Article by: Cynthia Howell of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Photo Courtesy: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff
Mandarin Chinese and Spanish are among the most widely spoken languages in the world.
And now those global numbers will tick up a bit in Little Rock.
The newly redesigned Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership and Language Academy, a Little Rock School District campus for pre-kindergarten through fifth graders, will teach those two languages — plus American Sign Language and service leadership skills — for the first time in the coming 2024-25 school year.
The leadership component, being developed in partnership with the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, will also include lessons on the civil rights leader for whom the elementary school is named.
“We will all be in a learning modality here,” Principal Clifton Woodley said recently about the specialty features that are intended to attract students not only from King’s central Little Rock attendance zone but from across the city for the school year that starts Aug. 12.
The specialties — with the exception of Spanish — will be unique for an elementary school in the district, although the foreign language concept draws from the district’s much older Gibbs Foreign Language and International Studies Elementary School. At Gibbs, Spanish, French and German are taught. Mandarin and American Sign Language have been taught at the high school level.
The King faculty was reconstituted this spring — meaning all staff positions were open and individuals had to apply to be hired or rehired — in anticipation of the new features.
The new faculty will include a Mandarin language teacher — a native of China — who is expected to arrive soon in Little Rock from the Avon School District in Connecticut, Woodley said, adding that she is certified to teach Chinese and has experience teaching in a public elementary school setting.
“I’ll be learning as well. I’m excited about that,” Woodley laughed, noting that he studied Spanish for five years but can’t say the same for American Sign Language and Mandarin, the latter of which is a difficult language for English speakers and vice versa.
The same words in Mandarin can mean different things, for example, and the meaning can only be differentiated by the tone or inflection of the voice. Additionally, written Mandarin uses symbols for words, so memorization of the symbols is necessary in order to read. There is no alphabet for sounding out words.
The King faculty will also include Staci Miller as the teacher of American Sign Language and Alma Prince as the Spanish teacher. Miller was previously employed at Pulaski Heights Middle School. Prince, who is of Hispanic heritage, worked with Woodley at the district’s Carver Magnet Elementary, he said.
In this first year of the redesigned program, all kindergarten-through-fifth graders will cycle through several weeks each of Spanish, Mandarin and American Sign Language, Woodley said.
“It will be a trimester format,” he said. “Our goal after this year is to have all k-2 students immersed in all of the languages and when they get to third grade they will select what they want to learn more about,” he said.
The leadership element of the school is expected to include opportunities for students to access guest speakers, field trips, job shadowing and projects. Destinations are likely to include the Clinton School of Public Service, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the state Capitol as well as various state agencies. Beta Club and National Junior Honor Society will be other leadership opportunities.
Woodley attributed much of the planning for the leadership component to Stefanie Vestal who worked with the Little Rock district for her graduate student “capstone project” at the Clinton School of Public Service. Having completed her master’s degree in public service in May, Vestal is now working full-time for the school system as director of strategy and external affairs.
“None of this would be possible without working with her,” Woodley said about Vestal. “She was an integral part of the development of the concept.”
The specialty programs at King are intended to teach young students that community involvement can create positive change for people and systems, Vestal said in an email response to questions.
Vestal said she anticipates that all King pupils will rotate through leadership and service classes taught by a specific teacher on a weekly basis, but all teachers and staff at the school will be expected to integrate those topics into their daily lessons and culture of the school.
“We want our students to know that they have the power and potential to be leaders and public servants, to make a difference in their communities and even their world,” she said. “We know that students are passionate about causes and organizations, and we want to equip them with the skills and knowledge to transform their energies and passion into actionable results.”
The Clinton School for Public Service is both a model and a source of support for the new features at King, and for the training of teachers.
“Over the course of the last year we researched various schools across the country and looked at a variety of curriculum models,” Vestal said. “We primarily used the model of the Clinton School of Public Service. Being as fortunate as we are to have the model of the Clinton School here in our city, we want to take advantage of the unique opportunity.”
The current Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. campus opened in 1993 at 907 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, just east of Arkansas Children’s Hospital and within waving distance of the Arkansas Capitol that is immediately across Interstate 630.
In addition to the lessons on leadership, foreign languages and the legacy of the civil rights leader, King pupils in third-through-fifth grades will have access to an EAST lab where they will use different kinds of technology to identify and resolve community needs.
King has about 300 students enrolled but can accept more, said Woodley, who is a Little Rock native, graduate of the district’s Parkview Magnet High and entering his 30th year as an educator, including eight years as a principal.
Hours are 7:40 am. to 2:55 p.m. at the school that offers pre-kindergarten programs for 3- and 4-year-olds as well as kindergarten through fifth grades. All pupils at King can eat school breakfasts and lunches at no cost to their families.
More information about King Leadership and Language Academy is available online or by calling the school at (501) 447-5100 or the district's student registration office, (501) 447-2950.