Education Trust Fund Grows but School Spending Still Behind
Receipts to Alabama’s Education Trust Fund grew by 4.2 percent in FY2015, according to year-end revenue reports, allowing the state to finish repaying the education’s borrowing from the state savings account and to begin socking away additional savings for the next downturn. It should be noted, however, that for the current budget year, state support […]
Alabama Brings Home Disappointing Results on Nation’s Report Card
The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) is a battery of tests given every two years to a representative sample of students in all 50 states. The test is designed to serve as a national scorecard, allowing comparison of educational performance across the states. The 2015 results are out. They’re disappointing for the nation at large, […]
Measuring Performance in Higher Education
K-12 education has been, in recent years, the subject of a massive amount of data-gathering and analysis. From individual classrooms to state boards of education, data is being used to evaluate, to tailor instruction, and to set goals and track performance. Through an examination of the data, we are asking questions: Are we producing the […]
Alabama Statewide ACT Results for 2015
Alabama’s 2015 graduating class was the first in which all students took the well-known college readiness test, the ACT. New state-level reports on the 2015 results provide a wealth of information that can be useful to parents, students, and educators. Before we take a closer look at Alabama’s results, it’s important to understand the benefits […]
Alabama Strategies for National Problem of Teacher Shortages
PARCA’s new Teachers Matter report, commissioned by the Business Education Alliance, identifies Alabama-specific strategies for recruiting and retaining teachers. The report’s release comes in the midst of rising concern over a local and national shortage of teachers. As children headed back to the classroom this month, several Alabama school systems reported difficulty filling vacancies. The […]
PARCA Briefs BCA on Teacher Quality and Progress in Public Education
Alabama public schools have made substantial progress in raising high school graduation rates, but must continue to improve student performance on measures of college and career readiness. To do that, the state must sharpen its focus on the quality of public school teachers. That means recruiting talent to the profession, supporting existing teachers in a quest […]
The Poverty vs. Performance Challenge
PARCA continues to explore the results of the state’s new standardized test, the Aspire, and is developing new ways of looking at the data. Aspire was developed by the same testing company that offers the college readiness benchmark test, the ACT. From grades 3-8, Aspire measures student progress at each grade level toward an eventual […]
Setting the Course for Continuous Improvement in Tuscaloosa City and County Schools
Thanks to Plan 2020, the state’s strategic plan for improving the state’s public schools, schools and the communities they serve have increased access to data on school performance measures. Local systems are examining how their students perform on the Aspire, the new benchmark test given to student in grades 3 through 8. Systems are also […]
How does your school compare on the Aspire?
Take a look at the 2014 ACT Aspire results for Heard Magnet Elementary school in Dothan. The following images show the percentage of students at each grade level scoring proficient on the Aspire, the state’s standardized test. Students scoring proficient on the tests of math and reading are considered to be on track to advance […]
PARCA’s school analysis for Dothan
Each year, PARCA travels to Dothan to present data on the city school system to educators, parents, and the public. The PARCA analysis, sponsored by the Dothan-based Wiregrass Foundation, presents Dothan City School enrollment, financial data, and test scores results as they compare to peer school systems and to state and national averages. How does the system […]