Education News in Alabama for April 9, 2010
- Disjointed plan, AEA resistance hurt Ala. Race to the Top application;
- Effective teaching looks like ______________;
- Teach for America Q&A;
- Hard choices often avoided when reforming struggling schools.
Disjointed plan, AEA resistance hurt Ala. Race to the Top grant application
The state lost out on nearly $200 million in the Race to the Top grant contest. Grant reviewers said Alabama’s plan lacked coherence and was further weakened by concessions to the Alabama Education Association.
The grant competition seeks to spur aggressive reforms, but Alabama did not convince reviewers. One reviewer said the implementation of comprehensive reforms was “extremely compromised” by concessions to union leadership. Omissions included reforms such as connecting student achievement with teacher tenure and pay, effective evaluation of teachers, and higher pay for hard-to-fill teaching positions in fields such as math and science.
Alabama is starting from scratch on a new application for the second round of Race To The Top funding.
“Alabama tries to overcome Race to the Top Shortfalls,”
Montgomery Advertiser
RESEARCH FINDING:
Few use aggressive tools for turning around schools
School districts and states often avoid making the hard choices that might lead to real reform, according to the new report “Restructuring Restructuring: Improving Interventions for Low-Performing Schools and Districts” from Education Sector.
Existing federal law contains aggressive tools for turning around failing schools, but options to close schools or replace personnel are rarely used, the report states.
From the blog:
Effective Teaching Looks Like “________”
Educators rarely have a shared understanding of what effective teaching “looks like.”
A Harvard-developed method – in use by the A+ Best Practices Center – is helping educators overcome that barrier to progress.
Alabama Welcomes Teach for America
A+ talks to the new executive director of Teach for America-Alabama and the lead volunteer who worked to bring TFA to the state.
9 Ways to Raise the Graduation Rate
“Every Child A Graduate” is the report from the Alabama Select Commission on High School Graduation and Student Dropouts.
Already underway are projects to review disciplinary codes for impediments to graduation (i.e. forbidding students from making up work missed during a suspension) and a tracking system to alert schools when students are at risk of dropping out.
