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Education News in Alabama
By Sallie Owen
1. NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT SHINES ON TWO ALABAMA SUCCESS STORIES MIDDLE SCHOOL ACHIEVES HIGH MARKS IN BLACK BELT The national Learning First Alliance is currently featuring Aliceville Middle School as an inspiring success story. It's easy to see why with results like these:
Read "Aiming for a Blue Ribbon in Alabama's Black Belt," LFA's article about Aliceville is adapted from the Alabama Best Practices Center's journal, "Working Toward Excellence." Read about Aliceville in greater depth, plus two other amazing Alabama schools: http://www.bestpracticescenter.org/pdfs/wte8-1.pdf INNOVATING TO ENSURE AN EDUCATED WORKFORCE The national Association for Career and Technical Education chose to highlight an Alabama innovation in a recent issue of the association magazine. Alabama stands out for the expanding partnerships among high schools, two-year colleges, four-year colleges and business. All these parties are working together in new ways to make sure Alabama has the educated workforce that the state economy needs. Read the article: 2. WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU CAN DO TO IMPROVE YOUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS? Community engagement is making a difference around the country and right here in Alabama – in communities such as Mobile, Birmingham, Dothan and Monroeville. Yes We Can! Alabama is offering a chance for you to learn more about community engagement and why it has such potential to strengthen your neighborhood, your town and your public schools. A day-long interactive session later this month will help connect interested communities with more information about effective community engagement. Topics of discussion will include:
DETAILS The Community Engagement Experience If you register by Oct. 17, we will mail a copy of Peter Block’s book “Community” to you. Later registrants will receive their books on Oct. 30. Yes We Can! Alabama is a partnership of the A+ Education Partnership, Leadership Alabama, Mobile Area Education Foundation and the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama. 3. AMENDMENT COULD TURN CAT. 5 FINANCIAL HURRICANE INTO A CAT. 2 State Superintendent of Education Dr. Joe Morton is urging support for the first constitutional amendment on Alabama ballots Nov. 4, saying it is a "must have" for schools and students. Alabama's public schools are performing at the highest academic levels ever, Morton says, and severe mid-year budget cuts could derail progress. Schools are already operating on 5 percent fewer dollars than last year. The main thrust of the amendment is that it would enlarge the education budget's "rainy day" fund. These dollars would be borrowed from the Alabama Trust Fund (a state savings account for oil and gas royalties), and the money would have to be repaid within six years. In 2003, the education budget used "rainy day" funds from the Alabama Trust Fund. The loan was repaid in four years – one year ahead of the schedule set in current law. To learn more, download this PDF (1012 KB) 4. MONTGOMERY TEACHER WINS $25,000 NATIONAL TEACHING AWARD Stephanie Glover, math coach at T.S. Morris Elementary in Montgomery, is one of more than 80 recipients of the Milken Family Foundation's 2008 National Educator Awards. “Mrs. Glover exemplifies what being a professional educator is all about. She meets the needs of her students and goes the extra mile to do what needs to be done for her students to learn,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Joe Morton. “She is a shining example of what’s right in Alabama education. "Teacher surprised with $25,000 award," article and video 5. RESEARCH FINDING: Students learn more when their teachers are surrounded by effective teachers, new research shows. Researchers have found teacher performance is affected by the performance of the teacher's peers. The impact is most significant teachers with less work experience. These findings suggest that new teachers would be more effective if they are exposed to experienced teachers. The research also suggests that high concentrations of novice teachers can be "particularly detrimental" to student learning. Get the article 6. NEW RESOURCE – ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ALABAMA ONLINE The Encyclopedia of Alabama, a new online reference resource on Alabama's history, culture, geography and natural environment launched is now available online. It's a hybrid that blends a traditional print encyclopedia with multimedia content. The site launched with more than 500 articles, 2,000 images and four hours of video clips. New content will be added on a weekly basis--more than 5,000 potential articles have been identified and that list continues to grow. The site has already welcomed visitors from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org A special "For Teachers" section, which will highlight materials aligned with state standards, is scheduled to be available in 2009. 7. ALABAMA SCHOOL BOARDS GET PRE-K GRANT The Alabama Association of School Boards (AASB) is joining the campaign to build support for high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten. AASB is benefiting from a two-year, $447,000 grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts to the National Association of School Boards. The money will allow AASB and its Kentucky counterpart to join the Center for Public Education's pre-k network. AASB will use the grant to inform local school board members and state policymakers about the benefits of pre-k. “We were extremely proud of Alabama’s high quality pre-kindergarten programs," said Sally Howell, J.D., AASB’s executive director, "and look forward to working with local school boards to inspire new partnerships that we hope will expand quality pre-K education to many more 4-year-olds.” 8. ATTN: EDUCATORS A free, online course called "Kids, Content and Comprehension: Literacy and Learning in Grades 4-12" starts next week. Teachers will learn how to strategically and actively engage students while weaving reading comprehension strategies into other content areas. The course is jointly offered by e-Learning for Educators, Alabama Public Television and the Alabama Reading Initiative. Find course REA3455 and other courses at http://elearning.alsde.edu.Orientation starts Oct. 15 with class beginning Oct. 22. 9. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION UPDATE The board met Oct. 9. All members were present except Sandra Ray and the governor. Superintendent Dr. Joe Morton urged everyone to vote "yes" on the "rainy day" amendment on ballots Nov. 4. The board issued several commendations: to Shelley Stewart for his dropout prevention program "InsideOut" and the Choice Bus (http://www.mattiecstewart.org); to Ray Landers, Boaz Middle School principal who is the 2009 MetLife/NASSP National Middle Level Principal of the Year; and to Alabama's five national Blue Ribbon schools (see http://www.aplusala.org/ednews/2008/en08-sep17.asp). The board also received textbook recommendations and approved teacher education programs at the University of West Alabama. 10. WHAT'S UP @ A+
What is SNIPURL? We Need You Spread the word Want to subscribe? The A+ Education Partnership, based in Montgomery, publishes Education News in Alabama twice a month. A+ is a nonprofit organization that advances policies, programs and initiatives in Alabama's K-12 education system that result in high achievement by every child. Past editions can be found at www.aplusala.org/ednews/index.asp Feedback is welcome. Send messages to comments@aplusala.org |
October 14 , 2008 (A+ Education Partnership
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