The Alabama Best Practices Center helps teachers and administrators develop the competence, commitment and courage to do whatever it takes to improve student learning.
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As New Year Begins, Leaders Must Take Action New School Data Tool From PARCA “AYP” Not the Only Way to Measure or Create School Success
By Hayes Mizell
Guest Blogger
Guest Blogger
For educators, "back-to-school" means slipping into familiar routines. There will be new students, new colleagues, and perhaps a new principal, but most teachers and administrators yearn for as little change as possible from the previous school year. Change, after all, requires new accommodation, new learning, or new practice, each of which increases possibilities for discomfort, mistakes, or embarrassment. There is security in the familiar, even if it is the handmaiden of the status quo.
Educators also return to school with unspoken hope.
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Education News in Alabama for Aug. 26, 2010
- PARCA unveils new school data tool;
- School Board: Jobs bill;
- Obama stands firm on education agenda;
- Torchbearers prove demographics aren't destiny;
- RESEARCH: Recovering economy needs more people with post-high school education;
- BLOG: 9 things every AP science teacher should know;
- BLOG: Rigor for leaders;
- A+ News.
By Jim Williams
Guest Blogger
On Aug. 2, the Alabama Department of Education released information showing the Alabama public schools and school systems that made, and didn’t make, “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP) in 2010. These lists receive a lot of attention every year, in part because measuring AYP is required by federal law, and consistent failure brings penalties for schools with large amounts of federal funding.
However, AYP calculations are complicated, and sometimes they mask rather than expose performance differences.Read More...
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Guest Blogger
On Aug. 2, the Alabama Department of Education released information showing the Alabama public schools and school systems that made, and didn’t make, “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP) in 2010. These lists receive a lot of attention every year, in part because measuring AYP is required by federal law, and consistent failure brings penalties for schools with large amounts of federal funding.
However, AYP calculations are complicated, and sometimes they mask rather than expose performance differences.Read More...
