and think critically, rather than just reciting information.

§ Parents also suggested that ASMSA students are more diverse in their personalities. One parent said that while all are academically motivated, some are adventure seekers, while others want to break out of the status quo.

§ Another factor that was important to parents was the fact that this kind of quality education is available to Arkansas students at virtually no cost. Some said the school offers opportunities to everyone, unlike private schools where families have to be financially able to pay the costs involved.

§ ASMSA has been open long enough to now have alumni who have children enrolled at the school. One said he thought his son made the choice to enroll at ASMSA partly because his father attended the school, but also because his father’s friends from ASMSA all have good jobs and have been very successful.