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

SCHOOLS EARN MORE THAN $5 MILLION IN ACHIEVEMENT REWARDS

When it was all said and done, state Board of Education President Gov. Bob Riley and state Superintendent of Education Dr. Joe Morton slapped each other a high five.

In took only a few hours at the board’s regular K-12 meeting to dispense more than $5 million in rewards to schools for laudable student achievement and commendable reductions in achievement gaps between defined student populations.

Alabama’s financial contributions this year are double last year’s approximately $2.5 million in rewards. School representatives traveled near and far to find out how much money their schools earned. They rushed in to find their schools’ names on the rewards list, some erupting in cheers and others flipping open cell phones to share the good news. Rewards ranged from $5,000 to the single highest award of $105,000 to Collins-Rhodes Elementary School in Mobile County.

Various amounts were given to schools based on their category of achievement. There were 36 Advancing the Challenge schools, 219 Meeting the Challenge schools, 105 Exceeding the Challenge subgroups and 41 Addressing the Challenge subgroups.

To earn the Advancing the Challenge title, a high poverty school must exceed the state in its percent of students scoring advanced in reading and math.

Meeting the Challenge schools have at least an 80 percent poverty rate and have made adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind for two consecutive years.

Exceeding the Challenge schools received monetary rewards for each subgroup whose percent of students scoring proficient in reading and math exceeded its state counterpart.

Addressing the Challenge schools received rewards for each subgroup that closed the achievement gap in percent of students scoring proficient in reading and math by at least 15 percent when compared to its state counterpart.

The teaching faculty at each school will decide how best to invest the money meant for instructional improvement. For the full list of winning schools and amounts awarded, visit www.alsde.edu.

Also on Thursday, the board heard from Teron Dukes, the Cleburne County student whose family won the 2007 Parental Involvement Poster Contest. Her poster will be the official image of Statewide Parent Visitation Month in October.

The board also received the State Reading/Literature and Driver and Traffic Safety Education Textbook Committee’s recommendations. The board will vote Oct. 11 on whether to approve those recommendations.

The state board’s monthly K-12 work session will be Sept. 27 at Muscle Shoals High School.

— Denise L. Berkhalter
publicrelations@alabamaschoolboards.org