The Pine Bluff School District is one of five Arkansas districts selected for a $9,500 Spark Grant from education nonprofit Forward Arkansas to participate in the District Contract Accelerator.
Forward Arkansas describes the model as an innovative way for districts to redesign partnerships with instructional-intervention vendors so contracts produce measurable student results. The Accelerator follows the state’s first outcomes-based contracting High-Impact Tutoring cohort and is a 14-month experience guided by the Center for Outcomes Based Contracting, with workshops, coaching, templates and a fully designed outcomes-based contract tailored to each district.
Assistant Superintendent Phillip Carlock said the company helping districts draft vendor agreements ties a portion of payment to guaranteed growth measures—so vendors that miss promised gains do not automatically collect the full contract amount. Other Spark Grant districts include Warren, Mayflower, Farmington and Cabot. Meghan Busbey, Forward Arkansas’ senior director of programs, said outcomes-based contracts help districts “directly tie educational investments to measurable student success.”
