A Recap of the State Board Of Education's
February 2007 Meeting

State Board Honors 'To Kill A Mockingbird' Author Harper Lee

At its K-12 meeting Thursday, the state Board of Education presented copies of the Alabama Board of Education Report Card, announced plans to adopt new professional studies rules, adopted a revised Higher Education Report Card and supported January as Board Member Recognition Month.

Though all were important agenda items, those in attendance seemed more enamored with the special guests in the audience.

The state BOE celebrated internationally famed author Nelle Harper Lee at the meeting and commended Fairfield High Preparatory School and Mountain Brook High School for their highly acclaimed joint theatrical production of Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

On the heels of a Wednesday night encore performance in Montgomery, the student cast sang a moving rendition of the traditional spiritual Poor Pilgrim of Sorrow for Lee and the state BOE.

“Students, you were magnificent,” Gov. Bob Riley told the group that has performed across the state and was featured in a PBS documentary and on NBC’s TODAY Show. Lee, a Monroeville, Ala., native, came forward to accept the board’s resolution that described her as “a national treasure and a Southern icon.”

Board business resumed with unanimous approval of a resolution supporting the Alabama Quality Teaching Standards recommended by the Governor’s Commission on Quality Teaching. The suggested standards are designed to guide the professional conduct of Alabama’s public school teachers. If adopted by the board, the new standards would replace the existing Standards for Professional Studies component of Class B teacher education programs.

“We are serious about this,” Riley said. “There is no question we have some of the best teachers in America today, but … we need to raise the bar of excellence in this state.”

State Superintendent Dr. Joe Morton said there is time for the board to further explore the recommendations, but he thought it important to immediately inform deans of the colleges of education that new standards would be forthcoming. The board voted in favor of the revised Alabama Higher Education Report Card that now includes information on pre-teaching experiences, partnerships with elementary/secondary schools, the Alabama Prospective Teacher Testing Program and on-the-job performance.

The state BOE received a resolution Thursday in preparation for future adoption of English language arts and driver and traffic safety education courses of study. The committees will present their recommendations to the board in an upcoming work session.

In addition, members of the Technology Education and the Career/Technical Education State Courses of Study committees were appointed Thursday.

Meanwhile, Morton has asked board members to recommend members for a new Student Learning and Accountability Committee. The new committee is the successor to an accountability committee, which will soon sunset, that was formed in the wake of No Child Left Behind. The new committee will look at how to accelerate and improve student learning to better prepare students for work and life.

The public will be able to go online Friday afternoon at www.alsde.edu to access the 2005-06 State Board of Education Report Card summaries of accountability and academic performance indicators for the state, school systems and schools.

“This is not new information,” Morton said, “but it is packaged in a format that is precise and easily retrievable.”

On Jan. 25, the board will gather for its K-12 work session in Montgomery.

—Denise L. Berkhalter