Maumelle, Mills plan online, self-paced learning programs

An education in which students work online at their own pace in a setting of their choice will be an option for students at Mills University Studies and Maumelle high schools in the Pulaski County Special School District in 2018-19.

Components of the new education delivery system include blended learning, flexible scheduling, 1-to-1 student-to-device ratios, career pathways and mentors.

“Driven” is the name district leaders have selected for the state-approved school of innovation program that is now open for application from students who will be ninth and 10th-graders at Mills and ninth-graders at Maumelle High in the coming 2018-19 school year.

Each campus is opening 150 seats for the program, which has been more than a year in the planning and will be expanded to the district’s other two high schools, Sylvan Hills and Robinson, in 2019-20.

The student applications — available on the district’s website: pcssd.org — are due Friday.

The Driven title is meant to convey a sense of action forward and inner motivation.

“The idea of Driven is that we are trying to make education something in motion,” John Tackett, the district’s director of secondary education, said last week . “We want students to be in motion to access opportunities to get them ready for careers. We’re not static here.”

The 12,000-student Pulaski Special district is one of several Arkansas districts in recent years to redesign the delivery of education through the state’s school of innovation or conversion charter school initiatives. The two designations differ in how they are developed and how they are approved by the state officials, but both are intended to better engage students in learning and preparation for college and/or careers.

In central Arkansas, the Little Rock School District has state approval to make Hall High a school of innovation. The North Little Rock School District is in its first year of operating the Center of Excellence, a conversion charter school that offers online instruction, flexible scheduling and career preparation, within North Little Rock High School.

In the Springdale School District, Don Tyson School of Innovation — which will eventually serve kindergarten through 12th grades — started as a school of innovation in 2014 but has changed to a conversion charter school designation. The Tyson school emphasizes project-based learning and the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and math.

Mills and Maumelle students in Driven will be able to accelerate through some of their courses and take their time with others, said Deborah Roush, a spokesman for the district.

Students will work on their own or in small groups. They will meet regularly with teacher-mentors who will assist students as needed with their online course work as well as keep students on pace to finish their course work.

Will Reid, the district’s chief technology officer, called the blending of online and face-to-face instruction “a radical change” from traditional education. Implementing the blended learning component is considered phase one of the program.

“Having your own time, path, pace and place, we fully expect some challenges in the time management department,” Reid said. “We didn’t want to throw everything in there at one time until we got a good handle on that — not only with students but with teachers and administrators, too.

Each of the schools has designated four teachers — one in each of the core content areas of math, science, English and social studies — to be the mentor instructors for the Driven students.

Teachers selected to be mentors will begin training in the spring on topics such as how to help students manage their time and how to use the online platform for their academic work.