Good evening, and welcome to Spotlight on Education.

Alabama Public Television's quarterly look at education issues here in Alabama and how they are impacting the classroom.

We have some great gues lined up for later in the show, including Alabama Teacher of the Year Katie Collins and alternate teacher of the year Aubrey Bennett.

They'll talk about the state of the teaching profession and their joint efforts to shine a light on the great work educators are doing around the state.

Mark Dixon from the A-plus Education Partnership will join me to talk about a plush, college ready teacher training that's going on this summer and how the legislature went about modernizing its school funding formul through the Raise act this year.

And our own senior education reporter, Trish Crain, joins me later in the show to go deeper on those issues including the new test scores, classroom funding and school choice efforts.

But we'll start with some good news recently released by the state Department of Education.

Alabama's graduation rate for the 2024 schoo year was 92%, an all time high that measures the percentage of students who complete their high school diploma within four years.

But an increasingly important metric is the college and career readiness rate.

That's the percentage of students who show evidence of being ready to begin a career or to go to college after high school.

That rate rose to 88% for 2024, the highest ever measured.

I recently spoke with State Superintendent Eric McKee about the significance of these graduation scores.

One of the things that we we started talking about, really maybe even the year before I became state superintendent and certainly, watch I became superintendent.

We really wanted to highlight the fact that we had this big gap.

We had, graduation rate at that time was in the upper 80s.

Now, as you said, it's just 92%, but but a lot of those students were graduating with no demonstration and that they were ready for the next step in life.

So so we're actually about 70% of our students, demonstrated that they had either a college or career credential, some something that demonstrated they were ready to go on to college, go to work.

And we wanted to close that gap.

And we said, you know, we're going to have a strategic initiative to close the gap.

We asked the legislature fo some funds to to work on that.

The state board actually came along and said, you know, we're going to start in 26.

We're going to actually make it a requirement, right?

That they have to have the CCR to graduate high school to get the diploma.

And districts took us very seriously.

I've got to give a lot of credit to principals, superintendents and local school boards who said, we're going to raise these rates.

And so we've gone from about 70% of our students demonstrating proficiency, on college career readiness.

And I can talk a little more about what that means, to now 88%.

So the gap has gone from, you know, close to 20, 20%, down to only about 4% now.

And I believe we'll close that gap.

And we'll get to over 90% graduation rate and over 90% of them, college and career ready.

Now to the reading scores, which again showed some promise, even as the state raises its standards.

88.4% of Alabama third graders are reading sufficiently to be promoted to the fourth grade.

That means that just under 6500 students are at risk of being held back.

Now, those students parents have been notifie by the Department of Education and encourage to attend a summer reading camp in order to test again in hopes that they can be promoted to fourth grade.

This is all part of the Alabama Literacy Act, passed back in 2019 to ensure students are reading at grade level by the third grade.

Doctor McKee said these numbers show the state is heading in the right directio on reading in the early grades.

The difference is we change the cut score, so we raise the cut score this year.

And, so so if we look at apples to apples and we see the new cut scores 444, you know, everything.

Nothing can be on 100 point scale, but, so it was 434.

Now we've raised it for 44.

So if we look for 44 to 44, where were we last year?

Where we now we've gone from about, about, 13% of our students below grade level to 11%.

It's the same cut schoo if you apply the same cut score.

So, so true.

True.

The number looks like it's gone down a little bit, but it's only the proficiency is actually going up.

It's just we're we're raising the bar.

We're raising the bar.

And in a couple of years we're going to raise the bar again.

We've already, recommended the board last year that that we stay two years at this cut score for 44.

And then we raise it to 454.

That's more aggressive than a lot of people want it.

It's more aggressiv even than, our outside experts recommended.

But, but I felt like it was very important to raise the bar and to rais the bar as quickly as we could.

And I got to say something.

Schools are there.

They're picking up the slack, and they, as we raise the bar, they're moving up.

Very happy with that.

Glad to see proficiency going up in rating, but, you know, it needs to go.

Students don't need to be going on to fourth grade, not abl to read at a sufficient level.

Now, we also are making sure we warn parents that, you know, 444 to cut score.

If you got a child who scores 445 he or she is going to be promoted, to fourth grade.

But they may still be a really struggling reader because there's a, you know, so our statistics work, they might be a full 45 today, a 443 tomorrow.

And so we need those students to also make sure that our parents pay attention and make sure if their child is, is, you know, still close to that mark, even though they're moving on, that they, they're watching their reading closely, working with the teacher to make sure we se that progression and get to get well above the cut score.

A major change is coming to classrooms across Alabama.

This past session, the legislature passed and Governor Kay Ive signed the Focus act, which bans the use of smartphones in public school classrooms from Bell to bell.

While the ban is new for many across the state, some local school systems hav already put a ban into practice.

AP Jeff Sanders has more.

Across Alabama, school are getting ready for a new law that will soon change daily life for students at Pike Grove Junior High School in Montgomery County that change is already in place.

We just knew that the academic engagement could increase if we were able to get rid of distractions, and cell phones are a distraction.

No matter which way you look at it.

A year ago, the school began requiring students to lock up their phones in these yonder pouches when they arrive on campus.

That decision came before stat lawmakers passed the Focus Act this spring, sponsored by representative Lee Hulsey and signed into law by Governor Kay Ivey.

The law bans student phone use during the school day and takes effect this fall.

Pike road Principal Kristi Reich also spoke in support of the legislatio when it came before lawmakers.

It takes 15 minutes once a child looks at a cell phone to be able to regain their focus, to be able to actually, comprehend what's happening in the classroom.

And so, we took that information in and decided that this would be a good, step for Pike ride schools.

Wright says the change has been good for students, reducing distractions and encouraging more personal connections.

Socially, obviously, we have just an increase in our culture, just engagement in the hallways, talking deeper discussions, lunchroom.

Everybody's talking to each other.

You know, there's more connection being made on the academic end.

Our goal with the A+ College progra is to reach a 60 point increase.

We didn't just reach that.

We exceeded that with a 95 point increase, of our SAT data, which is huge.

Under the Focus act, each school system will decide how to enforce the new rules.

Yonder pouches are not required, only that students keep phones off and out of reac unless needed for emergencies, medical reasons or teacher approved instruction.

And if parents need to reach their children, Wright says, they can always call the school office.

It is a process.

They do.

You know, just like with any policy, you know, you have to get used to it.

But, but things have really gone smoothly.

Still some lawmakers raised concerns about how the law might affect communication and debate on the Senate floor.

State Senator Chri Elliott voiced his opposition.

You're going to hear from parents back home if this passe and they're not able to simply, you know, they're not abl to communicate with their child about practice being canceled, car breaking down, tire goes flat, forgot the soccer cleats.

Wright says that clear communication with families about the new rules is key and she encourages other schools to take the same approac as they prepare for the new law.

We had a parent Q&A document.

They were able to ask us all the questions they wanted to, and we answered them, we had training for our lead learners.

And then we also had a training with our student.

Schools in Alabama have until July 1st to finalize their new policies.

So when classrooms reope at the end of August, students will return to a phone free school day.

Reporting from the Statehouse in Montgomery.

I'm Jeff Sanders.

For spotlight on education.

Thank you, Jeff.

A new high school diploma option is coming to Alabama.

The Workforce Pathways Diploma was created to help students who don't want a college degre to prepare for the job market.

It offers a career focused alternative to the traditional college prep track apts.

Randy Scott has more on what parents need to know.

School is out for the summer, but there's plenty of school work happening.

Not just in summer school but state leaders making changes to how high school students can create new career goals after graduation.

Very soon, we'll be rolling out the new what we call diploma option Be.

Always important for me to remind parents we have one diploma, two pathways.

State Superintendent Docto Eric Mackie says it's an effort to simplify the process of ho students earned their diplomas, allowing them to decid some courses they want to study under the new workforce pathway system.

But we've created a new way working with the legislature and our state board to get the high school diploma.

And it's a workforce pathway.

Students have a chance to focus on more trait type classes, get more hands on experience, and earn workplace pathway diplomas.

Students can earn this diplom by taking most of the regular, traditional academic courses, but they can waive, 2 to 4 math and science courses in high school and replace those with a career tech pathway.

Creating a new program, doctor McKee says, opens more doors for students, students and could say, go into a technical fiel like electrician, or carpentry.

Or another trade.

And they could say you know, I'm going to I'm going to decrease the number of traditional science courses I take because I want to focus on this trade, and I need time in my schedule to do that.

There will be new guidelines and rules to learn.

So let's say they're there o a career path to become a nurse.

They've got to still take chemistry.

So we can't waive tha chemistry credit for that nurse.

And so it's really going to be each and every child building a unique schedule for that child.

It's a plan which the state superintendent is behind.

I think it' one of the most exciting things we've done in K-12 in a long time to say we're going to individualize the high school educational progra in a way we never have before, and we're going to value our career, take, options, just like we value our academic options.

And doctor McKee says those option will be wide open for students.

You know, if I had my way every child would take a career tech course.

I think it's good for them to have an experience, whether that's a trade o it might be a robotics program.

A lot of people don't understand what a psychology course.

One of eight.

So so yeah, we do have the traditional courses where there might be auto repair, or diesel mechanic and the kinds of hands on thing that people maybe think about.

But we also have some really great robotics courses for spotlight on education.

I'm Randy Scott.

Joining me next i Alabama's Teacher of the year, Katie Collins, and Alabama's alternate teacher of the year Aubree Bennett.

Congratulations on your honor.

And thank you so much for being here.

Well, thank you for having us.

We are so grateful to be here.

I love how the you're a team unit, you know, because you're going to be traversing the state over the next year promoting the teaching profession, being that ambassador, I love how it's a it's a it's a team effort.

Can you talk about wha led to you being named teacher of the year?

Absolutely.

So honestly, I have been teaching for 20 years, and in November I found out that I was nominated and actually got the the teacher of the year for my school, Bluff Park Elementary which is an incredible school.

And just just having that as an honor among the facult and staff at my school is huge, because I teach with, when I say this, the most ridiculously talented people and just just that my colleagues would see something in me, was just such a huge honor.

And then it went on, I went into the running for Hoover City Schools, and I was name Elementary teacher of the year.

And then there's another teacher in my district, Kristen Benjamin, who got Hoover City Schools, teacher of the year for secondary.

And then it went into the next round.

Is that kind of how it happened with you?

Same.

Same with me.

My.

It's funny, even funnier.

My principal just walked into the office when they said, like, call me down.

She's like, Coach Bennett, you're teacher of the year.

I'm like, okay, cool.

But now wha does this actually mean exactly?

What does that actually mean?

And then we find out probably like what Katie understands is like we didn't realize how long and like, arduous this process was.

And I mean, it was it was awesome.

It was a pretty cool experience opening up to this whole new realm for the teacher of the year process.

Absolutely.

And so from the district level they're like, congratulations, you got teacher of the year.

Now, I did get a good parking spot at my school.

That was quiet.

But then they were also like, okay.

And there's just a little bit of paperwork you have to do.

And when I say a little bit of paperwork, I think it took me about all of Christmas break that it took all December for me.

But you want as teachers, we believe so many things about education.

And so I really did want to spend time on why am I doing what I do each and every day.

Okay.

And so I spent time writing it, the application and it went to the state.

And then I kind of forgot about it.

Like I kind of hit snooze on it.

It was January.

Spring break happened maybe a week or two passed.

And then the sweetest woman, Miss Starks, who is in charge of the teacher of the year program for the state of Alabama, called me one night.

Did she call you one night?

Yeah, she did, and she I mean, I honestly had forgotten about all this.

And she said, hey, congratulations.

You are one of Alabama's top 16 teachers of the year.

And from that I thought this is this is wild and crazy.

Is that how you thought it was?

And, Mrs.. Ledbetter and, Mrs. Stringfellow came in.

They came down to car.

They came by the schools.

Yeah.

The surprised they surprised us.

And I was I was doing a really cool lesson in the librar with my, collaboration with my with the librarian.

And they walked in and I was just I was shocked.

It was like a Friday is Thursday or Friday.

And I was already, you know, wasn't really thinking about much.

And they came in and we got to, got to meet them and got to have a great picture with the, with the kids.

So it was pretty cool.

And I should have I should have started from the beginning.

First grade.

Yes.

First grade and senior.

Yes, 12th grade.

So I love that.

It's the total opposite.

It's the beginning.

It is.

But guess what?

We have a little bit more i common than most people think.

I actually started off as a high school French teacher, okay.

And I taught high schoo and I've taught middle school.

So I understand the differences because it was kind of shocking to go to the elementary after teaching high school.

Well I want to ask you all about that because I'll start with you.

What what got you into teaching in the beginning?

What was the impetus for you to become a teacher?

So we were just talkin about this on our right up here.

I had actually a strong mentor in my fourth grade, fourth grade teacher, Mr. Samson, in Syracuse, New York.

And, I'll never forget, I used to go in his classroom, and, I didn't travel.

I haven't been around the, the country or the world that much at that time.

And he would all he.

But he did.

And so he would put up pictures around the room of everywhere he had been.

He'd been all across the world and he had different artifacts from where he came from.

And so I always I was just the coolest thing.

And he was just a, just a cool teacher the way he moved.

And I was like, man, that would be I would love to be like him.

And so he opened up my eyes to a different world.

And so, from there, I just kind of just, I was the oldest of, four.

And so I, would, be a role model a lot in my household.

And I was the first to graduate from college in my, in my family.

So I realized the importance of education.

And at a young age and I wanted to give back to students that were a lot like me.

And I just realized, like, it takes a strong mentor, especially in our day and age.

A male figure to hel give that back to our students.

So that was the biggest reason.

What about you, however, that a teacher.

Because what kind of oh paved the way?

Absolutely.

Obviously we all have that special.

Absolutely.

You know what got you into teaching okay.

So I was ten on the way here.

I have noone is is this is kind of not everybody has this experience.

But I have known that I was meant to be a teacher since I can remember.

I would come home from schoo and I would lay out all my baby dolls and, like, call in my imaginary friend and my little sister Elizabeth, of course.

And I would really just rehash every single thing that I learned at school, to my sister.

And she was a really early reader.

She was three, probably by the time I started with her and she was reading very young and just having I mean, I knew I wanted to be a teacher.

I would told home, I used to love it when my teacher would be like, hey, you need to clap the erasers.

Oh yeah, and teacher's pet.

I'll do it again.

Maybe so, but I just loved everything about it.

The way the crayon box method.

But I think it was in my blood.

My my grandmother was a teacher, and, she really.

I just remember going to visit her, and she would she would teach me things.

So I think it was in my blood already.

I was destined to be a teacher, and I never really thought it from that.

But obviously I had teachers that I took some solid notes on when I was in their class.

They didn't know it.

They thought they were just teaching me physics or, how to write.

But I was I was really looking in and honing on o how they treated their students, because I knew that's what I wanted.

I wanted to be a teacher, I agree.

Now talk about the rol because you all have a big job this year of going and being the ambassador.

We've had teachers of the year in here before, and it's it's something to really celebrate.

But it's not just an honor.

It's a job.

As your you're being tasked with being an ambassador for the teaching professio throughout the state of Alabama.

Talk about what y'all's plans are in terms of goin around the state and being that, you know, ambassador, if you will.

Absolutely.

We recognize what a huge honor this is.

And we recognize that this is not like we are the best teachers.

We know how to do everything.

We recognize that.

We recognize that we are just representing.

I would like to say the creme de la creme in French, like we are representing this profession and we believe in this profession.

We have dedicated our live to this profession, and we know that there are so many teachers out ther who are doing incredible work.

And so we want to shine a light on what is happening, the incredible things that are happening in the schools in Alabama.

So that's one thing we want to do.

But as you can see like we're a unit, we're coming like we believe in the power of, of a team.

And so I think that we would also like to talk about that this year, about how we all have different gifts and talents, and we've got to just leverage them for the greater good.

And so I think that's why we want to really he has experiences that I don't have and I have experiences that he doesn't have, but just going and just being real to faculties.

I mean, I kind of kid with him about like, walking down hallways in Alabama and just finding that teacher and just reminding them, like, you make a difference.

Let them know we're proud of them, right?

And let them know their voice matters, right, in all aspects of Alabama.

And that's one of the coolest thing that again, I'm from New York.

So being here in Alabama, it's cool to see.

I want to see.

It's it's cool to see the different aspects of of education in Alabama.

Right.

From a rule to, to urban to, suburban and just it's full swing at all and letting everybody know from all acros the corners of the state that, you know, we're proud of you.

We care about you.

We want your voice to be heard by everyone and not just in Alabama, but across the country.

And let them know that, you know, we're proud of them and we're better because of you.

Exactly.

And just bringing their voice.

Actually, we started our first episode.

We don't know yet what it's called.

But we're going to start a podcast.

Okay.

Yeah, you mentioned that.

And also a big social media presence.

Yeah, as well.

And guess what?

My giftings are not yet being amazing at the social media.

But hey, he's teaching m and I would like to be better.

And we have a growth mindset.

Yeah.

But yeah, like we just our $30 clip on microphones.

And we just started our firs podcast on the way here today.

And we don't know what we're doing, but that's what we that's what teachers we're we never really know what's about to happen.

But just being able to be flexible and journey, it's a journey.

And I think that's interesting.

Talk about, what you want to message.

You talked about, you know shining that light on educators and the incredible job they're doing.

But do y'all have some kind of like, specific message in terms of a platform that y'all want to bring to this role?

Yeah.

You want to say it on the count of three.

Yeah.

One, two three.

Mental health with educators and students alike.

And just across the whole wellness, wellness, we know the data.

We know that, I think it was the American Pediatrics have declared it a national crisis of mental health.

Now, we I do not disagree because over the past 5 or 6 years, I've seen a rise in mental health and in my classroom, especially since Covid, for sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've we've seen that play ou or, the the anxious generation.

Yes.

The high growth.

I'm so glad you just said that because we would like to actually have a book study among teachers throughout Alabama.

Just to study that together, to realize that this is this is nothing that has happened before.

The cell phone came out in 2008 and it became prevalent around 2012.

And so the data is just coming out.

And not only that, we had global pandemic on top of that.

And so, like what do we do?

What do we do now?

We have the information that we are the most the our children that are sitting in our classrooms are the most anxious and depressed generation.

Suicide rates have risen.

So what do we do?

What do we do and what we believe?

What we both believe is that we obviously can have more health care professionals we can talk to.

We can get more resources in the school.

However, guess what?

It starts with us.

It starts with the teachers.

And we believe in the transformative power of education.

And we believe that the students that are in our class, we can they can actually flip the script, the narrative of what's happening and those numbers can start to go down.

So we have actually, talk to an organization is free.

It's called lead Group, and it is a nonprofit.

And it is actually in relationship to Jonathan Hite and his book, The Anxious Generation.

And it they have two facets actually brought this because I started piloting i January in my first grade class.

But this is information for parents.

And we'll yeah, we'll thro some of that up on the screen.

Yeah.

Well, what have you seen in that at the high school level in terms of that anxiety.

Because because those student have been through the pandemic.

Yes for sure.

For sure.

UPS and downs.

Yeah.

I mean, again, I think you see a lot of like you're saying the idea of of just not understanding how to handle their emotions properly.

You see a lot more issues with, altercations, right?

And then again, you see it within, the communities.

Right?

There's a lot of issues going on there in our communities and trying to not understand how to resolve those issues.

But you have to start with yourself first.

Correct.

You understand?

And then I also believe this, that with the teachers as well, teachers, a lot of times we go into the workforc with our cup half empty, right?

Or pretty much all empty because we give so much to our kids in our schools, in our communities.

And that's one thin that I really want to you know, spread a light on is like how can we help the teachers be get fill their cup back up and be the best versio themselves for their students.

And so it just goes all hand in hand.

We all, you know, it's a it's a, it's a very, delicate situation.

It is vast I mean, the educator wellness.

What he just said, like, as a teacher, I am having to regulate and co regulate children more than ever before.

Yeah.

And and I'm disregulated.

Yeah.

And so like, just take something from you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like just recognizing.

Like what.

Like I need, I need to take a break.

Yeah.

Teaching kids first of all what you just said.

Like educating ourselves first of all.

Yeah.

So what is the problem?

The problem is that we have this generation that is known as the fragile generation, because they cannot solve their own problems, because honestly, Jonathan Hite talks about in his book like that, we're over protecting our kids and the real world, and we're under protecting them in the virtual world.

And so just educating ourselves on that as a parent of four children, as I've started to, to teach this curriculum and by the way, for all the teachers listening, this is something that does not take a ton of time.

It's like 5 to 10 minute a month, and you teach a theme, and this incredible nonprofit gives you every single thing.

It's K through 12.

And basically what what it does is it's building it, promoting childhood independence.

So what does that look like?

It looks like I say okay, and January, the theme was, it was think outside the box creativity.

And so I had all the resources that like Greg gave me and I showed them the PowerPoint took five minutes.

We talked about things we had never done before because kid have never done things before.

And there's simple things that I did as a childhood and you did as charter.

But now, because of the way that we perceive the world is where they're ever protected, and because it's coming from a great place, we want our kids to be safe.

But you need that imagination to grow.

Yeah.

You have to have that concrete.

So we have replaced it with the virtual.

And our brain, their brains are actually growing differently.

They'r they're developing differently.

And so what what I had was remarkable success in it.

And guess where I heard it from?

The parents.

The parents were messaging me and saying, wow, Lily.

Kate.

Now I teach first grade six and seven year old.

She and by the way, this parent packet is not just like, go do something crazy.

It's like it's a conversation with parents and their kids.

And so I give them a homewor assignment, and their homework is to try something they've never tried before with permission with their parents.

So Lily, Kate, she made sweet potato fries in the airfryer all by herself.

Lucas I don't think I could listen.

He's about this tall.

He vacuumed his entire house and mom was like what did you do with my child?

This was my favorite because I have four kids and this is a situation in my house.

Kate.

She wanted to wash her clothes all by herself, so she wash them.

She learned how to put them in the dryer.

She put them, then after, when they came out, she learned how to fold.

And then the hardest part is putting away.

And parents were like, what have you done?

And I said, you know, it's just it's I haven't done anything.

They're just they're showing us that they can do more than we expect of them.

I started to lear why she became teacher of these.

I like she's impressive.

Oh, we only have a little bit of time left, but as you mentioned, there are educators watching.

There are also those, who ma consider the teaching profession or those who may influence those who in the next generation of teachers.

So I hope I was, hoping I could tell me what would be your message to those.

Teaching is not an easy profession.

And it's probably hardest that it's ever been.

I mean, what is your message to those two who might be considering the teaching profession of why it's important?

Why should they do it?

I'll start with you.

Okay.

Well, let me tell you why, though.

Mark, he came, we did a FaceTime with my class and him, and they called him Mister Cool because he's just cool.

Like he's cool.

And I think he is.

He represents really, truly, like, how cool this profession is.

Really, truly, what I would tout and you aske me, like, what I would tell a. Yeah.

What's your message?

Yeah my message is that we need you.

Yeah, we need you.

And, you're going to bring something to this profession that nobody else can bring.

We need you to be yourself.

We need you to get those kids passionate about what you're passionate about.

Just like Aubrey said about his teacher, who liked to travel and opened his eyes.

So we just need people who are, I feel called to this and also realize that we this the teachers right now actually get, so much I mean, we grow because of the new, the new blood coming in and we really do.

They make us better.

So yeah.

And I would say that education is the foundation of any cornerstone of any profession that there is.

And so it's very valuable to understand that, you know, we have our country has a long way to go.

And when we're not, we don't have too much longer in this game.

So, you know, we need, new teachers to come in and be the next teachers of the year and mold the next generation and also keep continuously educate, not only our, our students, but our communities and, fellow educators that as well.

So I think it's one of thos things with just understanding that they're the foundation and that they are vastly important, vastly important.

And also, we may not make the most money out there, but we make impact.

Yeah.

And that impact is it's forever.

It's forever.

I'm thinking back to the special teachers that I had, and I know that y'all are the special teachers that students have right now.

And so congratulate licensed to you both.

Congratulations.

And Carver High School.

Congratulations North Park Elementary.

We are.

And it's such an honor for us to to celebrate you and also to share your story with our audience.

So thank you so much to you.

And we are just, excited to hit the ground running.

We like to say we're going to traverse Alabama and the traverse.

That's right.

Sponsored by Alpha.

Shout out to Alpha.

Yeah.

Alpha for doing that.

And the podcast we want we want to be the voice.

So any educators out there we would love for you to reach out to us and, Facebook Alabama Teachers of the year and Instagram as well, Alabama Teachers of the year.

And it has a plural because it's all about teachers, teachers.

And we're just highlighting the incredible teachers.

So we want teachers on our podcast.

We want to hear the incredible things happening and just promote the best profession out there.

Yeah, well look forward to having y'all back maybe on Capital Journal later but thanks again for your time.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you so much.

We'll be right back.

You're watching Alabama Public Television celebrating 70 years of service to Alabama.

Welcome back to Spotlight on Education.

Joining me next is Mark Dixon, president of the A-plus Education Partnership.

Mark thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me.

Well, there's a lot to talk about.

But I wanted to firs allow you to remind our audience about A-plus, its role in this day.

It occurs to me that a lot of our viewers, especially thos who work here in the statehouse, know the policy angle.

A lot of folks may not know the, programmatic angle.

Right.

And the one foot in both.

So can you kind of go soup to nuts and explain a plus its role in the state?

Sure.

So A-plus Education Partnership has been around for over 30 years and is, as you said, we are a statewid advocate for education reform.

Really working to create great schools for every child in Alabama.

But we also do work directly in schools, working with teachers and students.

We have our A+ Best Practices Center and A+ college ready programs that provide professional development to teachers and school leaders around the state.

We have our A+ Student Voices team that brings together high school students to learn how to the political process and how to engage in policy and learn from each other from around the state.

We also have our Every Child Alabama Coalition, which actually brings together local organizations and grassroots folks to come to the to the state level and advocate for reform.

So we as you said, we kind of have one foot in the schoolhous and one foot in the statehouse.

And so it's a mix, for sure.

Yes.

Didn' mean to steal your thunder on, it was a good, long overdue before, but.

Yeah, like, I think it's important for lawmakers and those to understand all that you do in the field and vice versa.

But I know that summer is a big time for y'all in terms of teacher training, right?

So talk about what's going on with all that right now.

So our A-plus College ready program, which is a partnership with the state Department of Education, really works to expand acces to Advanced Placement courses, in high school.

And we also work to raise rigor in middle schoo so that more kids are prepared for that rigorous coursework at the high school level.

And that does that involve an enormous amount of training, the biggest of which is this summer.

And so we'll have nearly 2000 teachers, trained, at multiple sessions this summer and very, very proud of that work.

The team works very hard.

But we've also seen significant progress in Advanced Placement.

Over the last three years, we have had actually record number of students taking AP exams.

At the end of those courses and a record number of students earning qualifying scores.

So getting the enough of a score on that test to get college credit.

So we've seen significant progress.

Alabama is now in the in kind of the top 35 range, when it comes to Advanced Placement rankings.

And so we've seen a lot of progress there.

That's interesting.

We know we spent so much tim talking about the lower grades.

And we're going to get to that is so important.

But let's not forget getting kids, you know, prepared for college.

That Michael was talking the other day about that, that college credit, whether it's an AP exam or something else that's a indicator of, college readiness.

So that's looks it sounds like really some something we can be proud o at the upper grades.

Absolutely.

Got to look at the whole board.

Right.

Well, speaking of scores, we had this.

The third grade reading scores come out this last week.

And I'm looking at this through a broad lens because looking back to the literacy act that you all champione and advocated for back in 2019, and now, you know, we had some hiccups along the way.

Obviously Covid was tough and everything, but now we're starting to see, you know, they're raising standards o you're seeing that being raised.

It sounds like we're starting to finally see some fruits of that literacy.

Is that the way you see it?

Absolutely.

You know, reading, as everyone knows, is fundamental, to all learning.

If you if we can't have kids reading well in the early grades, then we're going to be jus struggling all the way through and they have very little chance of graduating.

So implementing the Literacy Act well is so, so critical in this progress that we sa with 88% of students sufficient and ready to move on to, to fourth grade, is a huge step over or over.

Last year, even with even with higher, a higher cut score that they had to meet.

But you know, when we also compare ourselves to other states so if you look at the nations report card last year, in 2024, that's the Nape assessment.

We were the one of only two states to actually excee pre-pandemic levels in reading.

So think about that.

How far we've come since 2019, prior to the pandemic.

And we were the only one of two states that have actually exceeded those levels.

And and this data from the state level, right now shows that our third graders are continuin to move in the right direction and have the skill that they need to be successful.

And looking at that same national data, we're also seeing that we were the only state in the country that actually exceeded pre-pandemic levels in math.

So that's a real testament not only to having the right policies in place at the state level, but especially to the school leaders and teacher that have really worked so hard, for our students over the last several years.

Well because it takes a lot, right?

It's not one silver bullet.

It takes different, you know, whether it's lawmakers doing their thing.

Folks at the department doing their thing, you know, groups like yours and especially the teacher in the classroom, it's not just, you know, puts pass a law and forget about it, right.

It takes a lot to actually make that work.

That's right.

It's like a three legged stool.

You know, when we think about policy change and want to see long term sustained change, it really takes three things.

One is that evidenc based student centered policy.

So take the Literacy Act as an example.

Passing that law or passing a state board policy similar to that.

That's the first leg.

And that's got to be based on the right evidence.

Got to be got to be student centered.

The second is funding.

If you look at literacy, for example, since we passed help pass the Literacy Act and 2019, funding for that has tripled, over that time.

And that's throug the commitment of state leaders like Governor Ivey and our budget chairman, and a lot of state legislators that have been very supportive of that work.

And then the third leg is strong implementation.

And if we don't do all three of those, well, then we might not, as you know, we might as well not do any of them at all.

That's a really interesting wa to look at a three legged stool without which, you know, just one, it would it would jump over.

Well, you talked about polic and, and how important that is.

They passed a big one this year that I know you were intricately involved in.

That is the raise act.

It you know, I keep talking about it because I think it's a really big deal, but it really fundamentally changes or improves rather elevates.

The funding model here in the state of Alabama in terms of what we kno cost more money for districts, a little more support from the state level.

Let's back up, though, because I know this this concept has been around for a long time.

Your group has been instrumental in getting it.

Hear talk about where this came from.

The this funding model conversation came fro it kind of how we got to today.

So Alabama, our current funding model, the foundation program, has been around for 30 years.

And and it was a big step forward in its time.

But it it's been a while.

And when we look across the country, most states have moved from a model like ours, which is called a resource based funding formula, meaning it's just kind of a one size fits all.

What are the cost of th of the resources that you need?

You know, everybody get you have this many kids, you get this many school busses, this many teachers, this many textbooks and very simplistic terms.

But what most of the country has moved to is called a student weighted funding formula, meaning that you have a base amount for every typical kid, just like we do now.

But you add weights on top of that for additional student needs.

So students in poverty, special education students, students we know just frankly cos more to educate English language learners fit into that category.

And so we've seen most states move in that direction.

Alabama is actually only one of seven states that is still at the time was still funding.

We saw Tennessee make a huge leap and adopt a student weighted funding formula.

And we're talking to you about that.

That's our neighbor.

Right.

And so that kind of got everybody talking in the south of you know what what can we do.

And then we saw Mississippi to our west that did it in 2024 saying, this is really needed.

If we want to improve student learning.

And Mississippi, by the way, has made significant progress in the last few years.

They've had really good policies in place and and really kind of known as the Mississippi Miracle.

And so as we kind of looked around that with, with we had state leaders asking us and others, what do we do?

How do we make this work for Alabama?

Is this a path we should that we should look toward and so we had conversations with the budget chairman, Senato or, and Representative Garrett, as well as the governor's office.

Our state superintendent was sent.

So we had been working with some partners to try and say, all right what is a design that could work for a student weighted funding model in Alabama?

And so during the last legislative session in 2024, two years ago, they passed a joint resolution to create a joint commission to study modernizing Alabama's school funding formula.

And they spent the latter half of 20, 24 and early 2025 really diving dee into what that might look like.

And at the end of that process, they basically said okay, we've got three options.

Chairman Garrett kind of laid this out.

We could do nothing for student needs, keep doing what we're doing, which if we're going to continue doing what we're doing, we're going to get the same results.

We option number two is we could go to a full student weighted model just like Tennessee.

Or do we want to look at a hybrid model.

Reall kind of that third model to say, you know, is there something we can learn from these student needs and make sure that we're prioritizing that and take our time?

That's really where they decided to go.

They said, you know, we have this foundation program in place.

Everyone will continue to get that under a hybrid model.

But why don't we ad student weights on top of that?

So we are targeting more resources over the next several years to those students that need it most.

Because if we don't, if the state does not offer that money, then districts with that higher proportion of poverty, students high proportion of English language learners, they have to make up for it somewhere.

Right.

Because those teachers so it comes it could really cost those districts a lot more money.

I think this is going to be one of those things.

We look back at ten, 15 years from now and say, okay, yeah, that was a real differenc maker, especially in districts.

And it goes to that poin that we've talked about before.

I think going back to the Literacy Act, and seeing some of its success, I remember was talking about and I've talked about this with chairman or, and Chairman Garrett say, is this what happens when you roll up your sleeves past a reall difficult, hard thing to pass?

It's not easy.

And then it shows just what can happen when you do the hard thing.

Yeah.

That's right.

And I think if we look, this led to all of this work led to the Raise act, which is of course, what you mentioned.

And even in that first year, you know, both both the chairman said, all right, we're going to and the governor committed $100 million in new funding to that process.

The chairman said, look, we're going to commit $375 million in new funding to go to this over the first three years.

Let's just put that asid so that it can fund that work.

They added some additional funding from the ATF that was already being spent, about $58 million.

So in that first year, you've got $166 million that are going to students, and that's 68 million to students in poverty, 50 million to students in special education, which, by the way, we've not really funded special education at the state level.

That's all new money for districts.

We've seen about $12 million for gifted, $34 million for English language learners, which is double what we've been spending in that category.

And new mone for for charter schools as well, to help clos some of that local funding gap.

So it's a it's across the board.

Yeah.

Well it's fascinating.

And again it's a big, big deal that the legislature did this year.

With the raise that mark we're out of time.

But thanks again for coming on the show.

We look forward to seeing you again.

Thanks for having me.

We'll be right back.

Sequoyah was one of the most influential men in Cherokee history.

His greatest legacy was his invention of a written version of the Cherokee spoken language, created largely during his time i what is now northeast Alabama.

The Cherokee leadership approved its dissemination in 1821, and within a matter of months, the Cherokee Nation was mostly literate by 1828, the tribe established the Cherokee Phoenix, a newspaper printed in both Cherokee and English.

Welcome back to Spotlight on Education.

Joining me next is APT senio education reporter Trish Greene.

Trish, thanks for being here.

Glad to be with you.

Another spotlight and lots to talk about because we've I don't know, we're kind of in an interesting time here through the legislative session where a lot happened.

Yeah.

Where if school's out, but school's coming back pretty soon before we know it.

So I wanted to ask you about a couple of things.

As we talked with doctor McKee about reading scores.

The third grade reading scores that were released a few weeks ago show some real progress in terms of getting students to that point where they're sufficient readers.

You reported on this.

What did your reporting show?

Yeah.

You know, good news for third grade reading scores.

Most districts saw some kind of improvement.

It's kind of hard to, you know, dig in to because last year there was a lower cut score, right.

This year the cut score was higher.

So if you just look at oh, 91% of kids were, you know, worse efficien last year versus 88% this year.

You think, oh, we fell backwards, but we really didn't.

In most places, the difference between the percentages from last yea to this year was pretty small.

So to me, that kind of look like folks were holding their own.

And then there were a few districts, high poverty districts tha really blew it out of the water.

Which is good news.

Good news for kids.

So, yeah.

Okay.

So the so the basically they raised the standard that you need to have to be abou to be promoted to fourth grade.

Right.

And I if I understand that correctly, from talking to doctor McKee, they're going to keep raising that.

And then I guess that's we should be right.

Right.

That's the idea.

And if you talk with Terry Collins, you know she'll tell you.

Yeah we start kind of low.

But the idea is to raise it each yea because you don't want to retain a whole bunch of third graders.

You know, it's a new test.

You need to make sure that your test is testing what you think it is.

So there's a lot of technical stuff going on in the background.

But they will keep the score.

The board made a decision last year.

Board members really pushed hard on this.

The th the technical folks were saying, don't raise the score yet.

Don't raise the score yet.

But board members were like, we're raising the score.

So they raise the score.

It'll be, 444 this past year, just these new results and one more year, an then it will go up again to 455.

Which, you know, these are just numbers and they don't really make a whole lot of sense, but basically what that number is that's still below grade level.

You know, grade level is a 473.

So these kids are somewhere below grade level, but it's good enoug to move on to the fourth grade.

That's that's sufficient or yes right.

Sufficient.

Not necessarily proficient sufficient to get a fourth grade.

Right.

I understand that.

Kind of baby steps.

Right.

You have to start somewhere.

But it seems to m we're finally getting into what the Literacy Act was all about.

You know, passed back in 2019.

There were some hiccups along the way with Covid and everything, but this is really, you know, getting into what that law was meant to do and that is have some true accountability in terms of students not being promoted to the fourth grade if they're not read ready, if they can't read.

Right.

And another thing that's been going on in the background that doesn't get written about or covered very well is what has happened to teache training in elementary school.

I mean, the, institutes of higher education are colleges who train teachers you know, teacher prep programs.

What we call them.

They have changed the way they teach elementary schoo teachers to teach how to read.

Yeah.

Right.

So that's been a big deal.

That, you know, it's kind of hard to get teacher prep programs to change.

It has been in the past, but that was part of the law.

Law said, you've got to change the way that you teach kids, that you teach teachers to teach kid to read the science of reading.

I've heard a lot about.

Right, right.

And, you know, we kind of think of that as phonics you know, sounding a word out, not guessing at a word based on context or the pictures that you see.

So it's it's a big, big deal.

And it is lovely to see that it's making a difference for kids.

It's making a difference for teachers too.

You know, you hear especially in the beginning, we heard a lot about, oh, my gosh, I never knew ho to teach these children to read.

I thought I was teaching them to read, but now I'm really teaching them to read.

And teachers feel good about that.

Teachers want to help kids, right?

That's why they got into this.

Like they want kids to be, to achieve higher things.

Right?

And to be able to learn.

So this is helping them get that done is great to see improvement and and some progress on on the reading front.

And we can't wait to get the math scores back because that's the other kind of big, right?

So that'll be for a different show.

I want to ask you about funding.

We saw during the legislative session another record year for the Education Trust fund.

And so in terms of revenue, it seems it seems to be fine.

But you did some reporting on, some schools having declining populations of students and therefore they end up with funding cuts.

Talk about how that happens.

Yeah.

So, you know, the state, funds K-12 schools through the foundation program has been around since 1995.

It basically is a big formula that that figures out how many kids you have in each grade or grade span.

I'm not going to go into details.

And then it does some math to allocate teachers.

The cost of a teacher you'll hear called teacher unit.

So it's based on your population of students the previous year.

So for declining schools that are declining in enrollment, they kind of get a year to catch up.

Question if you will, a bit of a cushion for growing school districts, which there are still some growing in Alabama.

You know, they get, additional allocations.

But superintendents and principals will tell you, you know, it's not really enough to cover, what they need to do, especially in the fast growing districts.

Baldwin County comes to mind.

But so in places where student population continues to decline, they these districts just get less and less state funding each year just because that's where the population is decreasing.

And exactly.

And you've seen I mean, we've seen a lot of small schools close, in recent years.

Some of those were doing really well academically.

I can think of one, you know, in DeKalb County, there was one spar when elementary like these were these schools were really doing well.

Test score was very small.

You might have if you have.

I know of a school right now that has like eight kids in each grade.

It's a K through eight school, 8 to 10 kids.

That's their only earning like five teacher units.

Excuse me.

So they have to figure out how they're goin to spread those teachers around.

And this is a decision that they have to make every year.

And they've already made decisions.

School boards have already been making decisions since February March, April trying to decide, you know, how many teachers are we going to need to rehire, or who are we going to need to let go?

Are we going to replace that retired teacher?

You know, a lot of that's already underway.

Yeah.

Well, speaking of underway, this is going to be the first school year where the Choose act is in effect, right?

This is where the legislatur passed it a couple of years ago.

Parents can take, I guess, up to $7,000, to send their child to a private school, right, or to do homeschooling.

And there's a different, different formula.

But.

So, yeah, this, this comin school year, students will have, taken that money to go to a private school.

You've done a lot of reporting on this because there's been a lot more demand than they originally thought there would be.

So let's talk about the Choose act, its implementation, and just how many students we're likely to see.

You know, take public money to go to private school.

Yeah it's a big deal.

I mean, education savings accounts, which is essays, you know, we call them.

Basically the state, after, you know, families apply, they have to meet their income has to be below a certain level, 300% of the federa poverty level, which in Alabama was like 95,000 for a, family of four, you know.

75% of families qualified under that income limit.

So they had about 36,000 kids apply.

That's a lot.

That's a lot of kids.

They really though it would be around 14 or 15,000.

And so the reviews should of applicatio should be finished by June 30th.

That's kind o when the Department of Revenue, who is administerin the program, needs to know where where is your child going to school.

So we have kids who are in private school who are taking the money t private school, who qualified.

We have kids who are in public school who are taking money to go to private school next year.

We don't know that number yet.

Yeah.

And then we have kids who are in public school going out of district.

Somewhere outside of their district.

And if that district charges them tuition, which some of them do, that essay can be used to pay that tuition.

Last look, there were about 1500 kids doing that.

Okay.

Interesting.

Yeah That was part of the choose act.

It doesn't have to be a private school.

It could be a homeschool situation or a different district.

Right.

Which in some cases I would imagine.

The whole point of that is kind of escaping a difficult situation and trying to get to a better one.

Yeah.

But yeah, I mean, this is goin to be very interesting to watch.

I mean, going back to when that law was passed, I mean, it's very much celebrated, as you know, Alabama school choice friendly and one of the most in the country.

Right.

So here's when we find out, you know, what all that really means, but a very big deal.

Thank you for your reporting on this, because it's been, very important to follow where that goes.

Absolutely.

Trish, we're out of time.

But thanks again.

And we'll we'll see you on Capitol Journal soon.

Thanks, Todd.

We'll be right back.

You're watching Alabama Public Television celebrating 70 years of service to Alabama.

And that's going to do it for this edition of Spotlight on Education.

Remember, you can stay up to date on education issue and all state issues by watching Capital Journal each week here on Alabama Public Television.

For our team here in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.