Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders championed the Arkansas LEARNS Act in 2023, raising teacher salaries but also changing the fundamental way both public and private schools do business. New changes to classroom management came this year with the Bell to Bell, No Cell Act, giving teachers some much-needed muscle to combat students’ use of cell phones during class periods. Meanwhile, the ghost of COVID-19 remains very real as educators continue to face the ripple effects of a lost year.
There have been a lot of adjustments and, as it often goes with education, a lot of questions with no easy answers. Few people in Arkansas are more qualified to unpack those questions than Diane Zook. A native of Batesville, Zook advocated for abused and neglected children as a special advocate for the 16th District Court before being appointed to the Arkansas Board of Education in 2013 by then-Gov. Mike Beebe. Zook would go on to chair the state board from 2019 to 2020.
During increasingly politicized times, Zook has followed her own path, conducting herself first and foremost as an advocate for children. At heart, she possesses the qualities anyone would hope to see in a teacher — warm, patient and, especially, passionate about students facing extra challenges.
Diane Zook
It is no surprise, then, to hear Zook carefully parse through the LEARNS Act, considering each and every facet.
“I think one of the concerns, neither pro nor con, on the LEARNS Act is the fact that, with the court cases that are filed and the time that passes for implementation or the enactment, it sort of keeps the schools off base about, ‘Do we do this, or do we do that?’” Zook said.
It is not so much that Zook has issues with LEARNS, but she knows that schools and school districts are not designed to change on a dime. Just as most any good classroom teacher will say there is no singular method to reaching students, there is also no singular way for schools and school districts to address a new wage scale, testing demands, school choice vouchers and so much else.
“You don’t know whether to put your time and resources into what’s already involved or to hold back and wait until the end,” Zook said. “It’s just being unsure about what’s going to happen because the public schools are controlled by what the legislature passes.”
Zook said she is “hopeful” schools will be getting clearer marching orders in the future.
“You don’t just change or add or take away something you were already doing overnight,” Zook said. “In businesses, they can announce something coming, but then the building has to be built and people have to be hired. Nothing happens overnight.”
Zook said clarity of purpose can go a long way to answering questions about LEARNS, even though a unified front on the legislative end is unlikely in the current climate.
“I’m not a litigious person,” Zook said. “I tend to say, ‘Here are the regulations. Here are the rules. Let’s implement this and go forward,’ but the political climate right now, that seems to not be what people do. Lawsuits are being filed just because of a philosophical or political difference of opinion or because we didn’t win the last election.
“I’m very student focused — let’s do what’s best for students — but that’s not the climate we’re in, and we have to adjust for the climate in which we find ourselves.”
Zook said she is particularly concerned about any aspect of legislation that calls for holding students back a grade level if they fail to achieve certain benchmarks for aptitude. A static and inflexible rubric for gauging student success could backfire, Zook said, holding back students who may by excelling in other academic areas.
“Within the law, there is a thing about retaining children at a grade level if they don’t meet the test outcome that is expected,” Zook said. “The problem that I see is that, OK, I am a third grader, and I have not been given the instruction that I need based on my needs for learning to read, so is that my fault? Is that the teacher’s fault? Is it the system’s fault? Regardless, I’m really good at math and really good at science, so are we going to make those kids who are good or maybe outstanding in other subjects repeat the grade just because they didn’t meet the reading part?”
Zook said she would rather see adjustments be made by teachers and by schools for students in need of remediation for a specific area, rather than retaining them in a grade.
“Let’s work on the reading over the summer, next year with a tutor, however they decide to do it,” Zook said. “I work with some kids who are almost savants when it comes to math, but they’re still struggling with the comprehensive part of a reading problem. Therefore, it looks like they’re ‘different.’ I’m just hopeful that I live long enough to see all the schools and all the districts be 100 percent student focused.”
Zook maintains a similar attitude toward the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying there is no one-size-fits-all solution for any student of any age who missed out on a traditional school year.
“COVID may or may not have taken its toll on a lot of things,” Zook said, “particularly if the child spent more time in front of a screen. More and more, the research is saying that it is not good at a certain age. When I was teaching and doing administration, we did know there were factors. We learned that if a child is exposed to a lot of screen time, TV or whatever, before they’re 3 1/2, that will impact them going forward.”
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