Higher Expectations Set and Met
The Business Education Alliance of Alabama (BEA), with PARCA as its research partner, has released its 2026 report, HIGHER EXPECTATIONS SET AND MET: A Decade of Improving Public Education and Workforce for a Better Alabama. The 2026 report highlights the major recommendations of each BEA report since its first one in 2014 plus the Commission […]
New Business Education Alliance Report Examines Investments in Alabama’s Education System, Immediate Outcomes, and Future Needs
Today, the Business Education Alliance of Alabama (BEA) is releasing Alabama Can Improve Student Achievement and Prepare a Future Workforce: Here’s How-Part 2, a follow-up to the Governor’s Commission on Teaching and Learning’s report issued in December of 2023. The Alabama Legislature financially supported many of the Commission’s recommendations, and today’s release by the BEA follows up on what […]
Stop the Slide, Start the Climb: Concepts to Enable Alabama Students to Achieve Their Fullest Potential
In March, the nonprofit Business Education Alliance commissioned PARCA to provide research describing the unprecedented challenges and opportunities in education faced by the state in this moment. For more than a year, schools have coped with the Covid-19 pandemic: reshuffled learning environments, the unknowns of delivering education digitally, and the disruptive and unequal effects that […]
Newly released “Education Matters” report assesses the progress of public education in supporting Alabama’s workforce initiative
In 2020, Alabama is in the midst of one of the most significant workforce initiatives in the state’s history. Reports have highlighted the need for 500,000 additional highly skilled workers by 2025 who have earned a high-value, industry-recognized credential. The Business Education Alliance of Alabama (BEA) commissioned PARCA, with support from the A+ Education […]
Newly released “Leadership Matters” report examines reinventing schools through key leaders
Last weekend at the Business Council of Alabama’s Governmental Affairs Conference, the Business Education Alliance unveiled its latest report, produced by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama. The report, titled Leadership Matters: A Blueprint for Reinventing Schools for Student Success, looks at the role of state, school and community leaders in driving our schools […]
Student Achievement Matters: The Future of Student Assessment in Alabama
In June 2017, the Alabama State Board of Education voted to cancel its contract with ACT for the administration of the ACT Aspire, a suite of standardized tests which, for the past four years, has served as the primary assessment tool Alabama used to gauge the annual academic progress of public school students across the […]
Exceeding Expectations: Keys to Alabama’s Student Success
The latest report by PARCA was released last week at the Business Council of Alabama’s 2016 Governmental Affairs Conference. The report, entitled “Exceeding Expectations: Keys to Alabama’s Student Success,” the third PARCA research report commissioned by the Business Education Alliance of Alabama (BEA). Exceeding Expectations examines the progress state schools have made toward goals established under the state’s […]
PARCA Wins National Award for Education Research
PARCA’s research reports on education funding, Alabama’s education performance, and plans for its improvement received national recognition by the Governmental Research Association (GRA) at the GRA’s annual conference in Pittsburgh last week. PARCA received the GRA award for “Outstanding Policy Achievement” on a state government issue for its ongoing work to evaluate the progress of the […]
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 […]