Alumni of Birmingham-Southern College have again received a call to contact state legislators, this time to seek a rewrite of last year’s legislation that had been designed to provide a reprieve from the college’s possible closing. Read more.
Alabama has been trying to raise the literacy scores for younger readers in the state through legislation and support from the Alabama State Department of Education. The Alabama Reflector asked experts in the state what parents and guardians should be looking for and doing for their own children’s literacy. Read more.
Alabama’s K-12 public schools received an overall grade of B on new school and district report cards released Thursday by the Alabama State Department of Education. More than half of Alabama’s K-12 schools received As or Bs in this year’s evaluations, the first ones to come out under the changes to the Alabama Accountability Act, which reclassified schools with D or F grades as priority schools and eliminated language labeling schools as “failing.” In the Birmingham area, Jefferson County schools earned a B overall and Birmingham City Schools earned a C. Scores for other school systems, individual schools and charter schools in the area ranged from As to Fs. Read more.
Birmingham City Schools, C Avondale Elementary, C Barrett Elementary, F BCS Virtual Academy of Learning, F Bush Hills STEAM Academy, D Central Park Elementary, C Charles A. Brown Elementary, C Christian School, A EPIC Alternative, A George Washington Carver High, C Glen Iris Elementary, C Green Acres Middle, D Hayes K-8, F Hemphill Elementary,
The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved $5 million in funding to help keep Birmingham-Southern College operating. The city will provide BSC a $2.5 million loan that will be forgiven provided BSC opens classes in the fall and a 20-year loan for the same amount to be repaid at a 1% interest rate. Read more.
Birmingham-Southern College is running out of money and time. After the state treasurer rejected the school’s $30 million loan application, school officials must now consider their options, including closing the 167-year-old campus on Birmingham’s west side. Read more.
A Birmingham teacher was given an award nicknamed the “Oscar of Teaching” during a surprise assembly at John Herbert Phillips Academy on Wednesday. Korri Cunningham, IB coordinator for the school, was surrounded by cheering students, colleagues and dignitaries when she was surprised with the Milken Educator Award. She said the award was “beyond anything I could ever imagine.” “In teaching, the rewards aren’t always seen,” she said. “So to receive something of this magnitude, I can’t even begin to describe it. And it feels so good to really feel appreciated for all the hard work I put into the classroom.” Read more.
Mayor Randall Woodfin said Tuesday that Birmingham schools have unusually large numbers of truant students and, if he has to, he’ll push for parents to be held legally accountable for allowing their children to stay home from school. Ten weeks into the school year, well more than half of third graders are considered truants, which means they have seven or more unexcused absences, Woodfin said. “It’s unacceptable,” the mayor said. “Teachers cannot teach your child if they are not in class.” Read more.
Efforts to ban books believed to be inappropriate for children and teens have seen a sharp uptick recently, but some libraries and bookstores are fighting back. Read more.
The future of a bill that would effectively mandate kindergarten in Alabama still faces an uphill battle, even as members of a state education commission said that they support the bill. Read more.
