Report card changes, jobs after prison, Trump vs. Elvis : Down in Alabama
Alabama to consider changes to school report cards. Why?
After five years of using letter grades on annual school and district report cards, Alabama’s top educator said it’s time for a review to make sure these are the best measures to use.
Supporters of report cards say parents are familiar with letter grades and it’s important to have a way to determine the quality of learning at a school. Opponents say letter grades aren’t a fair reflection of what’s happening in the school.
The law mandating letter-grade report cards was passed in 2012, and Mackey, head of the school superintendents’ association at the time, served on the original committee that decided which measures should be included.
The first report card with a letter grade wasn’t issued until 2018, the year Eric Mackey became state superintendent. Report cards were not issued in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic’s disruption of state standardized testing.
In 2022, Alabama lawmakers split the report card into two – one for federal accountability and one for state accountability. Gov. Kay Ivey’s Commission on Teaching and Learning issued a report in December recommending the state revisit the A through F report card and to combine the state and federal report card into one report card.
Alabama’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park opens soon: What to know about memorial’s new addition
Visitors to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park wind a serpentine path past art pieces depicting the lives of enslaved people in America and historic exhibits, including two cabins where the enslaved lived, before arriving at a towering monument.
The sculpture park is the third site created by the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, which is dedicated to taking an unflinching look at the country’s history of slavery, racism and discriminatory policing. The first two sites — the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a memorial to people slain in racial terror killings; and The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration — opened in 2018.
The sculpture park, which opens March 27, weaves art installations, historic artifacts and personal narratives to explore the history of slavery in America and honor the millions of people who endured its brutality.
The park is opening as some politicians, including in the Deep South, try to put parameters on how race and history are taught in classrooms and in workforce training sessions.
Alabama labor secretary to discuss job options for formerly incarcerated people at movie screening
Alabama Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington will lead a panel discussion at Birmingham’s Woodlawn Theater on March 20 following the screening of the documentary “Being Free.”
The film follows three formerly incarcerated individuals on their journey to find careers after prison. The panel event, which also will feature discussion from Society for Human Resource Management CEO Johnny Taylor, Ken Oliver of Checkr, Birmingham City Councilor LaTonya Tate and Ronald McKeithen of Alabama Appleseed, is part of statewide efforts to reduce recidivism.
Alabama has a low labor force participation rate, with 38 workers per 100 open jobs. The state also has a high unemployment rate for formerly incarcerated individuals, over 27%, which is 10 times higher than the general population.
A 2023 report by the Society for Human Resource Management found that after HR professionals viewed “Being Free,” they were more likely to recognize the strengths of formerly incarcerated individuals and the benefits of hiring them. Tailored resources for both people re-entering the population after prison and for hiring professionals are needed, advocates said.
Confused about 2021 Cullman rally, Donald Trump claims he broke Elvis Presley’s record crowd at Alabama ‘state fair’
During one of his signature tangents while addressing a rally in Ohio over the weekend, Donald Trump claimed to have broken Elvis Presley’s attendance record at the Alabama State Fair, despite neither man making an appearance at the festival.
Trump appeared to have confused his 2021 rally in Cullman, where he stumped for Mo Brooks’ campaign for U.S. Senate, with a visit to the fair, which never took place. He told the crowd in Vandalia, Ohio of Brooks asking him to campaign for him in Alabama when he made the attendance claim.
Trump never made an appearance at the Alabama State Fair, which occurs in Birmingham.
And neither did Presley.
The King of Rock performed at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show in September 1956, but the event did not take place in Cullman. Or Birmingham. Or Alabama.
Trump’s Cullman appearance also didn’t get a crowd of 68,000.
The U.S. Secret Service estimated the crowd at 45,000 people, according to Deputy Chad Whaley of the Cullman County sheriff’s office. The Morgan County sheriff’s office also posted on its Facebook page it had been given an estimate of 45,000.