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State Department Violated Federal Disability Laws, Test Accommodation Policy Must Be Rewritten

The Alabama State Department of Education must rewrite the policy outlining who qualifies for testing accommodations after the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found the current policy violates rights of students with disabilities. That mandate...
Posted On Sep 26 2016
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Why Change Due Process? Attorneys’ Fees

The cost of attorneys’ fees is one of a number of problems the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) is trying to address by proposing changes to the way complaints related to special education enter and work through the system. A series of public hearings about the...
Posted On Dec 07 2015
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Tying Student Test Scores to Superintendent Evaluations

Everybody’s talking about tying teacher evaluations to student test scores. What if student growth, achievement, and/or test scores were tied to superintendent evaluations? What if, building upon the superintendent’s management skills, community-building skills,...
Posted On Jun 22 2014
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Opting Out of Standardized Tests – What You Need to Know

I continue to be asked how children can opt out from standardized testing. Here’s what I found: If you don’t want your child to take state-mandated standardized tests, your only guaranteed method is to keep them home from school during testing. I am not advocating for...
Posted On Apr 23 2014
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Testing – How Much and What’s It Used For?

Much of the criticism of Alabama’s College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS) and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which are contained within the CCRS, has centered around standardized testing: how much testing and how the results will be used. So let’s look at...
Posted On Mar 10 2014
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So Who Is Sponsoring the Senate Takeover of K-12 Public Education?

Three bills have been introduced to usurp the power granted to the State Board of Education (SBOE) and State Superintendent: SB380 – Provides for termination of English Language Arts and Math courses of study and revert to prior courses of study. SB438 – Calls for...
Posted On Mar 09 2014
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Senate’s Attempt to Takeover K-12 Education: Public Hearing Tuesday, March 11

Thirteen members of the Alabama Senate have come together to attempt what can only be called a takeover of K-12 public education. They all are sponsors of SB443. A public hearing has been called for Tuesday, March 11, at 10:00 a.m. in Montgomery in Room 304 (which does not have...
Posted On Mar 06 2014
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Senator Beason’s SB438: Elected State Superintendent?

UPDATE 3/15/14: Senate Education Committee has carried over this bill. Senator Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, has filed a bill calling for a Constitutional Amendment to change the State Superintendent of Education from an appointed to an elected position. SB438 would provide for the...
Posted On Mar 06 2014
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The Good Stuff Happening in Our Schools

Ever get tired of hearing the bad news about Alabama’s public schools? Wanna know where to find the good stuff? If you’re on Twitter (and you should be), check out this list of Twitter feeds for 31 of Alabama’s school districts. That’s where the good stuff...
Posted On Feb 27 2014
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High School Graduates: Reflective of the Population Living There?

After reviewing the 4-year high school graduation rates for the class of 2013, the question came to mind: what is the percentage of students that graduated in 2013 compared with the population living within the school district’s geographic boundaries? In other words: are...
Posted On Feb 26 2014
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Sovereign Immunity Bill – Public Hearing – Wednesday, February 12 – 1:00 p.m.

[UPDATE: I was unable to testify at the hearing. Just as I arrived in Montgomery, friends from Birmingham began urging me to return home due to impending sleet and snow. I left the meeting at 2:20. Senator Ward later told me that the bill received a favorable report from the...
Posted On Feb 12 2014
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Web Site Redo for Alabama State Department of Education

Looks like the Secret Decoder Ring I developed over the years in order to find all of the good stuff on the current Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) web site is about to be rendered useless. State Superintendent Dr. Tommy Bice, in a January 21 meeting with ALSDE...
Posted On Feb 02 2014
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Budget Hearings for FY15 Set for TODAY – Tuesday, January 14 – Montgomery

The Legislative Fiscal Office posted the schedule for FY15 budget hearings for the State General and Education Trust Fund budgets. The hearings will be held in the Capitol Auditorium in Montgomery. Click here for directions. Here’s the schedule for the Education Trust Fund...
Posted On Jan 14 2014
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State Board of Education Work Session: Time Changed to 10:30 a.m.

The new schedule for SBOE meetings and work sessions starts this week! The start time for K-12 work sessions changed from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Recap: meeting on the second Wednesday, 1:00 p.m.; work session the next day, Thursday, at 10:30 a.m. The meetings will continue to be...
Posted On Jan 06 2014
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Where to Get Daily News About K-12 Education in Alabama

Where do you get your daily news for K-12 public education in Alabama? Do you wait for it to come across your internet feed? Hunt for it on al.com or your local newspaper or digital news site? Check your Twitter feed? Coverage of K-12 education news is inconsistent in Alabama,...
Posted On Dec 22 2013
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2014 Meeting Dates and Times Are Changing for the State Board of Education

State Superintendent Dr. Tommy Bice had only recently taken the head spot when I realized the wealth of information that could be gleaned from attending  State Board of Education (SBOE) Work Sessions and Meetings. I was impressed with the candid nature of discussions among state...
Posted On Dec 03 2013
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What’s the Funding Split Between K-12 and Higher Education?

What is the funding split between K-12 and Higher Education in Alabama? At the October State Board of Education work session, during the discussion about the FY15 budget, Chief of Staff Dr. Craig Pouncey stated that funding provided by the Alabama state legislature, through the...
Posted On Nov 21 2013
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Trust But Verify. That’s So Hard in Alabama

Likely you have read of the Hoover Board of Education’s (HBOE) decision to eliminate transportation for all except children with special needs beginning with the 2014-2015 school year. The decision blind-sided many, myself included, as there had been no public discussion of...
Posted On Nov 10 2013
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Who’s Doing a Great Job Sharing Information with the Public? The Alabama State Department of Education

Did the headline catch you off-guard? I thought it might. Well, it’s true. I’ve been around these parts my whole life, and I have never seen a public education entity, state or local, more willing to share meaningful information with the public than the folks...
Posted On Oct 10 2013
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October Is Parent Visitation Month! What’s Going on at Your School?

Every year since 2005, the State Board of Education (SBOE) has proclaimed October to be Parent Visitation Month. A helpful guide is published by the ALSDE to assist schools and districts with planning special events for parents and families at school. The idea behind it is to...
Posted On Oct 08 2013
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Who Decides What Gets Taught in Our Classrooms?

What our children learn in Alabama’s classrooms is shaped by the Alabama course of study (COS) and the textbooks that are chosen to frame the subject’s study. Two separate committees are formed at the state level  (1) to determine the COS and (2) to approve a list of...
Posted On Oct 07 2013
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Monitoring of School Districts by the ALSDE – What Are They Looking For?

While we are on the subject of education data, ed data, let’s take a look at what ed data the ALSDE is looking for when they monitor our local schools and school districts. Part of the ed data life cycle includes being accountable, right? It is important to understand in...
Posted On Oct 03 2013
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What Data Is Collected on Our School Children and How Is That Data Governed?

So just what data DO our public schools collect on our children? How is it housed? How, to whom, and in what form is it reported? These are data privacy issues and are burning questions in education in Alabama. This is a longer-than-average post, but stick with it, and you will...
Posted On Sep 30 2013
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Why Do City School Systems’ Audits Cost Almost 3 Times More Than County Systems?

Why is it that a county school system’s mandated annual audit cost $11,040 in fiscal year 2012, while city school systems paid almost three times that amount on average during the same time period? The Code of Alabama, Section 16-3A-7 requires a yearly financial audit of...
Posted On Aug 13 2013
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Pushing Back – It’s Who You Know

    So it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. The day after writing about how to push back when district school leaders make decisions that negatively impact parents and families, this press release from the Alabama State Department of Education dropped...
Posted On Aug 05 2013
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