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Education in Alabama consists of public and private schools in Alabama, including the University of Alabama, private colleges, and secondary and primary schools.
Private and locally established common schools existed in the old Mississippi Territory in what is now Alabama.
The 1819 State Constitution declared:
Schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged in this State; and the General Assembly shall take measures to preserve, from unnecessary waste or damage, such lands as are or hereafter may be granted by the United States for the use of schools within each township in this State, and apply the funds, which may be raised from such lands; in strict conformity to the object of such grant. The General Assembly shall take like measures for the improvement of such lands as have been or may be hereafter granted by the United States to this State, for the support of a Seminary of learning, and the moneys which may be raised from such lands, by rent, lease, or sale, or from any other quarter, for the purpose, aforesaid, shall be and remain a fund for the exclusive support of a State University, for the promotion of the arts, literature, and the sciences: and it shall be the duty of the General Assembly, as early as may be, to provide effectual means for the improvement and permanent security of the funds and endowments of such institution. [1]
In 1822, Athens State University was established as a private institution called the Athens Female Academy. It did not become a public school until 1974. LaGrange College was established as a private college in 1830. It was destroyed during the war and reestablished in 1872. It is now the University of North Alabama.
In 1850, there were 1,323 schools with about thirty-seven thousand students enrolled. [2]
The state's voters approved a referendum calling for free public schools for white children in 1852. The legislature approved funding for such schools in the 1854 Public Schools Act. This decision was not without controversy. The 1858 Report of the Superintendent of Education, Gabriel B. Du Val discussed the population's attitude toward education, "Fortunately however for Alabama, and it is believed the Southern States generally, this indifference has not been felt toward education itself but toward governmental aid in procuring it. The happy condition of our social relations and general diffusion of wealth has rendered it comparatively unnecessary, wherever it was needed private generosity generally anticipated public aid." [3]
By 1860, about a quarter of white school-aged children were enrolled. [4] The 1868 constitution required free, racially integrated public school funded by the state. [5] During this period, it was a crime in Alabama to teach a slave to read. [6] There were no slaves in Alabama in 1868.
In 1880, a quarter of all whites over the age of ten were illiterate. The number was 18.84% in 1890 and 14.8% in 1900. Only two states, South Carolina and Louisiana had higher figures of illiteracy. [7] Comparable national illiteracy rates are 1880 17%, 1890 13% and 1900 11%. [8] In 2012, the state reported 14.8% of all adults were illiterate. [9] Recent reports use different standards of illiteracy than earlier compilations, and so the numbers are not completely comparable.
In the 1890s, about 25% of white and 38% of black students who entered the first grade left in their first month, unable to pay tuition. [10]
The state's 1901 constitution prohibited both racially integrated schools and state aid to religious schools. It reduced property taxes but required schools to be funded by the localities using tuition and user fees. [10]
Eighty days of schooling per year was made mandatory in 1915, but the requirement could be waived for the very poor. [11] The state began to require each county to have a high school, and by 1918 all but ten counties met the obligation. [12] By the mid-1930s, two-thirds of the children of landowners reached high school, but only a third of the children of white sharecroppers. [13] In an effort to reduce illiteracy the state created "Opportunity Schools" in 1920. These schools enrolled young adults who had not completed fourth grade. The schools taught basic reading and writing to the fourth-grade level. [14]
As a reaction to Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, both state and local officials took steps to preserve de facto educational segregation. In 1955, the state allowed public schools to use intelligence and other tests to assign students. Such tests were a method to keep schools segregated. The state also allowed public funds to flow to private schools that admitted only students of one race. In 1956, the Autherine Lucy, the first black student admitted to the University of Alabama, was expelled. [15] In 1958, John Patterson was elected governor on a platform that promised "if a school is ordered to be integrated, it will be closed down". [6] As late as 1965, schools in Jefferson County were still completely segregated. [6]
Since 2000, eleven school districts have been established by breaking away from the county schools. This has eroded the tax base for the county schools and increased racial segregation. [16]
Public primary and secondary education in Alabama is under the overview of the Alabama State Board of Education as well as local oversight by 67 county school boards and 60 city boards of education. Together, 1,541 individual schools provide education for 743,364 elementary and secondary students. [17]
Public school funding is appropriated through the Alabama Legislature through the Education Trust Fund. In FY 2006–2007, Alabama appropriated $3,775,163,578 for primary and secondary education. That represented an increase of $444,736,387 over the previous fiscal year. [17] In 2007, over 82 percent of schools made adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward student proficiency under the National No Child Left Behind law, using measures determined by the state of Alabama. In 2004, 23 percent of schools met AYP. [18]
While Alabama's public education system has improved,[ clarification needed ] it lags behind in achievement compared to other states. According to U.S. Census data from 2000, Alabama's high school graduation rate – 75% – is the second lowest in the United States, after Mississippi. [19] The largest educational gains were among people with some college education but without degrees. [20] This value dropped to 72% for the 2010–2011 school year, but at least 8 states had a lower figure than Alabama that year. [21]
There have been concerns about literacy. 130 high schools out of 367 in the state either failed reading or were classified as "borderline" for 11th graders for the school year 2008–2009. 60% of Alabama's school systems had at least one school that failed reading or was borderline. [22]
The state provides education from Kindergarten through grade 12. It has also established a pre-kindergarten program. This program[ which? ] was recognized in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 as having the highest quality standards, tied for first place with North Carolina. [23] [ failed verification ] In addition to state funded pre-k programs administered through the state, some public schools in the state offer pre-k through the use of local and federal funds. The appropriation for the state funded pre-k program is $18,376,806. [24] [ failed verification ] Currently,[ when? ] 7% of the state's four year olds participate in the First Class program.[ citation needed ]
Although unusual in the West, school corporal punishment is not uncommon in Alabama, with 27,260 public school students [25] paddled at least one time, according to government data for the 2011–2012 school year. [26] The rate of school corporal punishment in Alabama is surpassed only by Mississippi and Arkansas. [26]
Alabama's programs of higher education include fourteen four-year public universities, numerous two-year community colleges, and 17 private, undergraduate and graduate universities. Public, post-secondary education in Alabama is overseen by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. Colleges and universities in Alabama offer degree programs from two-year associate degrees to 16 doctoral level programs. [27]
Accreditation of academic programs is through the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges as well as a plethora of subject focused national and international accreditation agencies. [28]
Alabama has only two charter schools: University Charter School in Livingston, [29] and Legacy Prep in Birmingham. [30]
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The history of what is now Alabama stems back thousands of years ago when it was inhabited by indigenous peoples. The Woodland period spanned from around 1000 BCE to 1000 CE and was marked by the development of the Eastern Agricultural Complex. This was followed by the Mississippian culture of Native Americans, which lasted to around the 1600 CE. The first Europeans to make contact with Alabama were the Spanish, with the first permanent European settlement being Mobile, established by the French in 1702.
Caning is a form of corporal punishment consisting of a number of hits with a single cane usually made of rattan, generally applied to the offender's bare or clothed buttocks or hands. Caning on the knuckles or shoulders is much less common. Caning can also be applied to the soles of the feet. The size and flexibility of the cane and the mode of application, as well as the number of the strokes, vary greatly—from a couple of light strokes with a small cane across the seat of a junior schoolboy's trousers, to up to 24 very hard, wounding cuts on the bare buttocks with a large, heavy, soaked rattan as a judicial punishment in some Southeast Asian countries.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. It supported standards-based education reform based on the premise that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals could improve individual outcomes in education. The Act required states to develop assessments in basic skills. To receive federal school funding, states had to give these assessments to all students at select grade levels.
John Gill Shorter was an American politician who served as the 17th Governor of Alabama from 1861 to 1863. Before assuming the governorship, Shorter was a Deputy from Alabama to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States from February 1861 to December 1861.
A spanking paddle is an implement used to strike a person on the buttocks. The act of spanking a person with a paddle is known as "paddling". A paddling may be for punishment, or as an initiation or hazing ritual.
Education in Iraq is administered by the Ministry of Education.
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) was a measurement defined by the United States federal No Child Left Behind Act that allowed the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in the country was performing academically according to results on standardized tests. As defined by National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), AYP was "the amount of annual achievement growth to be expected by students in a particular school, district, or state in the U.S. federal accountability system, No Child Left Behind (NCLB)." AYP has been identified as one of the sources of controversy surrounding George W. Bush administration's Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Private schools were not required to make AYP.
Education in Bolivia, as in many other areas of Bolivian life, has a divide between Bolivia's rural and urban areas. Rural illiteracy levels remain high, even as the rest of the country becomes increasingly literate. Bolivia devotes 23% of its annual budget to educational expenditures, a higher percentage than in most other South American countries, albeit from a smaller national budget. A comprehensive, education reform has made some significant changes. Initiated in 1994, the reform decentralized educational funding in order to meet diverse local needs, improved teacher training and curricula, formalized and expanded intercultural bilingual education and changed the school grade system. Resistance from teachers’ unions, however, has slowed implementation of some of the intended reforms.
Anniston City Schools is the public school district of Anniston, Alabama. Anniston City Schools serves 1,898 students and employs 100 teachers and 98 staff as of the 2020–2021 school year. The district includes three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school.
James Wayne Flynt is University Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Auburn University. He has won numerous teaching awards and been a Distinguished University Professor for many years. His research focuses on Southern culture, Alabama politics, Southern religion, education reform, and poverty. He was the first Editor-in-Chief of the online Encyclopedia of Alabama. Flynt received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard College in 1961 before taking his Master of Science (1962) and Ph.D. (1965) from Florida State University. After teaching at Samford for 12 years, he joined the faculty at Auburn University in 1977, where he remained until his retirement in 2005. He was a friend of author Harper Lee.
Texas has over 1,000 public school districts—all but one of the school districts in Texas are independent, separate from any form of municipal or county government. School districts may cross city and county boundaries. Independent school districts have the power to tax their residents and to assert eminent domain over privately owned property. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) oversees these districts, providing supplemental funding, but its jurisdiction is limited mostly to intervening in poorly performing districts.
Freeport High School is a public secondary school located in Freeport, Illinois, United States.
Montgomery Public Schools is a school district headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, United States. The current Superintendent of Montgomery Public Schools is Melvin Brown. The district serves the city of Montgomery and surrounding Montgomery County. It is the third largest district in Alabama, with 31,743 students enrolled. The entire district is accredited by AdvancED and also has two International Baccalaureate programs: Macmillan International Academy (Elementary) and Johnnie Carr Middle School.
School corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of physical pain as a response to undesired behavior by students. The term corporal punishment derives from the Latin word for the "body", corpus. In schools it may involve striking the student on the buttocks or on the palms of their hands with an implement such as a rattan cane, wooden paddle, slipper, leather strap or wooden yardstick. Less commonly, it could also include spanking or smacking the student with an open hand, especially at the kindergarten, primary school, or other more junior levels.
The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) is the agency responsible for incarceration of convicted felons in the state of Alabama in the United States. It is headquartered in the Alabama Criminal Justice Center in Montgomery.
The Alabama Department of Public Health is the primary state health agency of the government of the U.S. state of Alabama. It provides a number of public health services to Alabama residents. Chronically underfunded for decades, even by a health professional as governor (Bentley), it ranks near the bottom among states.
Formal education in Mississippi began in the early 19th century with private schools and academies, a public education system was founded during the Reconstruction era, by the biracial legislature led by the Republican Party. Throughout its history, Mississippi has produced notable education inequalities due to racial segregation and underfunding of black schools, as well as rural zoning and lack of commitment to funding education.
Coalburg is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Alabama, United States.
Corporal punishment, sometimes referred to as "physical punishment" or "physical discipline", has been defined as the use of physical force, no matter how light, to cause deliberate bodily pain or discomfort in response to some undesired behavior. In schools in the United States, corporal punishment takes the form of a school teacher or administrator striking a student's buttocks with a wooden paddle.
The Banner mine disaster of April 8, 1911 near Littleton, Alabama was a coal mine explosion that killed 128 people. The event ranks among the 15 deadliest coal mine disasters in U.S. history.
