Recapping important State Board of Education policy decisions for you
Here are our key takeaways from the December 12th State Board of Education meeting – and what they mean for Alabama’s students. All board members were present. During the meeting, the board recognized Dr. Walter B. Gonsoulin Jr., as the 2025 Alabama Superintendent of the Year. Click here to see the agenda for the full meeting and work session.
Top 5 Takeaways
1. Social Studies Course of Study Adoption
During the meeting, board members voted unanimously to approve the revised Alabama Social Studies Course of Study, which hasn’t been revised since 2010. Board members heard from five speakers during public comment, who all spoke in support of the revised standards.
Starting in January 2024, the Social Studies Course of Study Committee engaged in a rigorous process to revise standards, including engaging over 200 organizations from across industries, backgrounds, geography, and interest/political perspectives, who reviewed and provided input for the proposed changes. For a full description of the revised Social Studies Course of Study, read our November Across the Board post, linked here.
2. New Graduate Diploma Administrative Code Change
During the meeting, board members voted to approve the new graduate diploma administrative code change, originally introduced in October 2024. Board Member Stephanie Bell abstained, and all other board members voted to approve the regulation.
This change outlines the rules for two pathways to an Alabama diploma:
- Pathway Option A: This option maintains the diploma requirements already in place for all students.
- Pathway Option B: This is the new diploma pathway. This pathway reduces the math and science course requirement from 4 to 2. Additionally, students would have to take 3 CTE courses in a sequence to qualify for this option. Elective courses increase from 2.5 to 6 credits. Under this pathway, if a student earns 4 CTE credits, they will earn a workforce pathway seal.
Students will earn an Alabama high school diploma, regardless of pathway, and the diploma won’t indicate which pathway they selected. Additionally, several minor adjustments were made to clean up this administrative code, including adding charter school boards to the boards that can issue diplomas and cutting distance learning from the requirements.
This regulation was opened to public comment in October 2024, and corrections were made to the language of the administrative code change to identify the correct number of credits needed to graduate through the new pathway. This number was corrected from 26 to 24 credits.
Correction: The October Across the Board, linked here shared that the board voted to approve this code change, but this was incorrect. Board members proposed the code change in October and opened it to public comment. The code was approved through a vote in the December meeting.
3. Teacher Shortage Updates
During the work session, Dr. Eric Mackey shared updates on Alabama’s teacher shortage with the board members. Teacher units are counted in the shortage if they aren’t filled, or if they are filled by someone who does not have a full certification (emergency certification, long-term substitutes, etc.). This information will be released publicly soon.
The five largest shortage areas this year are:
- Elementary education, kindergarten through 6th grade
- Early education, pre-kindergarten
- High school special education
- Elementary special education
- General science
Dr. Mackey provided data on the state’s top two largest shortages, sharing there is a shortage of 551 elementary education teachers and 261 early education teachers. This data is a snapshot from one day, and the numbers have decreased since the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year.
Dr. Mackey highlighted improvements in the math and sciences, and attributed the gains to TEAMs. General science used to have the second largest shortage, and general math is no longer on the largest shortage list. He stated that the shortage is “getting better, but not getting better fast enough.”
4. Higher Education Report Cards
During the working session, Dr. Deanise Peacock and Dr. Alethea Hampton, both from ALSDE, presented the most recent Higher Education Report Card Annual Report to the board. It includes data on teacher certificates issued from August 2022 to July 2023, teacher Praxis, Foundations of Reading, and edTPA test results from August 2022 to July 2023, and teacher and administrator survey response data from August 2023 to July 2024.
These report cards help the public understand the effectiveness of an educator prep program by sharing the passage rate of first-time test takers and survey feedback from teacher candidates and school administrators. This is the first time the Foundations of Reading test, which is aligned to the science of reading, is being included in the report. The state shifted to the Foundations of Reading test as part of the implementation of the Alabama Literacy Act.
Dr. Peacock highlighted that the data in the report cards included individuals who completed a Class B or Alternative Class A teacher credential program at an Alabama institution and were issued a Professional Educator Certificate during the same timeframe. The teacher and administrator survey includes only teachers in this group who were in their first or second year in the classroom. Dr. Hampton shared some challenges with the data, such as how the survey doesn’t reflect teachers with an emergency certification and how not all of the teachers and administrators who receive the survey complete it. The 2024 Report Card will be made public in the near future, and the 2023 Higher Education Report Card can be found here.
5. Revisions to Administrative Code Pertaining to Educator Preparation
During the work session, board members announced their intent to adopt changes to the Alabama Administrative Code pertaining to educator preparation (Chapter 290-3-3). This is the result of a long process of the ALSDE working alongside educator prep programs to modernize the administrative code that regulates Alabama’s educator prep programs, responding to recent changes in legislation.
The revisions will replace the Continuous Improvement in Educator Preparation (CIEP) process with a new progress titled the Alabama Program Improvement for Educators (AL-PIE), which will be the new process the ALSDE will use to evaluate educator prep programs prior to SBOE approval.
This revision will be reintroduced at the January board meeting and opened for the 45-day public comment period. New board members will receive an update at the February work meeting prior to a final vote in March.
To see the full December Board Meeting and Work Session agendas, click here and here.
The Alabama State Board of Education usually meets on the second Thursday of each month, with the exception of the July meeting, to discuss important policies, procedures, and changes for Alabama’s K-12 public schools. The Board takes official action during their monthly meeting and then follows up with a Work Session to get updates and discuss future action that will be voted on at the next board meeting. You can watch them live and see old meetings here.
Contact Your Board Member:
Have feedback on any of the above items – or anything else? Contact your state school board member using the resources below:
-To contact your State Board of Education Member, click here.
-To find out which district you live and/or teach in, click here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter your address in the “Polling Place Search” box. Once entered, it will take you to a page that shows your polling place and the districts you live in.
-To view a map of the state school board districts, click here.
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