Alabama's Education Report Card, 2009-2010
Author: Alabama Department of Education
Date: 2011-04-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Assessment,Educational Indicators,Student Characteristics,Attendance,Graduation Rate,School Safety,Discipline,Advanced Placement Programs,Lunch Programs,Access to Computers,Reading Achievement,English Language Learners,Dropout Rate,Educational Improvement,Exit Examinations,High School Graduates,Reading Tests,Mathematics Tests,Academic Achievement,Performance Based Assessment,Writing Evaluation,Alternative Assessment,Technical Education,General Education,School Statistics,Educational Finance,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Qualifications,Alternative Teacher Certification,Expenditure per Student,Expenditures,Counties,Municipalities,Statistical Distributions,Elementary Secondary Education,State Surveys

In a more consistent and viable manner than ever before, education in Alabama is moving toward its ultimate goal of providing every student with a quality education, thereby preparing them for work, college, and life after high school. Alabama's graduation rates from 2002 to 2008 increased significantly, tripling the national average increase and ranking fourth in the country. Alabama's progress in reading continues to prove the state's reading initiative is effective. Educational assessments clearly show the historic gains Alabama made in reading in 2007 (greatest gains in Reading in America and in the history of the National Assessment of Educational Progress) continue to remain steady. Alabama's trailblazing distance learning program, ACCESS, remains a spectacle of achievement recognized and reported on by national television programs and newspapers across the country. The state's success with Advanced Placement (AP) classes, both in the number of students taking AP classes and the diversity of students taking AP classes, is phenomenal (the number of African American AP test takers has more than quadrupled since 2004). In addition, the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) has been recognized by the Center for Excellence in Education, a national think tank, as an &quot;exemplary model of laboratory education&quot; in the United States. Still, all of these accomplishments barely scratch the surface of what all is being done to improve the quality of education in Alabama. However, even with the fevered pitch that the State Board of Education, school administrators, teachers, parents, and students are demonstrating improvement, much, much more remains to be done. This publication is a compilation of student, staffing, and funding statistics reflecting accomplishments during the 2009-2010 school year in all Alabama public schools. It is the combination of what were formerly the Alabama Education Report Card, a federally mandated publication, and the Alabama State Department of Education Annual Report. Because much of the information previously included in the Annual Report was similar or identical to what was required in the Alabama Education Report Card, the two were collapsed into one informative, yet efficient and practical publication. This publication meets the requirements of the &quot;No Child Left Behind Act of 2001,&quot; Public Law 107-110, and the Code of Alabama (1975), Section 16-3-21. [For the 2008-2009 Education Report Card, see ED511451.]