Strong evaluation systems are foundational to improving teacher and principal quality; evaluations recognize excellence, support development, and address ineffectiveness. They must be meaningful, objective, and fair. Unfortunately, Alabama's teacher and principal evaluations — EDUCATEAlabama and LEADAlabama, respectively — do not substantively assess educator quality. Neither evaluation includes student growth, a critical component in assessing educator quality. While EDUCATEAlabama incorporates a five-tier rating of effectiveness and classroom observations, LEADAlabama does not require important criteria such as effective teacher management or a multi-tier rating system. Alabama must invest in strengthening educator quality by developing evaluation systems that incorporate student growth and student feedback for teacher evaluations, effective staff management for principals, and at least a four-tier rating system. Districts must also have the authority to develop evaluation criteria outside the collective bargaining process.

Basing personnel decisions on performance is critical to building schools that retain effective teachers and make student achievement paramount. Alabama is behind in this area; specifically, the state does not use teacher effectiveness to drive decisions around teacher assignment, layoffs, and tenure. Schools do not have the authority to build and maintain an effective instructional team, including hiring decisions and removal of ineffective teachers. Furthermore, when forced to lay off teachers during a budget-related reduction in force, districts can use seniority to determine layoffs. Performance can also be a factor, but because Alabama does not have strong evaluations, effectiveness cannot accurately inform dismissal decisions. With regard to tenure, teachers receive this status after serving a short three-year probationary period. Attainment and revocation of tenure are not tied to performance. Prioritizing students and great teachers requires that performance, evident through strong evaluations, be the driving influence for all personnel decisions.

To encourage a high-quality, diverse workforce, professional pay should be based on performance rather than other non-classroom factors such as seniority or degrees held. Alabama law sets a minimum salary schedule that each local board of education must adopt, which uses years of experience and type of degree(s) earned as the basis for setting its pay minimums. However, the code does not prevent districts from increasing pay based on performance factors. To foster an environment aimed at attracting and retaining effective teachers, the state should eliminate automatic salary increases for teachers solely on the basis of obtaining a master's degree and require districts to link pay increases to performance measures that prioritize student outcomes.

Alabama enables teachers from non-traditional backgrounds to teach through alternative teacher certification, but the state limits the programs to only those sponsored by university organizations and only for certain subjects and grades. Furthermore, Alabama's alternative certification programs are not required to have higher admission criteria. Alabama could create better alternative pathways by lifting limitations on grades and subjects taught by alternatively certified teachers and establishing higher standards for admission. Alabama only evaluates teacher preparation programs every seven years. Moreover, the criteria for program reviews do not account for classroom effectiveness, meaning the state has no way of knowing whether alternative certification programs are performing well. Alabama should require more frequent evaluations of the programs and link program performance to impact on student learning.

The strongest step that Alabama has taken to empower parents is to require annual school report cards that include an A_F letter grade for each school based on student achievement. There are a number of other steps that the state can take to further empower parents. Alabama should require notifying parents when their children are placed with an ineffective teacher and allow parents access to teacher evaluation information. In addition, Alabama should require that districts obtain parental consent for placement of a student with an ineffective teacher. Finally, Alabama should allow for a parent trigger when a majority of parents want to turn around a low-performing school. In that scenario, the options for the turned-around school would be one of the four federal Race to the Top intervention models.

Alabama is one of only nine states in the country that does not allow public charter schools. Alabama must establish public charter schools and hold them to high standards to ensure students are not stuck in a failing public school. Additionally, Alabama should provide equal opportunity scholarships for low-income students trapped in chronically failing traditional public schools to attend a private school. If a private school agrees to accept equal opportunity scholarships, Alabama must hold these private schools to the same accountability standards established for traditional public schools.

Children stuck in chronically failing schools should have an option to attend another school of their choice without being punished by the state through reduced funding. Alabama does not currently permit either public charter schools or publicly funded scholarships for private schools. If Alabama authorizes charter schools, it should ensure that they are provided with comparable per-pupil funding and provide them with access to school facilities. Furthermore, Alabama should ensure that any scholarships provided to low-income students are competitive with private school tuition.

The ability to turn around failing schools is often hampered by bureaucratic red tape and politics. However, Alabama has comprehensive governance options available at the state level. Alabama has a strong state takeover mechanism in place that allows the state to intervene when necessary and appoint someone to run the day-to-day operations of a consistently low-performing school, although the state has yet to use this option in a strategic manner. State law also allows the State Board of Education to intervene for a local board of education in a low-performing district that has failed to show improvement. At the local level, governance options are non-existent. To further allow for governance structures that streamline accountability, Alabama should allow mayoral control of low-performing school districts.

Given the limited resources available for public education, states must ensure that districts spend as many dollars as possible in the classroom rather than in bureaucracy and that the dollars invested drive the greatest change. Alabama permits school districts, cities, and counties to issue joint contracts to achieve cost efficiencies. However, Alabama should provide greater spending flexibility to school districts by removing class-size restrictions past the third grade and other spending requirements. Alabama should also empower data-driven decisionmaking by improving the financial data it collects and linking spending to academic achievement. In addition, Alabama needs to provide for governance changes when resources are mismanaged.

Attracting a high-quality workforce will require a competitive retirement plan. Portable retirement options, such as 401(k) plans, are an essential component of compensation packages and make the teaching profession more competitive. It is a classic win-win for teachers and districts. Under current policy, Alabama requires employees of traditional schools to participate in its defined benefit plan. These plans promise teachers a payout based on years of service and salary, not the actual amount contributed to or earned through the fund. If teachers leave before reaching retirement age, they risk losing a significant portion of their savings. To provide career flexibility and ensure sustainability of the existing system, Alabama should move to a portable employer-sponsored retirement plan.