Alabama’s public school improvements have been drawing national attention with increasing frequency, and a New York Times opinion column published Monday (Feb. 9) marks the latest recognition.
In the piece, writer Nicholas Kristof highlighted the state’s progress on attendance and academic recovery as part of what he described as a “Southern surge” in education.
Subscribe to The Alabama Baptist today!
SIGN UP for our weekly Highlights emails.
Kristof cited Alabama’s gains in math recovery, along with the state’s use of public school report cards and attendance monitoring to track performance, as keys to the state’s improvement.
Alabama Daily News spoke with State Superintendent Eric Mackey late Monday about the Kristof column and the growing national attention. Mackey said the recognition reflects work that has been underway for years, long before results began showing up consistently in statewide and national data.
‘Group work’
Mackey described a deliberate approach to school improvement that began with raising academic standards and aligning state tests to those standards, followed by building the capacity needed to act on the results.
Lawmakers, he said, played a key role by providing structure for early reading and math and the needed levels of funding once the groundwork was in place.
Just as important, Mackey said, was buy-in from principals and teachers who were asked to rethink lessons, adjust instructional practices and embrace higher expectations for all students.
“It’s been group work,” Mackey said, pointing to the roles played by lawmakers, educators and other state leaders.
Over time, Mackey said, the state’s focus on tracking results has increasingly been paired with an effort to make data usable rather than punitive. Test scores, he said, are used to guide instruction and support teachers through coaching and training, not to punish schools, helping educators turn results into changes in the classroom.
Kristof’s column also focused on Alabama’s low absenteeism rate, and Mackey said getting kids back into school matters because it puts students in front of teachers.
“There’s nothing more important than having a child in a classroom with a highly qualified teacher,” he told ADN, adding that efforts to reduce absenteeism matter most when students return to classrooms where high-quality instruction is happening.
The national attention reflects progress that has been visible inside Alabama for several years, Mackey noted, even as perceptions outside the state have been slower to change.
The challenge now, he said, is sustaining the work long enough for the gains to continue and for progress to become expected, not merely remarkable.
Maintaining momentum
Doing so, he said, will require continued collaboration among the governor, the Legislature, the State Board of Education, the Alabama Department of Education and local school systems.
For decades, Alabama has been accustomed to seeing itself near the bottom of national education rankings, a reputation that can linger even as the evidence shifts and the picture improves.
Shifting that mindset — among educators, policymakers and the public — is essential to maintaining momentum and continuing to raise expectations statewide, Mackey said.
“I want Alabamians to believe we truly are doing better than we’ve ever done,” he said. “And we’re going to keep getting better.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Trisha Powell Crain and originally published by Alabama Daily News.
Share with others: