Birmingham Board of Education

Sessions Criticizes School Board, Housing Authority for Cutting Ties with Church of the Highlands

When Jeff Sessions arrived at Woodlawn High School for a Wednesday morning press conference, Dr. Terrell E. Brown, the school’s principal, was waiting for him in the parking lot. The press conference couldn’t be held on school grounds, he said — but Sessions was welcome to move to a parking lot across the street. Sessions’ campaign staffers begrudgingly acquiesced. “Well, that’ll make it part of the story,” one staffer muttered as they lugged the podium across the busy street. The former U.S. attorney general and current U.S. Senate candidate was in Woodlawn to express his outrage over recent decisions by the Birmingham Board of Education and the Birmingham Housing Authority to cut ties with Church of the Highlands after founding pastor Chris Hodges “liked” several social media posts by the politically conservative group Turning Point USA. “This is a matter of real importance,” Sessions said. “It deals concretely with the right of free speech and free expression of religious values and to be able to have independent ideas outside your work environment." Read more.

Birmingham School Superintendent Receives 3.55 out of 5 in Evaluation

Birmingham’s school superintendent has “met expectations and goals for improvement” according to an evaluation presented at Tuesday’s board meeting. On a 1 to 5 scale, Superintendent Lisa Herring received a 3.55 rating. Two metrics were used in the evaluation: a rating based on benchmarks set out by the district’s strategic plan (3.36) and a cumulative score from board members (3.75). Those two scores were averaged to produce the final number. Read more.

Community Development Group Donates $50K to Washington K-8

Navigate Affordable Housing Partners, a housing and community development nonprofit organization, has donated $50,000 to Washington K-8 School as part of its work in the North Titusville neighborhood. “Any development community effort is only successful it you have schools. Strong schools make for strong communities and strong communities have healthy families,” Lisa McCarroll, CEO of the group, said while presenting the donation during a Birmingham Board of Education board meeting June 11. Read more.

Wenonah High School

Students: 661 Teachers: 52 Education Report Card 2017-2018: D (64) Failing Schools List: 2019; 2018; 2017. Read more.

Making the Grade? How Birmingham City Schools Are Doing Depends on Which Measure You Choose.

Multiple choice: 1. The Birmingham City Schools system has a high number of failing schools as determined by the Alabama Accountability Act. 2. The Birmingham City Schools system is below average, based on a “D” grade on the Alabama Education Report Card for the 2016-2017 school year. 3. The Birmingham City Schools system is doing better, on the upswing. 4. All of the above. If you chose “4” you may understand how complex it can be to determine the exact state of the city’s school system. Read more. Read the rest of BirminghamWatch’s special report on Birmingham schools:

Many Questions About Birmingham City Schools Remain After Three Months of Trying to Understand the State of Education

The History of the Birmingham City Schools

Shooting for the A — Birmingham Schools principal succeeded at one school. Now he’s aiming to redirect another that is facing significant challenges

An Introduction to Birmingham Schools, From A to F

Birmingham Schools’ Superintendent Talks About Facing Competition for Students, Being Accountable and Building Relationships.

Many Questions About Birmingham City Schools Remain After Three Months of Trying to Understand the State of Education

The Birmingham City Schools system is one of the largest in Alabama. At the same time, it has a difficult history and a present reality in which a number of schools are performing at standards lower than what the superintendent, board of education and city administration would like. In an effort to understand the state of the schools, BirminghamWatch examined the data and sought interviews or written information from BCS officials. Our efforts were less than fully successful. Read more.

Questions submitted to the Birmingham City Schools

About Hayes K-8: There is a statement in the website that says the “team is not complete,” and the teacher count based on those listed in the website is 28 for almost 800 students. So can you help us understand that situation? Is there difficulty filling teacher slots? Is 28 really the teacher allotment for

Questions submitted that BirminghamWatch wanted to ask Terrell Brown, principal of Putnam Middle

  Will you tell me about W.E.Putnam Middle? How would you describe the students/teachers/parents?   What is the student/teacher ratio at Putnam Middle? Is that where you/BCS want it to be?   What have the successes and challenges been for Putnam Middle? How do those compare to challenges at other BCS middle schools?   What

The Numbers

The state report card assigns a letter grade to each school, each school system and the state itself. In the report card for the BCS, five schools have grades of “F,” meaning their average score is 59 or less on the assessments done by ALSDE. By that same criteria, 26 score “D” (60-69), 7 score “C” (70-79), 4 score “B” (80-89), and 1 scores “A” (90 and above).

Third Rejected Birmingham Charter School Plans to Appeal

The Birmingham school board informed the state this week that it denied an application for a Woodlawn-area charter school. This marks the third charter school proposal Birmingham has rejected since 2017. Read more.