A Recap of the State Board Of Education's
August 2007 Work Session

STATE DEPARTMENT REVISES SCHOOL SYSTEM MONITORING PROCESS

      The Alabama Department of Education announced Thursday it is streamlining its comprehensive monitoring program and eliminating its practice of making site visits to school systems every three years.
      In a report to the state Board of Education at its regular K-12 work session, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Ruth Ash said the site visits will give way to regular desk audits and on-site instructional support. But SDE teams will no longer just show up with clipboards and a checklist and leave a system with a list of deficiencies to correct, she said.
      “We have completely changed our monitoring system so that it is targeted to helping school systems when they have deficiencies,” Ash explained.
      The department will continue to ensure school systems comply with laws and regulations, and systems will still have to submit action plans. But the SDE will monitor out-of-compliance systems from its Montgomery offices, and schools can voluntarily call on the SDE for resources to shore up instructional shortfalls.
      AASB will report on the new monitoring system in detail in an upcoming publication.
In other business, Assistant Superintendent for Reading Dr. Katherine Mitchell presented a “consumer’s guide” that may help the state Textbook Committee in selecting reading textbooks. The guide was produced through an Alabama Reading Initiative review of core reading programs and determined how well a number of K-3 core reading programs are aligned with scientific reading research.
      Also on Thursday, the board learned more about how Alabama computes its graduation rate and how the method compares to those of Education Week and the National Center for Education Statistics. Depending on the method, estimates of Alabama’s graduation rate range from Education Week’s 59 percent to the state’s 82 percent.
      State Superintendent Dr. Joe Morton told board members the state will adopt the National Governors Association’s graduation rate formula in 2009. The formula is backed by the governors of all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
      Morton has often lamented the nation’s failure to provide a common definition for a graduate and method for calculating graduation rates. By 2011, most states will be using the NGA formula.
      In an effort to increase the number of students who leave schools ready for college and work, the SDE is working to better coordinate programs that could impact graduation and dropout rates. These programs include remediation courses offered through distance learning, Jobs for Alabama’s Graduates, the Dropout Prevention Advisor Program and the Preparing Alabama Students for Success Initiative launched this year, among others.
      Morton also told the board $5 million – nearly double the amount given last year – will be awarded at the board’s Sept. 13 meeting to schools that greatly improved student achievement and made adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind.
      Pending board approval, Morton said he expects to release next year’s school accountability data on Aug. 4, 2008.
      The state board’s monthly K-12 meeting will be Sept. 13 in Montgomery.