Achievement, Graduation Rates Top State Superintendent’s Agenda
It’s been only four months, but already Alabama Schools Superintendent Michael Sentance has had to tackle some tough issues. For starters, there was the scandal surrounding inflated high school graduation rates. And most recently, Sentance announced a state takeover of the poorly performing Montgomery County School district. Not exactly a way to earn popularity points, particularly for someone who isn’t a traditional educator.
Here’s what the superintendent said in a recent interview.
The greatest surprise with Alabama’s education system
“We don’t have a strategic plan to raise achievement in mathematics in this state. We don’t have a state plan for raising achievement in science or in reading, so I’ve got to create those. That’s going to take a little bit of work, but once we do, there’s going to be a lot more work that results from all of that.”
Telling state leaders about Alabama’s graduation rate problem
“It was fairly difficult. It’s not something that I care to do. We’re admitting something that is basically a self-created wound. It’s not something I wanted to do when I came to Alabama. But if we’re not going to be honest with people about these things, then they are not going to trust us. The accountability has to start at the top with the State Department of Education.”
Birmingham singled out in discussion of grad rate problems
“The reason Birmingham was discussed was because the Office of Inspector General, the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Education, came in and looked at the state department practices and data. They also chose at random several school districts. It was not for cause that they chose the school districts.”
Fixing the problem of inflated graduation rates
“Some of the things we have to do relate to our oversight of school districts to make sure that everybody understands that this is a professional obligation on the part of school personnel to account correctly the credits that are being earned to make sure that students are in fact doing the coursework, attending the classes and getting the grades that they need to get the credits that they need to graduate. That has to be an honest effort. I’m going to be encouraging people to look at those graduates and make sure that their credential is tethered to something that is verifiable.”
Dealing with critics who questioned hiring a non-traditional superintendent
“I think that the fact that I’ve been honest and direct with people about the challenges and the opportunities of improving public education here has convinced people that I’m a serious person, and we’re about to engage in some serious work.”
Current state of education in Alabama
“Right now I would say that it is not good, but it’s going to be improving, and it’s going to be improving fast. There are certain schools, there are certain programs in this state that are as good as you’re going to find in the United States of America. We don’t have enough of them. We don’t have all the people doing the right things and asking of themselves and of their students to get the kind of results the state deserves. We’ve got to do better than that.”
Listen here to the full interview.
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