(Opinion) When the Alabama Accountability Act was passed, teachers and Democrats were outraged. How dare we rank schools against each other and then allow parents to use those grades to make education decisions for their children? The real fear of these leaders is that parents will use the Alabama Accountability Act to remove their students from these failing schools and take the funding that comes with them elsewhere. They argued labeling a failing school as “failing” was not something we should be doing. But let’s look at one metric used to determine what is a “failing school” as outlined in the Alabama Accountability Act of 2015:
“…the bottom 6% of Alabama schools for school year 2016-2017 based on the state standardized assessment in reading and math.”
Why this matters: In no other situation would any ranking in the bottom 6 percent of any metric be considered anything other than an unequivocal failure. Some leaders of these schools will make a hilarious argument about why these schools, which are ranked at the very bottom of our education system, aren’t really failing. Huntsville City Schools claims the formula used to determine failing schools, “simply takes the bottom six percent to compile the list, and the law does not consider any other aspects about a school.” Is the implication here that measuring the academic achievement of students in a school is a measurement the wrong things?
The details:
— Based on the Alabama Accountability Act, Alabama has 75 failing schools.
— Twenty-four schools were added to the list of failing schools while 24 schools made it off this list.
— Montgomery County has 14 failing schools, Birmingham has 11, and Mobile County has 9.
— Students in failing schools are eligible to transfer to another better performing public school or get a tax credit to attend a private school.
Dale Jackson hosts a daily radio show from 7-11 a.m. on NewsTalk 770 AM/92.5 FM WVNN and a weekly television show, “Guerrilla Politics,” on WAAY-TV, both in North Alabama. Follow him @TheDaleJackson.
