Public School Parasites

In 2011, Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe’s STEM Works Initiative created a financial incentive program for schools to adopt corporate models of education across Arkansas. By 2014, STEM Works Initiative had begun distributing $12 million in federal, state, and privately-donated funds, for use as “seed money” to help K-12 schools implement programs developed by EAST Initiative, New Tech Network, and Project Lead the Way.

With the promise of extra money in exchange for implementing these pre-packaged curricula, rural schools (already struggling with inadequate funding) jumped on the bandwagon. Now, in 2018, we are able to measure the disappointing — and financially harmful — results.

During the 2017–18 school year, New Tech Network (according to its website) operated ten “whole-school” and “stand-alone” high schools in Arkansas. Of these ten schools, most performed below the state average in math and reading proficiency. Only one, Rogers New Technology High School, exceeded the state averages in both math and reading proficiency.

Rogers New Technology High School, unlike most of the other NTN high schools in Arkansas, is a conversion charter school in a district large enough to support three, separate high schools.

Rogers New Technology High School does not enroll its students based on where they live; instead, its students have to submit applications and go through a lottery process to enroll. According to the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE,) Rogers New Tech students are whiter, wealthier, more fluent in English, and only half as likely to need Special Education than the students of Rogers public schools, as a whole — and Rogers is already a fairly highly-rated district, compared with the rest of the state.

No wonder New Tech Network chose Rogers New Technology High School to be its 2017–18 Demonstration Site in Arkansas!


Although subsidizing NTN as part of the STEM Works Initiative was a state-level decision, Arkansas school districts have complete autonomy in choosing whether to buy into the New Tech Network (NTN) brand. New Tech Network generally has excellent control over their public image. However, at least two former Arkansas NTN high schools have offered critical comments about their NTN experience.

Lincoln High School is a conversion charter school that still occasionally bears the New Tech name, although NTN does not list Lincoln High School on its current list of NTN schools in Arkansas. In 2013, Lincoln High School faculty chose to “step back from implementing some parts of the New Tech model,” due to a “large drop in their standardized test scores last year.” According to the 2017–18 US News & World Report rankings, Lincoln High School has recovered, and is currently slightly above state averages in reading and math proficiency.

Van Buren High School also used to be an NTN school. When Van Buren NTN facilitators voted, unanimously, to leave the New Tech Network in 2016, Superintendent Harold Jeffcoat publicly criticized NTN for swindling his district out of $200,000.


Look. We all make mistakes. Arkansas doesn’t have to keep offering financial incentives to schools that elect to join the New Tech Network. In fact, Arkansas owes it to our school boards and our children to re-examine NTN thoroughly — with regard to student success and financial transparency — before any more school districts get ripped off.

Orchestrating Change

Elizabeth Lyon-Ballay Advocates for Public Education in Arkansas

Elizabeth Lyon-Ballay

Written by

Former professional violinist and public charter school teacher. Current stay-at-home mom and agitator for change.

Orchestrating Change

Elizabeth Lyon-Ballay Advocates for Public Education in Arkansas

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