Four months into his tenure as the 20th superintendent in 31 years of the Little Rock School District, Dr. Dexter Suggs received a vote of “No Confidence” from the Little Rock Education Association (LREA). The vote came during a stalemate in contract negotiations just months after the union had joined parent, citizen, business and civic leaders in supporting Dr. Suggs’ selection by a 6 -1 board vote.
Those who are willing to vote “No Confidence” in a District employee on the job for just four months, should welcome the same scrutiny of their individual and collective performance in the classroom.
Of the 2,070 certified teachers in the Little Rock School District, 1,361 are members of LREA (66%), a difference of 709. That means a swing of 355 teachers determines whether or not the union is certified for purposes of recognition for collective bargaining (see RECOGNITION below).
At $54,441 for a ten-month contract, LRSD teachers have the fourth highest average teacher pay in the state, exceeded only by Fayetteville, Rogers and Springdale, none of which are collective bargaining districts.
An LRSD teacher may join the union at any time, but may only quit by certified letter sent to two different locations during a one-month period (June 15 – July 15). If the resignation period is missed, the teacher is stuck with an entire year of payroll deducted dues ($700+).
Only six of 44 LRSD school faculties are not majority union, and all of those are at elementary schools.
Forest Park, the highest performing school in the District in both Math (95% Proficient or Advanced) and Literacy (96% Proficient or Advanced), has the lowest percentage of union teachers (28%). The largest elementary in the District and second highest performing school is Roberts (94% Math, 93% Literacy), which has the third lowest percentage of union teachers (34%). Fair Park Early Childhood Center is 33% union, but since it’s only PreK, no performance or growth measures are reported.
Terry is 37% union and among the LRSD’s seven Achieving Schools, the highest 138 performing/growing schools in the state as designated by the Arkansas Department of Education.
Wakefield is 39% union and among the middle performing elementary schools in Math (63%) and Literacy (73%).
Fulbright is 49% union and ranks seventh among elementary schools in Math (78%) and sixth in Literacy (83%).
The outlier is Bale, which is 48% union and ranks next to last among elementary schools in Math (47%) and Literacy (51%).
Wilson, the highest K-8 three-year growth school in both Math (+26%) and Literacy (+37%), is 73% union teachers.
Wilson not only emerged from Needs Improvement Priority status (lowest performing/growing 42 in Arkansas), it vaulted over Focus and Needs Improvement (second lowest performing/growing 89 in Arkansas) into Achieving (highest performing/growing 138 in Arkansas).
The second highest growth came at Franklin, which is 76% union and improved +13% in Math and +29% in Literacy.
The lowest growth school in the District is Rockefeller (57% union), which was -25% over a three-year period in Math and -1% in Literacy.
Gibbs and Dodd tie for the highest percentage of union teachers in the District (93%). 85% of Gibbs students were proficient or advanced in Math and Literacy, while Dodd’s were 60% in Math and 67% in Literacy.
| Schools | %Proficient, Advanced Math | %Proficient, Advanced Math 3-Year Growth | %Proficient, Advanced Literacy | %Proficient, Advanced Literacy 3-Year Growth | %Union Teachers |
| Bale** | 47% | -14% | 51% | +3% | 48% |
| Baseline* | 40% | -3%% | 44% | +10% | 52% |
| Booker | 69% | -3% | 77% | +16% | 72% |
| Brady*** | 60% | +11% | 75% | +26% | 71% |
| Carver | 76% | +3% | 82% | +17% | 69% |
| Chicot | NA | NA | NA | NA | 55% |
| Dodd | 60% | -2% | 67% | +14% | 93% |
| Fair Park*** | NA | NA | NA | NA | 33% |
| Forest Park*** | 95% | +3% | 96% | +8% | 28% |
| Franklin** | 47% | +13% | 69% | +29% | 76% |
| Fulbright | 78% | -13% | 83% | -3% | 49% |
| Geyer Springs* | 48% | -1% | 58% | +26% | 79% |
| Gibbs | 85% | +4% | 85% | +6% | 93% |
| Jefferson*** | 92% | +1% | 94% | +7% | 66% |
| King** | 55% | +2% | 66% | +13% | 76% |
| Mabelvale | 62% | +9% | 75% | +27% | 60% |
| McDermott | 67% | +2% | 76% | +16% | 66% |
| Meadowcliff | 54% | -7% | 66% | +16% | 54% |
| Otter Creek | 74% | +6% | 81% | +15% | 62% |
| Pulaski Heights | 79% | -1% | 81% | +9% | 81% |
| Roberts*** | 94% | NA | 93% | NA | 34% |
| Rockefeller | 50% | -25% | 59% | -1% | 57% |
| Romine** | 50% | -8% | 53% | +8% | 62% |
| Stephens** | 57% | +2% | 68% | +17% | 75% |
| Terry*** | 78% | +12% | 81% | +19% | 37% |
| Wakefield** | 63% | +2% | 73% | +22% | 39% |
| Washington | 54% | 0% | 64% | +15% | 74% |
| Watson | 50% | NA | 54% | NA | 86% |
| Western Hills | 59% | -6% | 64% | -1% | 57% |
| Williams | 86% | +5% | 91% | +11% | 53% |
| Wilson*** | 68% | +26% | 69% | +37% | 73% |
| Woodruff | NA | NA | NA | NA | 86% |
All District secondary schools, middle and high, have majority union faculties, ranging from Central’s 56% to Fair’s 87%.
The lowest performing school in the entire District is Cloverdale Middle (33% Math, 43% Literacy), a conversion charter, which is 71% union teachers. On a side note, perhaps it’s time for the State Board of Education to extend the same scrutiny to conversion charters as it does to open-enrollment.
| Schools | %Proficient, Advanced Math | %Proficient, Advanced Math 3-Year Growth | %Proficient, Advanced Literacy | %Proficient, Advanced Literacy 3-Year Growth | %Union Teachers |
| Cloverdale* | 33% | NA | 43% | NA | 71% |
| Dunbar** | 48% | -7% | 69% | +9% | 62% |
| Forest Heights | 38% | -1% | 51% | +6% | 63% |
| Henderson* | 36% | +3% | 45% | +7% | 70% |
| Mabelvale | 45% | -2% | 52% | +9% | 80% |
| Mann | 67% | 0% | 75% | +4% | 77% |
| Pulaski Heights** | 70% | -3% | 80% | +5% | 67% |
High schools are not assessed by Benchmark, but by End-of-Course exams. For the closest apples to oranges comparison, we replaced Math in K-8 with Algebra in 9-12. Also, growth is measured over five years for high schools, instead of three for K-8.
Two of the three lowest performing/growing schools in the District, Fair and Hall (Needs Improvement Priority Schools), have the highest percentage of union teachers among high schools, 87% and 68%, respectively.
The highest performing high school, Parkview, among the District’s seven Achieving Schools, has a percentage of union teachers one point below the District average. The lowest percentage of high school union teachers is at Central (56%), a Needs Improvement Focus School, which has the highest growth and second highest performance among high schools.
| Schools | %Proficient, Advanced Algebra | %Proficient, Advanced Algebra 5-Year Growth | %Proficient, Advanced Literacy | %Proficient, Advanced Literacy 5-Year Growth | %Union Teachers |
| Fair* | 36% | +20% | 36% | +12% | 87% |
| Central** | 68% | +46% | 76% | +14% | 56% |
| Hall* | 42% | +2% | 41% | +14% | 68% |
| McClellan* | 49% | +24% | 39% | +12% | 60% |
| Parkview*** | 79% | +17% | 81% | +18% | 65% |
*Needs Improvement Priority School (Lowest Performing 42 in Arkansas)
**Needs Improvement Focus School (Largest In-School Achievement Gaps in Arkansas)
***Achieving School (Highest Performing 138 in Arkansas)
While a union can vote “No Confidence” in a new superintendent, there is no mechanism for students to vote “No Confidence” in the union. The closest they’ve come is in California, where “nine public school students are suing the state over its laws on teacher tenure, seniority and other protections that the plaintiffs say keep bad educators in classrooms.”
Unlike Arkansas, California is not a Right to Work state. However, if students have their way, it may very soon be Right to Learn.
Little Rock Education Association (LREA)
ARTICLE 1
RECOGNITION
D. Certification for Exclusive Representation
The Board recognizes the Little Rock Education Association as exclusive representative of all classroom teachers (including counselors, librarians, coaches; excluding instructional aides who may have extensive instructional responsibilities) of the District provided the Association presents to the Board not later than December 15 of each year a statement from a certified public accountant verifying that the Association’s membership has constituted more than fifty (50) percent of the classroom teachers of the District for two (2) consecutive years. In the event of a multi-year contract, verification will take place only during the last year of the contract.
The statement of verification must be based only upon the number of active members who are or were employed by the District for the years covered in the verification.
…
I. Payroll Deductions
1) Association members on continuing payroll deductions may cancel their deduction authorization for any school year by presenting a written request by certified mail to the offices of the Association and the School District no sooner than June 15 and no later than July 15.
2) The Association agrees to provide the School District, by the second workday in October, with a notarized list of those individuals who have authorized continuing payroll deductions and have not canceled the deductions. Persons whose names are not on the list will automatically be dropped from payroll deductions of Association dues.