2006 March/April Alabama School Boards Magazine

SCIENCE KEEPS AMERICA ON THE CUTTING EDGE Teacher Quality Impacts Student Achievement From Good to Great: Using Advanced Leadership Skills Official Publication of the Alabama Association of School Boards

MARCH/APRIL 2006

READY FOR 'BIG SCHOOL'

OFFICERS Jim Methvin . . . . . . . . . . . . . President Alabama School of Fine Arts Sue Helms . . . . . . . . . . President-Elect Madison City Florence Bellamy . . . . . Vice President Phenix City Tommy McDaniel . . . . . Past President Cherokee County STAFF Sandra Sims-deGraffenried, Ed.D. Executive Director Sally Brewer Howell, J.D. Assistant Executive Director Denise L. Berkhalter Director of Public Relations Editor, Alabama School Boards Susan Rountree Salter Director of Membership Services Lissa Astilla Tucker Director of Governmental Relations Debora Hendricks Administrative Assistant Donna Norris Administrative Assistant Kay Shaw Bookkeeper Lashana Summerlin Receptionist Tammy Wright Executive Assistant Janelle Zeigler Clerical Assistant BOARD OF DIRECTORS Patsy Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 1 Monroe County Steven Foster . . . . . . . . . . . . District 2 Lowndes County Jeff Bailey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 3 Covington County Katy S. Campbell . . . . . . . . . District 4 Macon County Jennifer Parsons . . . . . . . . . . District 5 Jefferson County Sue Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 6 Jacksonville Susan Harris . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 7 Winfield Dr. Charles Elliott . . . . . . . . . District 8 Decatur Laura Casey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 9 Albertville Sandra Ray . . . . . . . . . . . . State Board Tuscaloosa Robert A. Lane.. NSBA Board of Directors Lowndes County

March-April 2006 Vol. 27, No. 2

IN THIS ISSUE COVER STORY

Making the Grade: Two Walker County Schools Raise the Bar Lupton Junior High School Says ‘I-CAN’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 On a Mission: Townley School Gets it 'Write' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Lupton Junior High School is a regular Honor Roll School and was selected by the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools as the middle school awardee for its 20052006 Banner School honor. Townley Junior High School boasts strong outcomes on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills and SAT assessments, and the school was selected as a 2006 Torchbearer School. Neither Walker County school allows high poverty to hamper their success.

FEATURES

Science Keeps America on the Cutting Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative Multiplies Statewide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Alabama Academy of Science Sparks Competition . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Face to Face with Speaker of the House Seth Hammett . . . . . . . . . 11 From Good to Great: Using Advanced Leadership Skills . . . . . . . . 12 Ready for 'Big School' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Q&A: Teacher Quality Impacts Student Achievement . . . . . . . . . . 24 Eight Lessons in School Finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 DEPARTMENTS

Alabama Education News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Education & the Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 At the Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Calendar of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Potpourri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 PUBLICATION POLICY Alabama School Boards is published by the Alabama Association of School Boards as a service to its member school boards. The articles published in each issue represent the ideas or beliefs of the writers and are not necessarily the views of the Alabama Association of School Boards. Subscriptions sent to members of school boards are included in membership dues, and complimentary copies are sent to public school principals throughout the state. Additional subscriptions can be obtained by contacting AASB. Entered as third-class mail at Montgomery, AL. Permit No. 34.

Alabama School Boards is designed by J. Durham Design, L.L.C., Montgomery, AL. Address all editorial and advertising inquiries to: Alabama School Boards, Editor, P.O. Drawer 230488, Montgomery, AL 36123-0488. Phone: 334/277-9700.

Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 3

Alabama Education News AASB-Backed School Bus Safety Law Goes Into Effect Oct. 1 The governor signed into law recently a bill that sets uniform penalties statewide for motorists who threaten the safety of nearly 363,000 children getting on and off Alabama’s school buses daily. The law goes into effect Oct. 1.

It’s a victory for the bill’s co-sponsors, Sen. Ted Little and Rep. Randy Davis, and the Alabama Association of School Boards, which strongly backed the bill.

“With thousands of children riding the buses every day, this is a strong reminder that we need to be aware as we drive near school buses,” Davis said. “There were no uniform penalties across this state for illegally passing a stopped school bus with its flashing lights and stop sign extended.”

The school bus safety bill outlines four penalties for illegally overtaking and passing a school bus or church bus that has come to a complete stop and is signaling that it’s loading or unloading passengers.

Little, who shepherded the bill through the Senate, said, “This is an excellent piece

Gov. Bob Riley signs the School Bus Safety bill into law, witnessed by (standing left to right) Rep. Randy Davis, AASB Director of Governmental Relations Lissa Astilla Tucker, Sen. Ted Little and state Department of Education Pupil Transportation and Driver Education Administrator Joe Lightsey.

of legislation. It not only brings uniformity throughout the state to the law, but it’s a serious warning to individuals who disregard the law by passing school buses when children are entering or exiting.”

Alabama Makes Best Single Year NCLB Gain In a March 28 news report on preliminary state-by-state statistics from the U.S. Department of Education, Alabama showed the best one-year result for 20042005. Alabama reduced the number of

schools that didn’t meet adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind law from 77 percent in 2003-2004 to 47 percent.

Dr. Ruth Ash, deputy state superintendent of education for instructional services, told Bloomberg news service the improvement could be attributed to Dr. Ash an increased monetary investment in math and reading instruction, a more intense focus on instruction and

Phenix City Schools to Test Zero-Gravity NASA Project

Phenix City Intermediate School is a NASA Explorer School.

Shown here are Network of Educator Astronaut Teachers members (l-r) Joe Baker, a middle school teacher from Cobb County, Ga.; Jim Gerard of A.E.S.P. at Kennedy Space Center; Debi Huffman, an education specialist from Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta; Luther Richardson, a physics teacher at Columbus High School; and Phenix City Intermediate Principal Joe Blevins.

4 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

Phenix City Intermediate School, a NASA Explorer School, helped develop the “Heat Flow in Microgravity” experiment that will be conducted aboard a NASA Reduced Gravity plane in August.

The study of heat flow in air, helium, water and oil in weightless conditions is a joint effort that includes Georgia partners Columbus High School and the Challenger Learning Center at Columbus State University’s Coca-Cola Space Science Center. It is funded by the Georgia and Alabama Space Grant Consortia (www.columbus2space.org).

While students act as the project’s ground crew, according to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Phenix City Intermediate Principal Joe Blevins, Columbus High physics teacher Luther Richardson and Challenger Learning Center’s Scott Norman will be aboard the flight.

Blevins said he is deeply honored to have this opportunity.

“I remember watching men walk on the moon when I was 5 years old. Like most boys during that time, I dreamed of becoming an astronaut. This is the closest you can get,” he said.

additional training for principals at lowperforming schools. An increased participation rate also helped increase the number of schools making AYP.

NSBA Calling for 2007 Conference Proposals The National School Boards Association's annual conference provides an opportunity for you to showcase your programs, share your expertise and exchange ideas with fellow educational leaders.

NSBA is now accepting presentation proposals for its 67th annual conference scheduled for April 14-17 in San Francisco. Proposals may be submitted online only at www.nsba.org between April 17 and June 9. For more information, call the NSBA Educational Services Department at 703/838-6729.

Nominations for Magna Awards 2007 Accepted Until October Is your school board striving to creatively meet the unique and changing needs of your community? Then your board may be a prime candidate for the Magna Award.

Now through Oct. 2, 2006, nominations are being accepted for the Magna Awards 2007, a program the American School Board Journal initiated in 1995 to recognize school boards willing to take bold innovative steps to improve educational programs.

A $3,500 cash prize will be awarded to the grand prize winner in three enrollment-size categories. The 2007 winners will be highlighted in the Journal and formally recognized at the National School Boards Association’s annual conference in 2007.

Nomination forms are available online at www.asbj.com/magna. Address questions to Margaret Suslick, Magna Awards coordinator, msuslick@nsba.org, by phone at 703/838-6739 or by fax at 703/549-6719.

Young Volunteers Win Prudential Spirit of Community Awards Two young volunteers from Alabama were among the State Honorees named in the 2006 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program. They will receive $1,000 awards, engraved silver medallions and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., in May 2006.

Kimberly Phares, a 17-year-old junior at Vestavia Hills High School in Vestavia Hills, was honored for her organization of a Habitat for Humanity chapter at her high school. The project has attracted participation from more than 10 percent of the student body. Phares said she “felt satisfaction knowing that we were empowering families who reached out, not for a handout, but Phares for a hammer to build their dreams, one nail at a time.”

Louis Buckalew, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Clark School of Mathematics & Science in Mobile County, has volunteered with several organizations over the past three years to clean up trash along the Gulf Coast shoreline and roadways near his home in Coden. Buckalew initially became involved through his Boy Scout troop, and with the encouragement of his parents, he is now strongly committed to environmental protection. “I find self-satisfaction knowing that I did something to improve or help my community’s environment,” he said.

The 2006 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards selected 102 State Honorees and 234 Distinguished Finalists from thousands of applications representing an array of community service projects. The Distinguished Finalists for Alabama included: • Ryan Hagan, 18, of Vestavia Hills, a senior at Vestavia Hills High School, is president of his city’s Mayor’s Teen Council, which he helped create four years ago.

• Heather Smith, 17, of Grant, a senior at Kate D. Smith DAR High School, helped lead Kuddlies for Kids/Operation Education, which collected stuffed animals, coloring books and crayons for children with developmental disabilities.

• Laura Spurgeon, 17, of Phenix City, a senior at Central High School, created “Graduate with the Arts,” a program that brings arts education to atrisk students.

Distinguished finalists receive an engraved bronze medallion for their impressive spirit of volunteerism.

Calera and Pelham Students Banking on Good Grades Students in Central State Bank’s service area, which includes Calera and Pelham, will earn a $5 deposit into their savings accounts for every report card they bring in with all A’s and B’s.

Assistant Vice President Sharon Anderson told the Associated Press the students

are encouraged to sock away the money to later use for college, but the money belongs to the students.

“We can’t make the kids, of course, use the money for college savings,” Anderson said, but “at the same time, we explain to them how when you put $5 into the account ... it will grow.”

The program launched in October targets students in grades 2-12.

(Continued on page 7) Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 5

Education&the Law The Last Mile on the Road to Unitary Status

By Dale Marsh and Chad Tindol, Marsh, Cotter & Tindol, LLP ost school systems in Alabama are familiar with federal court supervision. Such supervision usually entails a great deal of paperwork, extensive record keeping, intermittent periods of court activity and often longer periods of court inactivity. In our practice, we have even observed gaps in a court record as long as 28 years.

Less well known are the steps to becoming unitary, i.e. ending the desegregation case. Desegregation cases can end with either a whimper or a bang, but they certainly do not end with inactivity.

The final steps in a desegregation case are distinctive from most other lawsuits. In fact, every case is somewhat different.

There are, however, some characteristics that are often shared across the spectrum of cases.

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The Case is a Class Action Throughout the desegregation process, the school system generally deals with the lawyers for the opposing parties — lawyers from the NAACP, private plaintiffs counsel, the Department of Justice or all of the above. The end of the unitary process brings home a fact which may become lost at times. The case is a class action.

In order to obtain a dismissal, the class of persons who are represented (basically, African-American children and their parents) must be notified of the pending dismissal. In the federal courts for our area, this has been accomplished through three basic methods.

• The pending dismissal hearing has been advertised in a local newspaper for a couple of weeks; • Notice has been posted at all school facilities; and • Personal notice has been provided to 6 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

the parents of every child in the system.

Generally, the systems with which we have worked, have tried to do this by sending the notice home in grades or other folders that go to the parents. An alternative would be to simply mail it to the home address of every parent.

The notices are specifically designed to invite comments from the parents and community. Some cases have drawn 100 or more comments. In other instances, the case seemed to fly completely under the radar and few, if any, comments were filed.

The response usually depended on the involvement and interest of community groups. Groups of school supporters could even send positive responses to the court.

Burden of Proof A second peculiar aspect of the end of a desegregation case is the burden of proof.

Because the system has been under a court decree, it must prove its arguments to be dismissed from the decree. In some respects, this requires a system to prove a negative. The system has to show that it is not doing something wrong.

“At some time, we must acknowledge that it has become absurd to assume, without any further proof, that violations of the Constitution dating from the days when Lyndon Johnson was president, or earlier, continue to have an appreciable effect upon current operation of schools.” See Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U.S. 467, 506 (1992).

• That the system has demonstrated a “good faith commitment” to the law and court decrees.

The proceeding largely becomes a question of good faith. Has the school system tried to do what is right? In addition to the activities undertaken by the system to comply with its consent decree, there are other ways that many systems have tried to show their good faith, such as keeping in place non-discrimination policies and passing resolutions stating their intent to continue non-discrimination activities in the future.

What Must Be Proved?

In meeting its burden of proof, the school system must basically prove three things: • That it has complied with the court decrees for a reasonable amount of time.

• That the “vestiges of past discrimination have been eliminated to the extent practicable.” This middle element is somewhat difficult to handle at times. What exactly would be vestiges of past discrimination?

Should any conditions that exist today be thought to result from discrimination that has not existed for more than 35 years?

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had this comment:

Marsh

Tindol

Dale Marsh and Chad Tindol have practiced in the firm of Marsh, Cotter & Tindol, LLP, which represents Enterprise, Daleville, Dale County, and Geneva County systems. All four systems are unitary. Marsh is president of the Alabama Council of School Board Attorneys, and Tindol is an attorney with the Office of Counsel at the University of Alabama.

Systems should be careful, however, in promising exactly what they will do in the future. Preferences that may be allowed when a system is trying to correct past discrimination may not necessarily be legal once the system has been declared unitary. In other words, a system does not want to promise what may amount to racial preferences in the future — those could in fact be evidence of what is often termed ‘reverse discrimination.’

How to Prove It? The question of how exactly your system would meet its burden of proof is best answered by your particular board attorney. It is a strategic decision that may vary from court to court, judge to judge and certainly from system to system.

In the cases in which we have acted, however, we have found that the superintendent can typically handle all, or almost all, of the testimonial requirements at the hearing. The superintendent is required, of course, to repeat statements in matters that he learned of outside court. However, it has been our position that this is not in viola-

Alabama Education News...

Continued from page 5

Torchbearer Schools Shine, Embrace the Art of Teaching Twenty-two Alabama public schools from across the state were awarded the prestigious title of Torchbearer School during an April recognition program in Montgomery. The schools were selected for overcoming adversity to exhibit exemplary leadership and student achievement.

“It is my pleasure to commend these 22 outstanding principals who have worked so hard to turn their schools into high-performing schools even though the majority of their students come from high-poverty conditions,” said state Superintendent of Education Dr. Joe Morton.

Torchbearer Schools “are perfect examples of the positive environment created when principals, faculties, and staff members work together to set common goals and

tion of the hearsay rule.

The Federal Rules of Evidence provide a particular exception to hearsay which fits

“At some time, we must acknowledge that it has become absurd to assume, without any further proof, that violations of the Constitution dating from the days when Lyndon Johnson was president, or earlier, continue to have an appreciable effect upon current operation of schools.”

— Justice Antonin Scalia Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U.S. 467, 506 (1992).

meet the same high expectations,” said Dr. Tony Thacker of the Alabama Department of Education’s Alabama Leadership Academy.

The 2006 Torchbearer Schools are Athens Elementary in Athens; Birmingham’s Councill Elementary; Cleburne County’s Fruithurst Elementary; Cullman County’s Jones Chapel Elementary; Dothan’s Heard and Cloverdale elementary schools; Escambia County’s Huxford Elementary; Eufaula’s Western Heights and Bluff City elementary schools; Gadsden’s Walnut Park Elementary; Jackson County’s Dutton Elementary; Jasper’s West Jasper Elementary; Mobile County’s Peter F. Alba, Calcedeaver, McDavidJones, W.C. Griggs, Saint Elmo and J. E. Turner elementary schools; Montgomery County’s Highland Avenue Elementary; Phenix City’s Westview Elementary; Talladega County’s Childersburg Elementary; and Walker County’s Townley Junior High.

For more information on the Torchbearer Schools Program, contact Dr. Tony Thacker at 334/353-4180 or tthacker@alsde.edu. ▲

these types of cases. The exception for “public records and reports” allows not only documents, but “statements, or data compilations, in any form,” as long as those set out activities of the system or are “matters observed pursuant to duty.” Further, in “civil actions and proceedings,” the rule allows “factual findings resulting from an investigation made pursuant to authority granted by law ...” FRE 803(8). It has been our position that this provision allows a superintendent to testify about matters that he learned of from others because it is his duty to learn of those matters under Alabama law, and it was his duty to learn of those matters under the court order requiring the system to seek unitary status.

Evidence decisions are within the discretion of the particular judge.

Conclusion The process of becoming unitary is different from your average court case, but it is a process that many systems have followed. Moreover, it is a process that should be followed for the good of the system and the children that it serves. ▲

HELP! Who has to file an Economic Statement of Interests?

Q A

All managerial level public employees who make $50,000 per year and all candidates seeking public office are required by the state ethics law under Section 36-25-14 of the Alabama Code to file a Statement of Economic Interests with the State Ethics Commission. At the beginning of each year, the commission sends a letter to Alabama entities with public employees who must file. For more information on this requirement, call 334/242-2997.

— Denise L. Berkhalter

Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 7

Science Keeps America Competitive Part Two of a Two-Part Series

By Denise L. Berkhalter

Global competition was once the stuff of science fiction.

Not anymore.

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esearchers and scientists oceans away can now collaborate on ways to advance scientific knowledge.

Robotic explorers travel the galaxy, beaming data down to eager scientists on Earth.

Boom boxes on shoulders have given way to handheld digital music players. Food can be genetically modified. Once-invasive surgeries are now outpatient procedures.

The world has changed thanks to dynamic developments in science and the mastery of math and technology.

President George W. Bush called for improved efforts in math, science and technological education in his 2006 State of the Union address. If America is to remain on the cutting edge in math, science and technology, he believes, it has to continue producing the best and brightest in these fields.

“Whether filling white collar or blue collar jobs, employers today need workers with ‘pocket protector’ skills — creative problem-solvers with strong backgrounds in math and science,” U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings

said in a recent news report.

This final installment of a two-part series provides examples of Alabama’s math and science education programs already under way well before Bush announced his $380 million American Competitiveness Initiative.

When Spellings visited the Yellowhammer State recently, Gov. Bob Riley praised Alabama’s standing as the only state that requires four years of math and science in high school. He also applauded the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative, which is profiled in this issue of Alabama School Boards, along with the Alabama Academy of Science.

Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative Multiplies Statewide

By Steve Ricks

The Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) is spreading across Alabama, having received $15 million in state funding in fiscal year 2006. AMSTI is the state Department of Education’s initiative to help improve math and science teaching and learning statewide.

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aunched as a pilot program in 2000, AMSTI was designed by a blue ribbon committee of business leaders, k-12 educators and university representatives. It’s already producing major gains in student achievement in schools where it is being implemented.

Representatives from Florida recently visited Alabama to study the program and, with assistance from the SDE in Alabama, will begin implementing a version of the 8 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

program in 14 Florida school districts this summer.

How Does it Work?

To become an AMSTI school and receive the services of the program, all of the math and science teachers and administrators in a school must attend a two-week long summer institute for two consecutive summers.

This involves the entire faculty in elementary schools where classrooms are self-con-

tained. During the training, teachers are grouped according to subject and grade levels, as they learn specific activities and strategies they will use to teach the content mandated by Alabama state standards.

AMSTI Summer Institutes also help deepen teachers’ content knowledge. The program has been so successful that many universities now offer math and science credit to participants.

Once teachers complete the Summer Institute, they are provided essentially all of the equipment, supplies and resources needed to effectively engage their students with hands-on, activity-based learning.

Examples of resources provided include math manipulatives, labware, chemicals, graphing calculators, global positioning devices, weather monitoring apparatus — over 6,000 different items in grades k-12.

Most of the equipment and resources arrive packaged in “kits” ready for immediate use by the teacher and students. Once students complete the activities from a kit, it is returned to a materials center where it is refurbished to “like new” condition.

Another kit targeting the next activities to be undertaken is delivered to the teacher, and the newly refurbished kit is sent to another teacher.

will have AMSTI sites providing Summer Institutes. Two additional start-up sites will begin developing lead teachers in schools that hope to become AMSTI schools the following year. Three regions of the state are still without AMSTI sites.

Just as the Alabama Reading Initiative, predecessor to AMSTI, was able to sidestep many of the debates raging over reading

Mentoring and Support Are Key to Success AMSTI was designed as a comprehensive program to provide the classroom training, materials and on-site support required for effective instruction and the needed infrastructure to ensure the program is sustained. Included in the AMSTI design are learning teams, local school lead math and science teachers, school implementation teams and Internet-based support.

After the Summer Institute, AMSTI math and science specialists who are essentially master teachers, visit the teachers’ classrooms where they serve as mentors to help them implement what they learned during the summer. Such support is vital for teachers to become comfortable and skilled in the hands-on learning that AMSTI advocates.

AMSTI is implemented regionally through AMSTI sites since each inservice center region must have a comprehensive materials distribution and refurbishment center and provide the math and science specialists to mentor in the local schools.

This summer, six of the state’s 11 regions

AMSTI’s Focus AMSTI focuses on three critical services that are needed for success in math and science classrooms: 1. Targeted and sustained professional development; 2. Equipment and materials to teach using a hands-on approach; and 3. At-school mentoring of teachers as they implement new strategies.

instruction, AMSTI has avoided many of the math and science wars in which other math and science initiatives have become embroiled. AMSTI takes a more moderate, inclusive approach, backed by research from both sides. For instance, AMSTI math teachers are quick to point out that there is no “fuzzy math” in the program and that students are expected to master all basic math skills. At the same time, AMSTI emphasizes that it is also important for students to understand the reasoning behind the computations they are performing and to be able to apply their knowledge in both similar and novel situations.

Proven Results AMSTI’s success is seen in both the hard numbers from its external evaluation and from the support and praise the program receives from teachers, students and administrators. AMSTI schools show major gains in student achievement as measured by the Stanford Achievement Test, the Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test and the Alabama High School Graduation Exam.

Similarly, teachers are eager to have AMSTI services offered in their region.

school to see if funding for AMSTI should continue, 1,100 students lined the roadside holding homemade signs proclaiming, “We love AMSTI!” AMSTI has the potential to make major changes in the way that math and science are taught in Alabama. As a result of the hands-on learning program, students and teachers will be better prepared with greater math and science literacy. Based on the number of students now saying they enjoy math and science, many more students will likely choose careers in these fields. It is hoped that funding for this program will continue to grow until all students have access to this proven initiative. ▲

Going Forward Perhaps the best example of AMSTI’s success can be found at Dodge Elementary School in Mobile County. When the school heard that Gov. Riley would be visiting the

Ricks

Steve Ricks serves as the state Department of Education’s AMSTI coordinator.

Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 9

Alabama Academy of Science Sparks Competition

By Dr. Ellen Banks Buckner

The Alabama Academy of Science (AAS) is an interdisciplinary organization of scientists and educators from across Alabama.

It has over an 80-year history of encouraging science students through its annual meeting, student presentations, grants and awards.

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he Alabama Academy of Science was organized in Mobile in 1924 with 40 charter members representing academic and governmental interests in science. In 2005, the membership consisted of more than 600 persons from all parts of the state.

As science and technology have developed over the years, the academy has broadened its activities and its influence, especially in research and education. In 1930, it began publishing the Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science, and it established the Alabama Junior Academy of Science in 1933. It started a scholarship program in 1946, and the academy began sponsoring several regional science fairs in 1954. A new visiting scientist program for high schools started in 1985, in 1989 a science teacher fellowship was instigated, and

The 2006 Gorgas Scholarship Competition winners and runners up were (l-r): Lacy Casteel (4th alternate), Diana Patterson (3rd alternate), Mingwei Gu (2nd alternate), Warren Matthew Chan (1st alternate), and Jennifer Ann Taylor (winner).

in 1990 the Science Olympiad began.

Since 1927 the academy has been affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Among the academy’s many objectives are the promotion of the development of interest in scientific matters in the state as well as interest in and study of science by young Alabamians and awarding scholarships to the state’s deserving youth.

In fulfilling these objectives, the academy is devoted to nearly all aspects of science and science education. For example, the AAS sponsors the Alabama Junior Academy of Science (AJAS) for high school science clubs, which meet jointly every spring at a college campus in Alabama. The AAS and AJAS sponsor annual competitions for students to present their scientific work.

ON THE WEB: Complete information on the Alabama Academy of Science and its affiliated activities can be found at the following Web sites: • Alabama Academy of Science: www.alabamaacademyofscience.org/ For details about the Alabama Junior Academy of Science: Contact AJAS State Counselor B. J. Bateman, 334/670-3572 or 334/566-5317 or bbateman@troy.edu • Gorgas Scholarship Competition: www.gorgasscholar.org/ • Regional Science Fairs: www.uah.edu/ASEF/ • Science Olympiad: http://aso.jsu.edu/

Competitions are open, and Alabama students are encouraged to enter. The Alabama Academy of Science also invites all educators to join in its programs and support its activities, which include: • Alabama Junior Academy of Science: AJAS functions under the Alabama Academy of Science and the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, whose purpose is to encourage high school student science research. This activity culminates in paper competition at the local, regional, state, national and international levels.

Winners may receive additional scholarships and may apply to the Intel National Science Talent Search and the Gorgas Alabama Science Scholar Search in their senior year of high school. Any high school science club can join AJAS for $15 per year plus similar regional dues.

• The Junior Science and Humanities Symposium: Supported by the U. S. Army, this symposium is primarily a paper-reading contest whose winners are given opportunities to participate in the National Symposium. The Alabama Junior Academy of Science also publishes a journal, which includes research papers written by high school (Continued on page 30)

10 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

FACE TO F ACE with Rep. Seth Hammett In this third installment of the Face-to-Face series, AASB District III Director Jeff Bailey speaks with fellow Covington countian Seth Hammett, speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives. School board members speak one on one with legislators in this series as part of AASB's grassroots Leader to Leader program. A trusted resource to lawmakers on education policy and issues, Leader to Leader also furthers school board members' role as a voice for schoolchildren and public education. ▲ Bailey: We appreciate all you do and continue to do for us here

in Covington County and statewide in education. You’ve been a real advocate for us, and we appreciate that.

■ Hammett: I certainly feel very strongly about supporting public education. I’m glad we’re making some progress. ▲ Bailey: Well, we feel like we’re heading in the right direction.

Hopefully that’ll continue.

■ Hammett: I do, too. I really do. ▲ Bailey: What responsibilities do you have in your role as

speaker of the House?

■ Hammett: The speaker is elected by the members and has the responsibility following that election to make appointments of members to the committees. The speaker names the chairs and vice chairs of standing committees, assigns bills to committee and assists the Rules Committee in putting together the list of bills called the special order calendar that the House considers each day that the Legislature’s in session. ▲ Bailey: Since you are a key leader in the Legislature, what has

been the most important education issue you’ve seen this session?

■ Hammett: We passed what is without question the best budget for education in my history here in Montgomery. It’s an outstanding budget. It provides money for additional instruction days — going from 175 to 180 class days of instruction. So, Alabama will be at the Southeastern average in terms of class days of instruction. The budget also provides additional money

for transportation, for technology, for textbooks, for teacher training and for classroom supplies. It provides additional funds for the Alabama Reading Initiative and for the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative. I really do believe it’s an outstanding budget.

In that same regard, Jeff, we have also set aside approximately $500 million total in our rainy day account and our Proration Prevention Account. The amount of $250 million has been repaid to the rainy day account, and the Proration Prevention Account has $248 million in it. If there is a downturn in economic activity, schools should not suffer from cuts called proration. ▲ Bailey: We’re better prepared than we have been for quite

some time.

■ Hammett: Absolutely. ▲ Bailey: There had been talk about changing reappraisals back

to every four years instead of the annual reappraisals. What are your thoughts about that?

■ Hammett: There have been several different bills filed, one is a statewide bill that would require the state to revert to a fouryear cycle, and there were other local bills filed. None of those passed either body. I think it’s the feeling of the vast majority of the members of the Legislature that the governor decided to go to annual reappraisal and did so through executive order, and he has the right as governor to change it back to every four years.

(Continued on page 26) Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 11

FROM “GOOD TO GREAT:”

Using Advanced Leadership Skills

By Jim Methvin, AASB President

At the AASB Board of Directors retreat in March, board members participated in a program to increase leadership skills. A unique aspect of the session was that the members conducted the entire program. No outside speaker facilitated. At the conclusion, the directors recommended use of this leadership program to school board members statewide. You may want to consider something similar for your board’s next retreat.

C

onsider and compare our retreat’s objectives, listed below, to your board’s needs.

• Provide an opportunity to increase leadership skills.

• Provide a new interpretation of leadership, taken from successful business and social sector agencies, and apply it to school board leadership.

• Use a learning plan that allows members to contribute and actively participate.

• Encourage collaboration among participants.

• Ask each board member to identify and review his or her particular leadership style.

The program focused on Jim Collins’ new book, Good to Great and the Social Sectors. Collins calls it a monograph, which he wrote to supplement his earlier successful book. The monograph is written for social sector agencies, including school boards. In December 2005, Newsweek stated, “Jim Collins’ best seller is that rare business book that finds an audience beyond corporations.”

Instead of waiting to add the social sector information to the original book’s next edition, this monograph made it available now.

12 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

The 35-page book is divided into five leadership areas called “issues.” Each issue has direct and indirect references that are very applicable to school boards.

The Retreat The directors received a copy of Collins’ book to read before the retreat.

They were divided into groups of three, each of which was assigned one of the issues. Each group was asked to study, discuss and be prepared to answer questions regarding their issue.

At the retreat, the groups reported on their issues using the following guidelines.

• Summarize and highlight the leadership issue.

• Tell us how the use of this issue differs in the business world versus the social sector.

• Give one or two examples of how the issue can be applied to a school board’s leadership model.

• How can this leadership issue be applied individually or as a whole to the AASB Board of Directors?

• Do you think this leadership issue could be beneficial for AASB’s membership?

“We can find pockets of greatness in nearly every difficult environment— whether it be the airline industry, education ... or government-funded agencies. Every institution has its unique set of irrational and difficult constraints, yet some make a leap while others facing the same environmental challenges do not. This is perhaps the single most important point in all of Good to Great. Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.”

– Excerpt from Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great and the Social Sectors”

The Follow-up As a follow-up exercise, the directors accessed a Web site related to the Good to Great theories. Each director took a short test on his or her leadership and management style and experiences. Each director’s answers were categorized by the Web site and related their individual leadership styles to the issues in Collins’ book. This particular leadership test is unfortunately no longer available on the TalentSmart Web site.

Impressions Each director clearly benefited from both the experience and the content of Collins’ book. It was surprising how the groups took ownership of their particular issues and strongly promoted them to the entire board.

This was a fun, yet serious, exercise that every member seemed to thoroughly enjoy delving into enthusiastically!

How This Exercise Relates to AASB’s ‘Focus’ Goal In my December 2005 column in Alabama School Boards, I outlined this retreat’s goals and said we wanted to determine a “focus” for the next two years. At the retreat, the board discussed and considered establishing a focus on ways to enhance our school boards’ role in addressing and improving student learning. We believe the focus must be on learning before moving on to address achievement. We decided to announce this “focus” on learning in the future after further study and an analysis of AASB’s strategic plan. Of special note: The board also agreed at the retreat that any statement of focus will incorporate Jim Collins’ leadership principles.

I believe the leadership “issues” conveyed in Good to Great and the Social Sectors will help make the AASB Board of Directors become “good-to-great leaders” and will, in turn, benefit the entire association.

At the Table Lisa Lindsey School Board Sheffield City Board of Education Hometown Sheffield A Board Member for 12 years. I’m in my third term Books at Bedside Let’s see, I have my Bible and “Hinds’ Feet on High Places” by Hannah Hurnard, which is a classic. You can count on me having a Mary Higgins Clark mystery at my bedside. I now have her novel “Nighttime is my Time.”

Inspiration My father, Travis Turberville, served on the Sheffield school board 15 years before I did. He has always been very civic-minded. My sons, Travis and Thomas, also inspire me to serve my community.

Motto as a Board Member Poverty and being poorly educated do not need to go hand in hand.

Walter Mitty Fantasy I would love for the world to be a place where there is no poverty, no abuse, no hate and no prejudice.

Advice to New Board Members To forget everything they thought they knew about being a board member and to learn what it really means to be a board member. I highly recommend AASB’s new board member training (Leadership I and Leadership II).

Greatest Accomplishment as a Board Member Selecting a superintendent is a very big undertaking and is, I think, the most important thing a school board does. In my second term, we conducted a very successful superintendent search.

Pet Peeve as a Board Member The underfunding of special education.

A Recommendation Clearly, the new leadership information in Jim Collins’ monograph would benefit school board members and help them build momentum to achieve greatness for their school boards. ▲ Jim Methvin is president of AASB and vice chairman of the Alabama School of Fine Arts Board of Education.

Reason I Like Being an AASB Member It's an invaluable source of information. Not only does AASB give me the training I need on current issues, it has also been a wonderful educational tool. AASB also helps me feel connected to other school board members across the state.

My Epitaph She loved because He first loved her.

▲

Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 13

Readyfor ‘BIG SCHOOL’

By Denise L. Berkhalter

Though 4-year-olds find their way to the center of attention easily enough, the state recently focused its attention on what this age group needs to succeed in “big school.”

Photo by Anita Patterson Peppers

A

labama Office of School Readiness Director Dr. Trellis Smith Williams said the March 31-April 1 conference was a chance to “applaud the aggressiveness that our state is taking to ensure that pre-kindergarteners are prepared, able and ready to experience success as they enter school.”

Alabama is progressing in the pre-K arena. Its state-funded program is still young — launched in 1996 as a pilot study and expanded into a statewide program in 2000. Last year the program ranked 37th nationally for the number of children it served, and Alabama is among five states that met nine of 10 quality benchmarks studied by the National Institute for Early Education Research. Arkansas was the only state to meet all quality indicators, which range from teacher and assistant teacher training and education levels to staff-child ratios and site monitoring visits. Alabama didn’t meet the “teachers with specialized pre-K training” benchmark.

Alabama is, however, paying particular attention to transitioning pre-kindergarten children into school. Transitioning is a complex process, according to the conference’s “Transition to Kindergarten: From Many Paths to School” panel, because of the increased demands on preschool children.

The panel moderated by the state Department of Human Resources’ Maria Dacus included: DeLyne Hicks, education coordinator, Jefferson County 14 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

“Celebrate Early Success: A Focus on 4-Year-Olds” was the theme of Alabama’s first pre-kindergarten conference, which drew nearly 800 preschool educators, administrators, staff and others to Auburn University Montgomery.

Committee for Economic Opportunity (JCCEO) Head Start and Early Head Start in Birmingham; Rosemary Mobley, federal programs specialist, state Department of Education, Dr. Leland L. Dishman, superintendent, Boaz Board of Education; and Patrice J. Dawson, education specialist, Jefferson County Child Development Council Inc. Thirty years ago, panelists said, kindergarten teachers appreciated an incoming class that could simply go to the restroom unattended, button and zip their own clothes and recognize their names.

Not true today.

“We think our children are so capable of adapting to any situation that we can suit them up in a new outfit, give them some pencils, crayons and markers and send them off,” said Hicks, who worked with Mobley and others to produce the state Department of Children’s Affairs publication “From Many Paths to School.”

“We think our children are so capable of adapting to any situation that we can suit them up in a new outfit, give them some pencils, crayons and markers and send them off.”

—DeLyne Hicks

“Communication, communication, communication.

I don’t care if we reach consensus, but we’re going to communicate. Life’s transitions are going to happen, and that lesson starts with these little guys.”

— Dr. Leland L. Dishman

“Now our children also need to know the majority of the letters of the alphabet, have some sound and symbol recognition, be able to govern their behavior, work well and play well with others, rote count and count rationally and a gazillion other skills,” Hicks explained.

Combine these demands with the varying skill levels preschool children bring with them, and it’s no wonder kindergarten teachers are a bit apprehensive, Hicks said.

“They’re coming from family day care homes. They’re coming from Head Start centers and from child development centers. They are coming from state-funded pre-K programs.

They’re coming from gran-gran and paw-paw’s house. They are coming from everywhere with a variety of backgrounds,” Hicks said. “This kindergarten teacher is just hoping they come knowing some things.”

So what can be done to smooth the transition and make teachers and children feel more confident and competent and help parents more easily navigate the system?

The panel said stakeholders must work as a team to coordinate plans and efforts, communicate and meet with each other and participate in joint training to make it easier for children and parents to let go, get past uncertainty and adapt.

It’s also important for school systems to understand the law, Mobley said. Title I regulations require: • A plan for transition of children into public schools, • Inclusion of parents in the transition plan, and • Joint training with early childhood programs.

“A lot of times these plans are nicely written, such as ‘teachers will visit’ or ‘there will be a chance for the children to come and visit the classroom,’” Mobley said. “Apparently we have to do more, because these plans are sometimes just written activities and really not to the type of quality they should be.”

Strong plans do more than outline activities that expose preschoolers to classrooms and buses. These plans should also include such details as records transferal; avoiding potential barriers such as language; and transitioning training for parents as well as preschool and public school staff.

When properly facilitated, the transition process should grow confidence and decrease stress in children and teachers; improve relations with parents by building trust and enhancing pride and commitment; expand knowledge and appreciation of early childhood programs; and increase parental and community support.

“Communication is the key,” Mobley emphasized. “I’ve done training with kindergarten and preschool teachers and just getting in the room and talking to each other is worth far more than anything put on paper because of the world of records you have and rules you must follow.”

Using Hicks’ example of the tearful first-day-of-kindergarten student clinging to the teacher’s leg, Dawson said that’s why “it’s important to maintain accurate records.”

Preschool teachers record children’s progress as they participate in developmentally appropriate activities. “We share these records with the kindergarten teacher, so when that child is attached at the leg, the teacher knows what the child is likely to respond to.”

Lines of communication with kindergarten teachers are kept open after each completed transition, Dawson said. The goal is to find out what elements of kindergarten preparation work and what program improvements may be necessary.

“Communication, communication, communication,” Dishman repeated the day’s mantra. “I don’t care if we reach consensus, but we’re going to communicate.”

Dishman advocates reaching out to communities to help guide preschool age children along the pathway to kindergarten.

If the children are kept at home, for example, he encourages parents to take such steps as labeling furniture, so youngsters eventually recognize such words as “door” and “chair.”

“Life’s transitions are going to happen, and that lesson starts with these little guys,” Dishman said. Eventually, the preschoolers will grow accustomed to managing and adjusting to change.

“If you do a procedure long enough, it becomes routine,” Dishman added, using the leaping orca at SeaWorld as an example.

“Think about how they taught that orca to jump 20 feet over that rope. Traditionally, if we were doing that in education, we’d say, ‘Well, we have to have a philosophy and a mission statement.’ If he didn’t jump, we’d keep him after school or send a note home to the parents,” Dishman said amid laughs.

(Continued on page 27) Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 15

Lupton Junior High School Students Say

‘I-CAN’

By Denise L. Berkhalter

Students at Lupton Junior High, a Walker County pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school, know they are capable of learning and succeeding. At least, they should. From the very first day they step onto campus, they are inundated with “I-CAN.” “That’s our mission statement,” said longtime Principal Brenda O. McAdams. “I is for ‘innovative curriculum,’ C is for ‘competent staff,’ A stands for ‘academically prepared students’ and the N is for ‘nurturing environment.’”

About the Series: Alabama's slowly but steadily rising student poverty rate is a daunting issue. In this yearlong series devoted to the challenges of helping high poverty schools become high achieving schools, ASB reports on what school boards must know and do to help low income students get a quality education. Each installment profiles a high poverty/ high performing school to offer insight and inspiration.

16 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

L

upton School is in the small rural town of Nauvoo, where residents live with only memories of the once bustling mining industry. Many mines have closed or relocated, resulting in many low-income families. The median household income borders $22,000, and nearly 21 percent of families live below the poverty line. Nearly 58 percent of Lupton’s 508 students eat free or reducedprice lunches. The present building, originally constructed in 1962, is a patchwork of additions resulting from the days when Old Lupton School merged with Prospect School. The school originally served grades 1-9 and about 200 children. Lupton’s student population swelled when Thach, Redmill and Nauvoo schools closed.

Still Lupton School prevails. It makes adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind. It’s attendance rate is nearly 97 percent. Lupton has been an Honor Roll School since the program’s initiation. In addition, the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools selected Lupton Junior High School as the middle school awardee for its 2005-2006 Banner School honor. Only five Banner Schools were chosen by the organization of school administrators for having outstanding educational programs that serve as models for other schools.

On last year’s Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test (ARMT), nearly 92 percent of fifth- and sixth-graders and 96 percent of seventh-graders met or exceeded academic standards in reading, while 88 percent of seventh- and

fifth-graders met or exceeded math standards. More than 86 percent of eightgraders met or exceeded math and reading academic standards on the ARMT. Of fourth-graders taking the test, more than 85 percent met or exceeded standards in reading, and nearly 82 percent did the same in math. Of third-graders, 82 percent passed or aced the ARMT. Fifth-graders gained a full 20 percent over 2003-2004 on the Alabama Direct Assessment of Writing in holistic composition, with nearly 90 percent of fifthgraders meeting or exceeding standards.

Lupton’s seventh grade ranked in the 74th percentile in reading and the 70th percentile in science, while eighthgraders ranked in the 78th percentile in math on the Stanford Achievement Test for 2004-2005.

“We were 11th in the state two years ago in writing, but our writing scores are really high now, particularly in fifth and seventh grade. We really start writing in kindergarten,” said McAdams. “Our (assessment) scores generally go up and get better from year to year. There’s a foundation laid, and we build on it. We are very proud of that and our teachers.”

Lupton School’s faculty includes 25 classroom teachers, three special education teachers, a librarian, a reading coach and an assistant principal. All classroom teachers are highly qualified, and only one special education teacher is still seeking that status.

“Our teachers work so hard, and they really deserve the credit for our success,” McAdams said. “Teachers are under so much stress, so I try to keep our

teachers motivated and focused. They are just the backbone of school.”

Many Lupton staff and faculty are also the backbones of the community. A number of them grew up and attended school at or near Lupton School. Before and after the school bell rings, they take on such community roles as civic leaders, church members, after school tutors and coaches.

On a recent morning, Cozette Everett, the fifth-grade math and English teacher, stood in the hallway next to Brian Lawson, the fifth-grade social studies and science teacher. They leaned against the wall on either side of a green door that assured visitors they were in the fourth- and fifth-grade hall. Grades K-1 are behind yellow doors.

Doors for grades 2 and 3 are red, while doors on the hall for grades 6-8 are blue.

“Blue and white runs through my veins,” Everett cheered the school’s colors. “I love this place. This is where I grew up. These are my people, my friends.”

Like most teachers Everett finds her quest to make sure no child is ever left behind a tough one. But it’s a labor of love.

“I take a deep breath, and say the grass is green, the sky is blue,” she said jokingly.

“For the time my students are here, I try to make them feel safe, secure and assure them they can succeed and accomplish things.

They are in control of their destinies.”

One of only four male teachers at Lupton, Lawson said he goes home sometimes with a sore shoulder. He is quite pleased about it.

“Students walk by and give me a friendly punch on the shoulder and say, ‘Hey!’ They see me as the big brother they don’t have or the father figure they’ve never seen,” Lawson said. “If there’s someone to give you hope, to look up to, it’s great. A lot of times that someone may be me. I like that part of my job. It’s pretty rewarding.”

The rewards of the job have kept McAdams, who has two degrees from the University of Alabama, at Lupton School for 34 years as a teacher and now as principal.

McAdams points to a willing and supportive community and Parent-Teacher Organization that has even funded and invested sweat-equity in a new gymnasium, playground and ball field for the expanding school. She said the school and community take great pride in Lupton’s academic reputation. She loves rooting for Lupton’s volleyball, basketball, softball, baseball and quiz bowl teams.

McAdams is also quite pleased with students’ participation in K-Kids, Builders Club, Beta Club and Student Council.

Lupton’s positive behavior program gives free T-shirts to students “caught being good.” There is a computer lab and more than 5,000 books in the library that stands out with its deep sea mural.

“We’re also going into our third year as

an Alabama Reading Initiative School, and we love it. Our reading coach, Stephanie Trice, is just wonderful. The program has been a real asset to our school,” McAdams said.

Shortly after the recess bell rang, McAdams stopped seventh-grader Peyton Smith in the hallway. “And we’re proud of her, too. This is our county spelling bee winner.”

The 12-year-old beamed and told her principal about dreams of playing softball at the University of Alabama and studying to become a doctor.

“I like the people who go to school here and the staff. Everybody’s really, really nice,” Smith said. As she headed to class, two boys parked buckets of crushed soda cans next to the lockers and rushed to Gary Haynes’ social studies class.

Haynes, who teaches seventh and eighth grade and is one of four junior high teachers at Lupton, explained.

“We’ve raised a couple hundred dollars so far selling aluminum cans,” he said. The students raise money to subsidize field trips to historic sites, such as the one they took to the antebellum Waverly Mansion in Mississippi. Without his instruction, the students left Haynes’ classroom, lined up and headed to the computer lab.

(Continued on page 18)

Melinda Wakefield's firstgrade class poses in front of Lupton Junior High School's motto.

Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 17

"Teachers are under so much stress. I try to keep our teachers motivated and focused. They are the backbone of the school."

— Brenda O. McAdams, Principal, Lupton Junior High School

“I try to make it interesting and engage them with activities,” said Haynes, whose fascination with history and the social sciences seems contagious. He also works closely with the other junior high teachers.

Next door to his classroom is Sabrina Jaye’s seventh- and eighth-grade English and language arts class. On her walls hang photographs she borrowed from Haynes that depict the horrors of the Holocaust.

“We help each other,” Haynes said. “She keeps me straight.”

Jaye’s students learn by reading novels, through group work, doing projects such as creating biographical Powerpoints and by taking field trips, such as a recent outing to the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham.

“That was cool,” Jaye’s students shouted as they recounted the dramatic interpretations of five short stories: “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Caveleras County,” “The Tell Tale Heart,” “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Necklace.”

That excitement is why Jaye teaches. “I had a young special needs student who found it difficult to connect. One day, he said, ‘Well, Ms. Jaye, it’s obvious.’ I realized he was listening. He was learning. He got it.

To see kids learn and former students come back to thank you, you know it’s worth it.”

Jaye, who has taught ninth, 10th and 11th grades, sees it as her duty to help 18 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

bridge students from middle school to high school. “I know what they have to have, and I gear everything around them learning what they need to know to be successful in high school.”

Principal McAdams sees a bright future for the school though she faces daily financial challenges and the difficulty of distributing funds equitably and sorting through scheduling snafus for such a wide range of grade levels. She’s also thinking about ways to expose Lupton’s low-income students to a world many of them may otherwise never experience.

A local high school band director and a musician voluntarily teach music to Lupton students. Librarian Debra Deason is always looking for software and literary materials beneficial to students. Lupton’s reading coach even secured a grant from the Birmingham Festival of Arts to have a Japanese Arts Festival in the school gym.

As part of the cultural experience, students wrote haikus, did origami, toured Japanese gardens and ate at a Japanese steakhouse.

“There’s a world out there, and they need to be exposed to that world,” McAdams said. “So, we have to take them to the world or bring the world ▲ to them.”

Matching the Success Lupton Junior High School Principal Brenda O. McAdams credits teachers for her school's success. Dedicated veteran teachers are reenergized when they share their expertise and solid skills with young, eager teachers.

McAdams advises principals seeking to replicate her school's success to: • Learn to work with the funds available.

• Apply for grants.

• Get your community's support and encourage their involvement.

• Have a schoolwide commitment. "Our school staff — from the custodians to the aides to the secretarial staff — everybody really works together. They have an interest in this community."

• Utilize personal strengths. "One of our special education teachers is a licensed practical nurse. Our system also requires coaches and P.E. and persons trained in CPR." • Get an assistant principal. "Ours came onboard last year in November and has been a real blessing."

• Tap into teachers' leadership potential. "I can count on my teachers to take up things and handle them."

• Be an advocate for the child.

• Find a veteran administrator to mentor you. "I was privileged to work with Mr. Glenn Braden for several years before taking the leadership role at Lupton. Mr. Braden taught me the skills necessary to become an effective leader, and for that I am very grateful."

• Love it. "If you don't love it, I don't think you can give it 100 percent."

— Brenda O. McAdams

From the Staff’s Perspective...

By Denise L. Berkhalter ifth-grade teacher Nancy Cain of Jasper says she’s been “coming home” to Lupton Junior High School in Walker County for 24 years.

“Coming to work really is like coming home every day. I love it,” said Cain, who had taught first grade at Lupton for 16 years. The reading and language arts teacher is now educating the children of former students. She even taught three of Lupton’s teachers, who tell her “all the time I have to stop calling them ‘baby.’”

As a veteran teacher, Cain takes her young colleagues under her wing. “I give them advice,” she explained, “and share all the materials I have collected over 16 years.”

One bit of advice she has given her former students and other new teachers is to discard any preconceived notions about teaching as an easy profession.

There are mountains of paperwork.

Helping children master skills on their level isn’t easy. Discipline starts with classroom teachers, and the 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. work day is more the exception than the rule, she said.

“New teachers often don’t realize the inner workings of this job. If you really want to do a good job, the teacher has to be dedicated,” Cain said. “That means you don’t always have evenings and weekends off. I’m here until 4:30 and as late as 8 at night sometimes.”

Cain, whose classroom is a colorful explosion of educational displays, admits she has somewhat of a reputation as the Lupton family jokester.

“That’s the key to this school,” she said, pointing to Principal Brenda O. McAdams. “The principal, the faculty, the staff and the community all work together. If someone is hurting, having a baby, needs our help or whatever, we all band together and back each other.

We like and respect each other. That’s why we work so well together.”

At faculty meetings, teachers in the higher grades communicate any areas of instruction they think may need to be

F

“That's the key to this school.

The principal, the faculty, the staff and the community all work together.”

— Nancy Cain

strengthened in the lower grades. Cain listens intently.

“We meet as a faculty to discuss things like that, and we take a look at the latest and brightest techniques to improve those areas,” Cain explained. “I feel a responsibility to do everything I can to help prepare my students for the next grade. I try to lay the foundation for the skills they need to progress.”

Cain said she starts her day with a homeroom class. Grades 5-8 at Lupton are departmentalized. Character education is the course of the day in homeroom. Afterward, she has three fifthgrade classes. In the afternoons after P.E., she turns her attention to interventions and tutoring. She ends her day with a 30-minute block to help with homework and provide students oneon-one time. She even tutors first- and second-graders after school because she “missed teaching the little kids how to read, the basics.”

Though McAdams gives teachers all the credit for Lupton Junior High’s academic success, Cain gives McAdams her fair share of praise.

“I respect her as a principal. When you have a strong principal who comes in with new ideas and who says, ‘let’s try this,’ it’s really good,” Cain

said. Those new ideas have included the Accelerated Reader, Effective Schools, Positive Behavior Support and other programs.

Yeah, Cain said, Lupton Junior High’s student body is high poverty and not exposed to much of the world outside of Nauvoo and Jasper. But they have two advantages, as far as Cain can see.

They have a faculty that really cares and a record of success, Cain said.

“Home life is a challenge for some of our students, so I try to not only be their teacher but to be there for them when they need me. We not only teach them basic skills, but we teach morals and how to be good citizens who give back to this community,” Cain said.

Now adults, former students send thank-you cards and letters to Lupton School. Cain even recalled a dentist who sent a $500 check to Lupton as a token of his appreciation.

She sees the faces of those accomplished adults when she looks into the face of a young struggling reader. “I may fuss some days or go off on a tear, but when that struggling reader finally gets it and is reading with confidence, I jump and yell and party. The child is excited, too. That’s what makes it worth it. That’s what I really love.” ▲ Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 19

On a Mission:

TOWNLEY SCHOOL GETS IT ‘WRITE’

By Denise L. Berkhalter

Townley Junior High School in Walker County is on a mission — a MEGA mission.

“The ‘M’ is for motivate, the ‘E’ is for educate, the ‘G’ is for generate and the ‘A’ is for achieve,” explained Dr. Vonda Beaty, principal. “If you can believe it, you can achieve it.”

S

trong outcomes on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) and SAT assessments and the school’s selection as a 2006 Torchbearer School by the state Department of Education convinces Beaty that Townley students really do believe they can achieve.

Beaty was full of confidence when she was recruited for her first principal’s position in June 2003. She had just earned her doctorate from Samford University a month earlier when she was appointed to lead Townley School.

The tiny kindergarten through eighth grade school in Townley has roots extending back to a one-teacher, one-room school established in 1880. Walker County, which is mostly a lesson in rural living, is tucked away in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains just northwest of Birmingham.

Ruth Teaford Baker remembers life as the youngest of 12 children living on a 250-acre farm just 2 miles outside Townley. Underground mines were the lifeblood of the small town, where Baker began attending school in 1933. In those days,

20 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

(Above) In this 1924 Townley School photo, Congressman Tom Bevill is seated on the left of the first row.

(Left) this Townley School photograph was taken in 1915.

Baker said, Townley School served grades 1-11 and was a two-story, white building crowning a hill overlooking the town. A modern school building, which replaced the facility on the hill, burned due to a coal heater fire. The school is now in its third building at the same location.

“When I was a student, the teachers took each child as far as they were capable of going,” said Baker, who also taught at Townley School for 14 years and whose son attended the school in the late ’40s and ’50s. “We were challenged to stretch our goals and study to meet them.”

No challenge was too great. Baker said she remembers the challenge of algebra in the eighth grade, and recalls the principal

as a “great math teacher.”

“The principal was severe and authoritative,” she said, “but he had to be to keep a semblance of order so that teaching could be done.”

Townley Junior High is one of eight elementary through junior high schools for grades K-8 under the auspices of the Walker County Board of Education.

Walker County public schools serve more than 8,000 students in 24 schools.

Beaty’s new job was in a high-poverty, schoolwide Title I school. Nevertheless, Beaty said she “was excited. I could not wait to get started.”

The magnitude of school leadership hit

her in August 2003, when the state Department of Education placed Townley School on academic “watch” because of dismal SAT scores.

“Needless to say, my enthusiasm dampened a little,” Beaty recalled. “However, as the teachers started coming in to meet me over the summer, I could see that this school was filled with winners. The previous principals had done an excellent job of hiring good teachers.”

Townley’s team of winners includes a kindergarten teacher, two first-grade teachers, two second-grade teachers, two thirdgrade teachers and one fourth-grade teacher. A department of three teachers serves grades 5-8, along with a teaching librarian and a teaching principal. The school’s other full-time staffers are the resource teacher, a physical education teacher and one reading coach. The counselor and the speech therapist are part time, and an early intervention teacher comes one day per week.

Beaty’s first task was to put everybody to work identifying problems.

“I really do not know why the scores were sinking, but the faculty and staff were ready to do whatever I asked to bring them up. I learned a lot in the first year,” said Beaty, who also has 20 years of teaching high school math and chemistry under her belt.

“I knew that we had to take the students from their present status to where they needed to be. One of the first things I wanted to do the following year was to implement a good research-based reading program into the kindergarten classes,” she said.

Beaty’s research led her to the Read Well curriculum, which she says has proven to be a worthwhile investment of Title I funds. Read Well was purchased for kindergarten, and to ensure students followed through, it was purchased the following year for first grade. First grade is now in its first year of implementation.

“I am convinced that the program works,” Beaty said.

The schoolwide initiative to improve Townley’s academic status also focused efforts on the library.

“Over the past two years, we have made an effort to stock the library with high interest and cross-curricular books that the children enjoy reading,” Beaty said. “We are also trying to upgrade our classroom libraries.”

Instead of assuming Townley’s students had access to grade-level books, Beaty made sure the school library had these books available.

With the ferocity of their mascot, the tiger, this tiny school of 217 students began achieving high levels of academic success.

In May 2005, all of Townley’s kindergartners reached the benchmark goal set by the DIBELS assessment. In August 2005, 87 percent of first-graders reached benchmark — or were on track for early literacy outcomes.

In the No Child Left Behind arena, Townley Junior High went from a school to watch for trouble to a small school worth modeling. Townley achieved adequately yearly progress (AYP) in 2003-04 and 2004-05.

“Our seventh-grade students have ranked highest in the system for the last two years on the Alabama Assessment of Writing,” Beaty said. “Last year our fourth-grade students scored the highest in the county on the SAT 10 and were 100 percent proficient in both reading and math on the ARMT (Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test).”

These are impressive accomplishments for this school.

The town of Townley consists of lowto middle-income families. Thirty-two percent of the parents who send their kids to Townley have less than a high school education and only 29 percent completed high school. The other 39 percent of parents either attended college or have at least one degree. Most Townley students — 76 percent — qualify for the federal lunch program.

And yet, no excuses are accepted for failure.

“Our teachers now place emphasis on writing at all grade levels,” Beaty said.

“We have a writing plan that incorporates new writing strategies each year. The teachers go to writing workshops, come back and share and implement what they learned.”

From an average SAT percentile rank of 39th, Townley has steadily improved to the 44th percentile in 2003-04 and to the 52nd percentile in 2004-05.

“I realize that we cannot really compare percentiles,” Beaty said. “However, the increase of 13 points in two years indicates that we are doing something right.”

Townley Junior High School’s “tiger pride” seems to permeate not only the school — (Continued on page 22)

Townley student Bret Atkins practices reading during free time.

Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 21

where average daily attendance is at 96 percent — but the Townley community as well.

“Townley School has the total respect and support of the community. It is one of the best-kept secrets in Walker County,” Baker said, adding that many students

from the school go on to earn honors in high school and college.

“The campus is a beehive of activities with a strong principal in charge and good, quality teachers in the classrooms.

The parents volunteer in many areas in

order to give the teachers full time for instruction. All special events are well attended and fully supported,” Baker explained. “Townley School has always stood for excellence, and I do not see this changing in the near future.” ▲

Matching the Success stay once every two weeks to engage in faculty book studies and just talk about learning and specific students. Our teachers never give up on a child.

“One of the first things I wanted to do was to implement a good research-based reading program into the kindergarten classes.”

Townley Junior High School Principal Dr. Vonda Beaty has some tips to offer school boards and superintendents looking to replicate the success Townley has enjoyed.

She attributes the increases in DIBELS, SAT 10 and writing assessment achievement to the following: • A positive, nurturing school climate; • The collaborative and enthusiastic

22 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

— Dr. Vonda Beaty

nature of the faculty and staff to do whatever it takes to reach a common goal; • Research-based programs and intervention methods; and • Our ongoing learning community.

Our teachers are constantly looking for better ways of teaching. We

Beaty's recommendations for reading improvement are to: • Implement a research-based reading curriculum and intervention program.

• Teachers must collaborate vertically and horizontally. Everyone shares a common goal — success.

• Students must know what is expected and have materials to read.

• Everyone, including students' families, must be involved. It is truly a schoolwide/community wide effort.

Teacher and library specialist Brenda Edgil and her fellow Townley Junior High School teachers are actively involved in improving their school.

Here's what they say helps them in their quest: • Instruction is based on student data. Data meetings are every month.

• We involve everyone. The teachers send books home every day. Our new reading coach sends home reading packets during every holiday. The parents have to initial that the students read.

• We are "elbow to elbow" from the top to the bottom and the bottom to the top! Everybody cares about the kids!

• The principal tries her best to get whatever instructional materials are requested.

From the Staff’s Perspective...

By Denise L. Berkhalter

“I have the best of both worlds: inspiring younger children to love to read and working with middle school students to enhance their reading.”

— Brenda Edgil

iownley Junior High is a small school that places big demands on its professional staff. Brenda Edgil, the school’s library media specialist, for example, also teaches English and literature to seventh-graders.

Yet, Edgil doesn’t mind the hectic juggling of library and teaching duties.

Truth be known, she actually likes it.

“I have the best of both worlds: inspiring younger children to love to read and working with middle school students to enhance their reading,” she said.

Edgil begins her school day balancing act in the library. After checkout time for elementary students ends the real fun begins. Small groups of students gather in “literacy circles” and read books that span the curriculum. These circles of students also do a little “four-square writing,” a technique for teaching basic writing skills.

That’s just how her workday starts.

“I have a fixed schedule for kinder-

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garten through second grade in which I do my favorite — storytelling,” she said. “Then it’s off to seventh-grade English and lunch. I incorporate English, literature and writing in that class.

Next, it is back to the library where classes can utilize computers for research and projects.”

When the day is done, there’s time to breathe and recount the day’s rewards.

“The rewards of teaching are helping children set goals and seeing their smiles when those goals are achieved,” she said. “I am always delighted to see the children’s faces as I share my love of books with them.”

Though her writing workshop taught parents to help their children work on writing at home, Edgil said Townley’s success in writing, DIBELS and improved standardized test scores have been a team effort. She said a schoolwide planning committee developed and imple-

mented a writing plan for each grade that outlined specific skills to be taught.

She also credits the principal’s leadership, the teachers’ willingness to work collaboratively and parent involvement for Townley’s writing and reading achievements.

“We are very unique because everyone is a team player with our ultimate goal of being good teachers to our children,” Edgil said. “My principal not only implements innovative ideas but also does hands-on techniques and activities in the classroom to enhance our school’s performance.”

In one such case, Townley’s seventhgrade has outperformed other Walker County schools on the Alabama Writing Assessment for two consecutive years.

Small schools seeking to emulate Townley’s accomplishments should take into account the uniqueness of their students and the dedication of their teachers, Edgil said.

“Since we are a small school and have students from various backgrounds and environments, the challenge is to meet each student’s unique learning style,” Edgil said.

It’s important that educators understand “a child’s mind is our most valuable resource.”

That’s why Edgil has taught at Townley for her entire 32-year career. “It delights me to work with children daily, and the faculty and staff are like my family.”

She has the kind of love for teaching that’s so contagious it has been inherited by her two daughters. “I would like to think that I inspired them to choose education as their profession,” said Edgil, who advises new teachers to “work hard, set high expectations and love the job you’re doing.”

She also encourages novice teachers to add a good recharge to their long todo lists.

“My husband and I like to travel and hike out West, especially Colorado,” she said. “The beautiful scenery and cold weather seem to refresh me.” ▲ Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 23

Teacher Quality Impacts : Student Achievement

& QA

The National School Boards Association's Center for Public Education has examined the link between teacher quality and raising student achievement. A growing body of research shows that student achievement is more heavily influenced by teacher quality than by students' race, class, prior academic record or the school a student attends.

This effect is particularly strong among African-American students and students from low-income families.

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he benefits associated with being taught by good teachers are also cumulative. Research indicates the achievement gap widens each year between students with the most effective teachers and those with least effective teachers. This suggests the most significant gains in student achievement will likely be realized when students receive instruction from good teachers over consecutive years.

Here is a series of questions and answers generated by the Center for Public Education on this subject .

Q. How can attention to teacher quality close achievement gaps — the tendency for some groups of students to achieve less academically than others?

A. Poor and minority students are the least likely group to be taught by teachers with experience, knowledge and credentials, the elements of teacher quality that research demonstrates are strongly associated with high student achievement.

24 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

Research also shows that these students produce the most gains when assigned to effective teachers. Indeed, these findings have led many researchers and analysts to assert that the lack of good teachers is a major contributor to the achievement gap.

A California study suggests that schools hit a “tipping point” when approximately 20 percent of the school faculty is comprised of underqualified teachers — teachers who do not meet minimum state requirements. After this point, schools begin to lose their ability to improve student achievement. The best strategy for closing achievement gaps is to make sure that schools serving poor and minority students have their fair share of qualified teachers.

Q. What are the qualities of an “effective teacher”?

A. Research findings point to four key dimensions of teacher quality: 1. Content knowledge.

2. Teaching experience.

3. Professional certification.

4. Overall academic ability.

It’s important to note that there are individual teachers who are highly effective although they lack one or more of these qualities, just as there are ineffective teachers who have all of them. But on average, the presence rather than absence of these qualities is more likely to produce effective teaching.

Q. What can education leaders do to support efforts to have a highly qualified teacher in every classroom?

A. 1. Recruitment: Step up recruiting efforts to aggressively seek teacher candidates who have strong academic credentials and who have completed a rigorous teacher preparation program. Recruiters could, for example, closely examine transcripts and other records that identify and describe the actual courses that teacher candidates have taken in order to asses the rigor and extent of teacher preparation. They could also ask teacher candidates specific questions about their course requirements and assessments during interviews.

2. Data collection: Explore value-added methods for monitoring teacher effectiveness, such as those used in Texas, North Carolina and other states. Use this data to inform decisions about where to assign teachers, how to staff schools and what supports and professional development are needed to maximize the benefits of having good teachers. Teachers can use value-added data themselves to reflect on their own practices and to assess students’ individual needs.

3. Teacher preparation: Information about effectiveness can help identify teacher education programs that produce better qualified teacher candidates. It can further prompt discussions between state universities and systems regarding ways to ensure that teacher preparation programs explicitly address state and local instructional needs, including helping to increase the supply of teachers in areas of shortage.

4. Professional development and supports: Establish and maintain intensive, long-term induction programs that focus on helping new teachers and teachers new to the system meet challenging professional performance standards. Plan and implement comprehensive, standards-based professional development programs for all teachers that provide continuous access to professional learning activities specifically tailored to teacher needs and system priorities.

Q. What is the potential of professional development as a strategy to improve teacher quality?

A. There is growing consensus that effective professional development can improve teacher quality, but it is important to recognize that this consensus is not yet supported by rigorous research on what constitutes “effective.” While studies show individual cases where professional development programs lead to improved instructional practices, the research on professional development has not identified development programs that have widespread success.

Nonetheless, practitioners and researchers do agree on four characteristics of professional development that are most likely to have the greatest impact on practice:

A California study suggests that schools hit a “tipping point” when approximately 20 percent of the school faculty is comprised of underqualified teachers — teachers who do not meet minimum state requirements. After this point, schools begin to lose their ability to improve student achievement.

1. Extends over long periods of time.

2. Engages teachers as active learners.

3. Focuses on combining content and pedagogy.

4. Includes opportunities for practice, feedback and reflection rather than one-day workshops.

Currently, most teachers have no access to this kind of professional development on a regular basis, making it a ripe area for state and system teacher improvement plans.

Q. What are some of the problems systems may encounter in their effort to recruit and retain the best teachers in the most challenging schools?

A. Although systems must recognize that efforts to assign and retain teachers in more challenging schools may be difficult, they must be willing — over the long term — to commit necessary resources to address this challenge in a comprehensive manner. Recruitment and retention for needy schools require a three-prong strategy.

1. Recruitment of top teacher candidates.

2. Incentives and prestige to attract the best teachers where they’re most needed.

3. Ongoing professional development to improve the effectiveness of current faculty.

Systems must recognize that it is not enough to simply sprinkle a few good teachers in low-performing schools or leave them to work in isolation. All teachers work better with extensive support and strong leadership in their schools. ▲ Reprinted with permission from the Center for Public Education, National School Boards Association.

Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 25

Face to Face: Rep. Seth Hammett...

Continued from page 11 ▲ Bailey: I know personally how much work you did to get the

10-mill bill through the Legislature last year. That’s going to come before the voters soon. How can we as education advocates win support for 10 mills from our voters?

■ Hammett: It’s a matter of letting people know that in local communities you should pay your fair share of the total cost of providing public education. Certainly, the most important thing we do as tax-paying citizens is to fund a strong system of public education. I think if people recognized the negative impact of having less than 10 absolute mills of property taxes as is our situation in Covington County, they will agree that level of support should be given to our local schools. In Covington County under the current scenario of only having 7 mills of property tax and making up the remainder of the 10mill requirement through sales tax, we would get farther and farther behind every year until the county would have no local funds for education without this bill having been passed and without the voters ratifying this constitutional requirement.

So, I think its success is absolutely essential. ▲ Bailey: We feel that way too. While it has been quite an

uphill battle to educate people in our own area, it affects us so

About Rep. Seth Hammett Alabama's speaker of the House grew up in a small Covington County community called Rose Hill, where he attended elementary school. Rep. Seth Hammett also attended Straughn High School in the county before pursing a bachelor's degree in business at Auburn University. Hammett served in the Air Force as a pilot and later returned to Auburn University for graduate school and earned a Master of Business Administration degree. Back in Covington County, Hammett became an instructor at Lurleen B. Wallace Junior College and later president of the Andalusia Area Chamber of Commerce. In 1983, he co-founded the First National Bank of Andalusia, which was later sold to SouthTrust, where he remained until he returned to Wallace Junior College as its president in 1991. Since August 2004, Hammett has been director of economic development for the Alabama Electric Cooperative. His 28-year career with the Alabama House of Representatives began in 1978, when his home county chose him as its representative. Now Hammett's House District 92 includes not only Covington County but also part of Escambia County, due to reapportionment. In 1986, Hammett was elected chair of the House Democratic Caucus. In January 1995, he was chosen as speaker pro-tempore. He has been speaker of the House since January 1999 and is serving his second term.

26 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

strongly. We have made headway, but it’s difficult for people to understand.

■ Hammett: It’s a complicated and complex problem to try to explain, but it’s a problem that does exist and is real. It can only be addressed by having 10 mills of absolute property tax. ▲ Bailey: Do you think the majority of Alabamians understand

the real challenges and obstacles we face in education?

■ Hammett: I’m not sure if people have the necessary insight

about the challenges of public education, particularly if they don’t have children in public schools. People do recognize that our future absolutely depends on a strong system of public education. Polls indicate that the vast majority of people support public education and want to provide funds, so we can have the best system possible. A strong public education system is absolutely an investment in our future. ▲ Bailey: What do you feel that we as school board members

and school boards collectively need to do to move our legislative agenda forward?

■ Hammett: From our local standpoint, you do what you should do. That is, you recognize that individual contact is important. All politics are local. If school board members want to have an impact on what happens in the Alabama Legislature, they have to know who their senator is and who their representative is. You have to make contact with those people, so they will know from you what is important. Let me further add, it’s important to have people hired as lobbyists to look after the interests of school boards. Nonetheless, there is nothing more important than having a local person making contact with their local representative and local senator. ▲ Bailey: During your time in the legislature, what do you feel

has been your greatest challenge and greatest accomplishment as far as education goes?

■ Hammett: There’s no question our greatest challenge was back in the year 2002, when we had a downturn in economic activity and thus a downturn in the collection of the sales tax and income tax. Education was hit with proration of over 6 percent. We had to find ways to stop the bleeding. Then-Gov. Siegelman proposed a series of taxes to try to address the shortfall. The challenge was to build a consensus to pass those so that we could lessen the impact on education. It took a lot of maneuvering and behind the scenes effort to work with the various factions — the business groups, members of the leadership of the Senate, the finance director and others.

We spent hour after hour in negotiations, but we finally produced a total package of almost around $200 million in tax relief for the Education Trust Fund. That was the biggest challenge I remember. ▲ Bailey: And the biggest accomplishment?

■ Hammett: Getting that package through would again be the

thing I would point to with the most pride. ▲ Bailey: Do you have a pet peeve about education?

■ Hammett: We must emphasize the need for as much effi-

ciency as possible in our schools. We should also direct all the money we possibly can to the classroom. Outside of funding issues, the biggest challenge we face is having parental support for what occurs in our public schools. Perhaps the biggest change I’ve seen is in the attitude of people toward teachers and other school officials. There is a lack of support, which is evident in the positions they take in regard to their children.

All too frequently now, parents side with their children and against the people who are doing their best to provide education for their children. If I had a magic wand and could change one thing, I would get parents to do as they used to, which is support teachers.

Ready for ‘Big School’...

Continued from page 15

Instead, divide the pool in half with a rope that lies on the bottom. Lure the orca over the rope with praise and by withholding the attention when he doesn’t make it across.

Raise the rope a little every day, Dishman said, until it reaches 20 feet.

▲ Bailey: I’ve observed that as well. Even though we’re working

toward a common goal, it seems sometimes we find ourselves in an adversarial position with parents and others in our community. We should support each other.

■ Hammett: When I was growing up and going to Rose Hill School, I knew if I got in trouble in school I was going to get in trouble at home. There was never any question about whether my parents would take my side or the teacher’s side. ▲ Bailey: In education now we get all kinds of report cards, and

I think that’s great. It keeps us on task. What grade would you give the Legislature on its support of public education?

■ Hammett: Based on the budget that we’ve passed for the ’07 fiscal year, I’d give us a B. We’ve made great progress. As long as our state economy remains strong, as long as we keep adding jobs for our people and emphasize economic development, I think we can continue to make progress. ▲ Bailey: Seth, I’ve asked you a lot of questions, but we would

like to know a little more about you personally. What do you do for fun? Wait, is there ever a time when you’re not too busy to have fun?

■ Hammett: (Laughs.) Well, I enjoy what I do. I am one of those people who get up early in the morning and go for a jog. I thoroughly enjoy that, am absolutely hooked on it. I run three miles a day, at a pretty leisurely pace I might add. I play golf on occasion — though not very well — but I do enjoy it. And the other thing I really, really enjoy, as all grandparents do, is time spent with my grandchildren. I have my granddaughter, who is 2 1/2 years old and my grandson, who is just over 3 months of age. ▲ Bailey: Do you see life after politics? Is there something out

there you want to do in the future?

■ Hammett: Again, I’m enjoying what I’m doing. I have had some encouragement over the years to seek the governor’s position. I’ve looked at that very carefully and have decided on this occasion to seek reelection and to serve another term as speaker of the House. But, I may look at that possibility again in the next quadrennium. ▲ Bailey: Well, I know we’ve taken a good bit of your time this

morning. I appreciate you giving the readers of our magazine this opportunity to learn more about you.

■ Hammett: It’s my pleasure. I guess everybody likes to give their opinion about things, me included. (Laughs.) ▲

“We need a system of early childhood education that blends all our resources for children, so that the bottom line is that every child has a great start.”

— Gayle Cunningham “Eventually, the orca makes the jump, and what we have done is strategically remove the opportunity for that orca to fail,” Dishman explained. “Let’s remove the opportunity to fail. Let’s celebrate every single, little success.”

JCCEO Head Start and Early Head Start Director Gayle Cunningham said success is difficult for America’s poor and disadvantaged children. In her keynote address, she said America is a great nation revered for its power and wealth.

Yet, “Alabama has 23.5 percent of its children living in poverty, that’s 255,264 children,” she said.

Quality education, including a strong start in pre-kindergarten programs, is vital to this country’s continued strength, Cunningham said.

“We need a system of early childhood education that blends all our resources for children, so that the bottom line is that every child has a great start. And ideally, pre-K would be for 3- and 4-year-olds,” she explained.

“We also know that high quality early childhood education provides optimal readiness for school success for all our children.” ▲ Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 27

Alabama Association of School Boards

Professional Sustaining Members

AASB appreciates these professional members for supporting association activities and you all year long.

Exford Architects Birmingham, Alabama 205/314-3411

Lathan Associates Architects PC Birmingham, Alabama 205/879-9110

Alabama Beverage Association Montgomery, Alabama 334/263-6621

Fuqua & Partners Architects PC Huntsville, Alabama 256/534-3516

McCauley Associates Inc. Birmingham, Alabama 205/969-0303

Alabama Gas Corporation Birmingham, Alabama 205/326-8425

Gallet & Associates Inc. Birmingham, Alabama 205/942-1289

Alabama Supercomputer Authority Montgomery, Alabama 334/832-2405

Goodwyn Mills and Cawood Inc. Montgomery, Alabama 334/271-3200

McKee & Associates Architecture and Design Montgomery, Alabama 334/834-9933

Barganier Davis Sims Architects Montgomery, Alabama 334/834-2038

Hoar Construction Birmingham, Alabama 205/803-2121

PH&J Architects Inc. Montgomery, Alabama 334/265-8781

Jenkins Munroe Jenkins Architecture Anniston, Alabama 256/820-6844

Sain Associates Birmingham, Alabama 205/940-6420

BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama Birmingham, Alabama 205/220-5771 Christian Testing Labs Montgomery, Alabama 334/264-4422

JH Partners Architecture/Interiors Huntsville, Alabama 256/539-0764

Council of Alabama Coca-Cola Bottlers, Inc. Birmingham, Alabama 205/841-2653

KHAFRA Engineers, Architects and Construction Managers Birmingham, Alabama 205/252-8353

Davis Architects Inc. Birmingham, Alabama 205/322-7482

Paul B. Krebs & Associates, Inc. Birmingham, Alabama 205/987-7411

28 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

Payne & Associates Architects Montgomery, Alabama 334/272-2180

Select Medical Systems, Inc. Birmingham, Alabama 205/967-3453 Sherlock Smith & Adams Inc. Montgomery, Alabama 334/263-6481 Evan Terry Associates PC Birmingham, Alabama 205/972-9100 Volkert & Associates Inc. Mobile, Alabama 251/432-6735

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EIGHT LESSONS IN

SCHOOL FINANCE $$$$$$$$$$$$$ Alabama's public schools are primarily funded through the state and locally supported Foundation Program established in 1995 by the Legislature. New school board members should know this. They should also study the foundation program and find out how the state's K-12 education funding system works.

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hat’s the advice Warren Craig Pouncey offers. As assistant state superintendent for the Alabama Department of Education’s Administrative and Financial Services Division, Pouncey often fields finance questions from superintendents, finance officers, principals and other school leaders. The former Crenshaw County Public Schools superintendent empathizes that managing school system finances is a tightrope walk at best. That’s why Pouncey recently discussed the following eight lessons he believes all school board members should learn:

1.

Know how funds are allocated. If school board members develop a strong understanding of the state’s education funding system, they’ll recognize the reasons why superintendents should and should not make a particular decision. These decisions are easier to manage if you understand the nuances of the Foundation Program and funding scheme. It’s important to know how to interpret the school system’s allocation sheet. Each year the state Department of Education’s Administrative and Financial Services Division offers training to superintendents, principals, chief finance officers, school bookkeepers and other central office staff. We’ve also produced “A Guide to State Allocation Calculations” to educate school leaders about how state funds for K-12 public education are distributed.

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2.

Understand how the Foundation Program allocates personnel: Personnel represent 85 percent of our budget. The most frequent way systems find themselves in financial trouble is a result of them not understanding the placement of state-earned personnel and the total cost associated with personnel that are hired at a local expense.

Board members should recognize that state dollars are allocated primarily for certified staff employed at each school. There are no state dollars that are allocated for central office staff. There are no units earned for teacher aides.

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3.

Be aware of extended contracts: Another area beginning school board members need to be aware of is extended contracts for staff. The state is only allocating salaries for 187 days. The only adjustment made is in the principal’s salary. To extend contracts for counselors, assistant principals, band directors and athletic coaches means they are paid with local funds.

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4.

Know when contracts begin and end. We are going into a year when school systems statewide will be extending contracts by five instructional days, and we are looking at 5 percent pay raises.

Classroom teachers could net a 7.75 percent increase in pay. It’s necessary to understand that any raise that is given at the beginning of the contract year — in August, for example — that precedes Oct. 1 comes from local funding. Last year school systems were legally bound to ensure that the employees received the full benefit of the raise within the fiscal year, which is from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

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5.

Know what dollars are restricted. New board members need to understand the restrictions that are placed on state and federal dollars.

Both of those funds are allocated to the school system for specific purposes and, by law, must be spent as intended. Every year the Department of the Examiners of Public Accounts reviews how a system has complied with those spending requirements. Certain chargebacks can be assessed to school systems that did not follow the law.

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6.

Local dollars are flexible dollars. Local dollars are the dollars generated within systems for the purpose of managing the schools. These would include dollars primarily generated by the ad valorem tax and sales tax. Those dollars are the only flexible dollars that a school board actually has at its discretion. The state is going to require school systems to use the value of 10 district mills as a local match in order to receive state funds. Only the portion of taxes that they collect beyond that local match requirement is what they have discretion over. In Alabama, that means the only flexible dollars systems have range from a high of $4,500 per student to as low as $11 per student. On average, that figure is $550. If we use that average, the local board has to pay for those people on extended contracts from that $550 per student.

Boards also have to pay utilities from that average cost when we’ve seen those costs escalate 30 percent. Local boards have to pay for substitutes when in most instances a system’s annual substitute expense is twice the value of what they received from the state.

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(Continued on page 30) Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006 29

Academy of Science...

Continued from page 10

May 2006 AASB District Meetings 1

District 5, Fairfield

4

District 6, Jacksonville

8

District 3, Ozark

9

District 4, Auburn

11

District 7, Tuscaloosa

15

District 8, Decatur

16

District 9, Albertville

18

District 1, Atmore

June 13- Progressive Discipline 14 Workshop Montgomery and Birmingham

July 23- NSBA/Southern Region 26 2006 Conference Sandestin, FL

students and annually recognizes an outstanding high school science teacher.

• Regional Science Fairs: The Academy sponsors seven science fairs at which high school students exhibit the results of their research or study projects. The best exhibits receive awards and are entered in the International Science and Engineering Fair.

• The Science Olympiad: Regional winners compete at the state level, and the Alabama winners go to the national competition.

• Visiting Scientist Program: Volunteer members of the Academy, upon invitation by a teacher, go to high schools to present talks, demonstrations or workshops. Through this program, students and teachers learn about college, careers, society’s problems, the methods of science and life around us.

• The Gorgas Scholarship Competition and Alabama Science School Finance...

September-October Academy Programs in the Districts

October 22

AASB Leadership II(A) Core Workshop Birmingham 22- Academy Core 23 Conference Birmingham

December 6-7 AASB Leadership I Core Workshop Birmingham 7-9 AASB Annual State Convention Wynfrey Hotel Birmingham 9

AASB Leadership II(B) Core Workshop Birmingham

30 Alabama School Boards • March-April 2006

Continued from page 29

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7.

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8.

Transportation and Child Nutrition Programs must be well-managed. The efficient management of the transportation program and the child nutrition program is absolutely essential. These programs represent a significant portion of the systems’ budget and, if managed properly, should basically pay for themselves. The only exception is the lack of control that we have over the escalating fuel prices. We’re hopeful, thanks to a supplemental appropriation calculated in this year’s budget for transportation operations, that we’re going to more closely reimburse systems at a level that reflects current fuel costs.

Beware of hidden construction costs and inefficient project man-

Scholar Search: This student scholarship program organized by the Academy in 1946 was the forerunner of the cooperating Gorgas Scholarship Foundation. The Foundation, which was set up in 1952, conducts a statewide science talent search and awards scholarships to the winning high school senior students. The annual Alabama Science Scholar Search is for high school seniors who have completed an original individual science work that can be a research project or scholarly paper. The deadline for entering the Alabama Science Scholar Search and Gorgas Scholar▲ ship Competition is in January.

Dr. Ellen Banks Buckner, associate professor and coordinator of Honors in Nursing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is a past president of the Buckner Alabama Academy of Science and chairs the Gorgas Scholarship Competition. agement. Board members need to be conscious that construction projects must be managed efficiently. First of all, you need to negotiate the percentages that are earned by architects, engineers and other contractors. Employ competent, knowledgeable people to manage construction projects effectively. Understand that various firms/ individuals make dollars off the percentage of cost for such things as fixtures, and be aware of change orders, particularly those that exceed 10 percent of the original contract cost. It’s better to have an understanding upfront that no change orders will be approved without full board approval in advance. Ask yourself if the lowest bid is really the lowest bid. The state has worked with some excellent vendors, however, through the change order mechanism, unscrupulous vendors may scheme to charge more than necessary to complete a project. Be leery of vendors who want to wine and ▲ dine you.

Potpourri PEOPLE ▲ Well done Sue Helms, Madison City Board of Education president and president-elect of the Alabama Association of School Helms Boards. Helms represented the state April 7 in Chicago as a member of the 100 District Leaders for Citizenship and Service-Learning Network. Helms, the first Alabamian selected, joins other school board members and superintendents nationwide for advancing citizenship education and service-learning. She has also been tapped for Leadership Alabama 2006-2007. ▲ Welcome aboard new members of the Alabama School of Fine Arts Board of Trustees. The new trustees are Jim Reed, owner of Jim Reed Books, for Position 1 (creative writing); John D. Jones, executive director of Birmingham Music Cooperative, for Position 2 (music); Dr. Anjanetta Foster, a physician in Birmingham, for Position 3 (at large); and James D. Brantley, an artist and teacher in Opelika, Position 4 (at large). ▲ Congratulations to the finalists for Alabama’s Teacher Hall of Fame based at Jacksonville State University. The three inductees will be announced at an awards banquet May 19. The finalists include Andrea Hope Harris of Attalla BOE’s Etowah Middle School; Stoney M. Beavers of Blount County BOE’s Cleveland High School; Renee I. Adams of Boaz BOE’s Boaz Middle School; Polly Crow of Calhoun County BOE’s Saks Middle School; Marilyn B. Hudson of Cherokee County BOE’s Spring Garden School; Celeste Weaver of Cullman County BOE’s Good Hope School; Kellye McDowell of Etowah County BOE’s Southside High School; Lynda Harmon of Talladega County BOE’s Munford Elementary; Pattie H. Thomas of

Talladega City BOE’s Raymond L. Young; Rhonda H. McCary of Vestavia Hills BOE’s Pizitz Middle School; June S. Glenn of Hoover BOE’s Robert F. Bumpus School; Troy J. Smith of Hoover BOE’s Spain Park High School; Delores S. Williams of Lee County BOE’s Smiths Station School; Betty Esslinger of Scottsboro BOE’s Scottsboro High School; and Annette B. Little of Winston County BOE’s Winston County High School. ▲ Good luck to the 16 finalists for the 2006-2007 Alabama Teacher of the Year Award. The winner will be announced and honored along with district finalists at a May 10 reception in Montgomery.

Finalists are (elementary level) Deborah Burmeister, Elsanor School, Baldwin County; Silvia D. Scaife, Wrights Mill Road Elementary, Auburn City; Angela Walker, Mount Laurel Elementary, Shelby County; Cameron S. McKinley, Riverchase Elementary, Hoover City; Edith D. Holtam, Wynton M. Blount Elementary, Montgomery County; Melissa Gann, Somerville Road Elementary, Decatur City; James E. Balding, R. E. Thompson Intermediate, Tuscumbia City; Dana B. Garner, Caldwell Elementary, Scottsboro City; (secondary level) Angela W. Kennedy, Phillips Preparatory School, Mobile County; Stacy R. Ward, Beulah High, Lee County; Charmelle C. Lewis, B. B. Comer Memorial High, Talladega County; Russann Wood, Ira F. Simmons Middle, Hoover City; Shelly M. Herbert,

Fruitdale High, Washington County; Stoney Beavers, Cleveland High, Blount County; Phyllis H. Linton, Florence High, Florence City; and Pamela A. Kirkland Vaughn, Rosalie Elementary, Jackson County. ▲ Bravo Alabama! The state had a great showing at April’s National School Boards Association’s annual conference in Chicago. The award-winning Moving Images Dance Company of Mobile County Board of Education’s John L. Magnet High School delivered a magnificent performance. Dr. Carlinda Purcell, superintendent with the Montgomery County Board of Education, participated in a panel presentation on “The Role of the School Board in Ensuring Community Involvement.”

Students from Mobile County Board of Education’s Alba Middle School and Elm Place Middle School in Highland Park, Ill., exhibited photography and poetry collected in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricanes in a display titled “Eyes of the Storm: A Student Photography and Poetry Exhibition Documenting the Hurricane Recovery Process.” Dr. Judy Stout, vice president of the Mobile County Board of Education, presented as part of a hurricane aftermath symposium and a discussion on improving performance in underperforming schools. Jim Methvin represented Alabama on the NSBA Policies and Resolutions Committee. Methvin, Sue Helms and Florence Bellamy served as delegates to the conference. ▲ Alabama School Communicators Association recognized several education leaders for outstanding achievements as part of ASCA’s February conference in Birmingham. Winners included: John H. Merrill of Tuscaloosa County, Dr. Barry L. Carroll of Limestone County, Harriet Outlaw of Baldwin County, Leah Ann Overstreet of Baldwin County, and Kelly Bowden of Trussville.

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