Education News in Alabama

May 2, 2005 (archive)

IT WAS A GOOD WEEK FOR:

Legislative progress, as Republican state senators ended their month-long filibuster, allowing for the potential passage of the Education Trust Fund budget. The Senate reached an agreement with AEA Executive Director Paul Hubbert and Joe Fine, the lobbyist for Auburn University and the University of Alabama, to maintain the 6% pay raise for teachers and other school employees while giving public universities a greater increase than originally requested. Colleges will receive $13 million more as a guaranteed conditional appropriation (the allocation will automatically be made if revenues become available) and an additional $4.93 million more in annual appropriations.

The Senate Democratic majority commits to passing the education budget by May 5, which would then allow them time to override a threatened veto by Gov. Bob Riley. Gov. Riley and his staff, including State Finance Director Jim Main and some legislators, maintain that sustaining a 6% pay raise is not realistic, as it would require a never-before-seen growth in state revenues.

Dr. Joe Morton has asked superintendents to encourage their legislators to settle their disputes and pass an education budget in order to continue the progress being made in K-12 public schools. Without a budget by the end of May, superintendents and principals cannot effectively plan for next school year. Without budget specifics many systems would have to let newly hired teachers go, resulting in a disruption of the expansion of the Alabama Reading Initiative and other successful programs. Also key purchases, such as textbooks, would have to be deferred. The promise of an end to the budget debate is good news for planning for the 2005-06 school year

IT WAS A BAD WEEK FOR:

No Child Left Behind, as the nation's largest teachers' union (the National Education Association or NEA) finally found partners in its lawsuit against the Department of Education. After more than 1 1/2 years of looking for districts and states to file a lawsuit, late last week the NEA was joined by a 10,900-student district in Michigan, a 23,500-student district in Texas, six small Vermont districts, one local NEA affiliate, and six state NEA affiliates in a challenge to NCLB. Connecticut declined to participate in the litigation and will pursue its challenge to the law’s accountability provisions separately. The lawsuit accuses the U.S. Dept of Ed of violating a passage in the law that says states cannot be forced to spend their own money to meet federal requirements. At issue, the annual testing and disaggregating (or breaking down by subgroup) of student test scores, which some states say is too costly to implement.

The majority of national education groups, and other national groups who advocate for educational improvements, support the goal and tenets of No Child Left Behind. They are encouraging states to move forward implementing the law, while also calling for modifications to the parts of the law that are inflexible. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has indicated a strong willingness to work with states to ensure greater flexibility for those who are committed to working toward the goal of having all students proficient in reading and math by 2016.

POWERFUL CONVERSATIONS CONTINUE

Educators from more than 30 schools statewide came together on April 28 for a quarterly meeting of the “Powerful Conversations About Professional Development” (PC) Network. The focus of the session was how to transform faculties into strong learning teams that work together to improve student achievement. Participants in these quarterly meetings come from schools that have participated in the “Powerful Conversations About Professional Development” self-assessment process, which was designed by the Alabama Best Practices Center (sister organization of A+) to deepen a school’s understanding of how results-driven, standards-based professional development can raise student achievement. Schools continue to express their enthusiasm for the process and for the PC Network meetings, which provide networking and learning opportunities seldom duplicated in the teaching profession.

Currently, the Best Practices Center has 20 requests for self-assessments, which will bring the number of schools participating in the PC Network to well over 150. To read more about the Powerful Conversations process, visit http://www.bestpracticescenter.org/powerful/index.html or download the Summer 2003 issue of Working Toward Excellence, “Powerful Conversations Can Transform Teacher Learning”.

STUDENT SUCCESS IN ALABAMA’S HIGH-POVERTY SCHOOLS

All across Alabama, schools are dispelling the myth that poor and minority students can’t achieve at high levels. For example, Southside Primary School in Selma has more than 90 percent of its students reading at benchmark, and West Jasper Elementary School is making great gains on the Alabama Reading and Math Tests (ARMT). Read their inspiring (and succinct!) stories online at http://www.aplusala.org/success.asp. And look for more success stories of high-performing, high-poverty schools in Alabama in the near future!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"When he (Paul Hubbert) said he wanted the budgets moving today, all of a sudden they started moving."
— Sen. Steve French, R-Mountain Brook, present for the budget deal making at AEA headquarters.

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Education News in Alabama is published bi-weekly by the A+ Education Partnership and is distributed to A+ board members, the media, and list serve subscribers. View archived newsletters.

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