By Trisha Powell Crain | tcrain@al.com Alabama’s K-12 public school employee retirement numbers show November, December and January departures at the highest levels in nearly a decade. According to numbers released by the Teachers Retirement Systems of Alabama, 3,245 public school employees retired in calendar year 2020, the highest number since a mass exodus in 2011…
Category: Teacher Evaluation
Teachers quit in Florida, citing ‘toxic’ conditions and a ‘testing nightmare’
(iStock) (Michael Quirk/iStock) By Valerie Strauss June 5, 2019 Florida has a serious teacher shortage. During this school year, there were more than 2,200 vacancies at one point or another. Why? In a recent post, Fed Ingram, Miami-Dade County teacher of the year in 2006 and now president of the Florida Education Association cited several reasons,…
‘I’m ready to walk’: Teachers looking to lawmakers for last-minute movement on pay, funding
Arika Herron, April 16, 2019 Teacher rally better funding for K-12 education. Matt Kryger, IndyStar With one week left in the legislative session, Indiana teachers are looking at lawmakers to do more. They want more money for schools. They want better pay. And they want it now. “I’m ready to walk,” said Staci Scott-Stewart, an elementary…
Many Texas teachers have second jobs or live paycheck to paycheck. They’re anxiously watching the teacher pay debate.
“I never anticipated that I would take a summer job at Wendy’s just so that I could replace a broken dishwasher,” said one high school English teacher who makes $45,000 per year. BY MARÍA MÉNDEZ APRIL 3, 2019 Houston teacher Brady Mayo moved back in with his parents while he was paying for his kids to…
Kentucky teachers proud of what they accomplished this session, but what’s next?
FRANKFORT — At a glance, their differences were obvious. The women from Louisville were young. They were black. Seated nearby, the women from Eastern Kentucky were older and white. A quick listen and you could hear the differences, too. Different accents. Different life experiences. But if you stayed with them for a while you would…
With teachers in short supply, should Florida make it easier for them to get the job?
Two bills would ease the path for teachers who have trouble passing Florida’s general knowledge test. But some say the legislation goes too far. A proposed change in Florida law would give teachers more time to pass the general knowledge test and, in some case, allow them to get their teaching certificate through a mentoring…
Every school on “failing” list has more than half of students on free/reduced lunch
By Jonathan Hardison | March 20, 2019 BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) – There are 76 schools on this year’s list of so-called “failing schools” and they’re spread all over the state, in both rural and urban areas, some are very diverse, others hardly at all. There is one thing all of these different schools share: most of their…
Boston Public Schools teachers and supporters rally for new contract
By TAYLOR PETTAWAY March 20, 2019 Hundreds of parents, teachers, students and concerned citizens circled around the Boston Public School’s district office to rally for teacher contract negotiations they say will help improve schools. “We need to speak the truth about our broken school system,” said Rosalinda Mindence, a student support staff member at Boston Day…
Business leaders: Repealing Common Core means ‘dumbing down’ Alabama
Mar 20, 2019 Business leaders across the state announced their opposition to repealing Common Core standards for public schools, banding together to send letters to state senators to stop the proposed change. The chambers of commerce in Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa as well as the Chamber of Commerce Association of Alabama joined on the…
Committee approves bill to repeal Alabama’s Common Core standards
March 21, 2019 By: Charlie Walker Senate President Pro Tempore Del Marsh introduced a bill, SB119, into legislative committee on Wednesday that would indefinitely repeal Common Core standards and all of its practices in Alabama public schools. Common Core, also known by its state version, Alabama College- and Career-Ready Standards, has been a point of controversy…
Standing Strong for Public Education! 