State Targets Five Local Schools in $15 Million Improvement Campaign

State officials are targeting struggling elementary schools in a $15 million improvement effort. Five of those schools are in our area.

A total of 15 elementary schools will receive intense focus and resources in a campaign involving the Governor’s Office, the Alabama Legislature, the Alabama State Department of Education and the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education.

The schools in our area that will be a part of this “Turnaround Schools” effort are:

Montgomery County:
Chisholm Elementary School
Dozier Elementary School
Highland Gardens Elementary School

Wilcox County:
ABC Elementary School
J.E. Hobbs Elementary School

ALSDE says the schools were identified using a variety of data collected before the pandemic. These schools have consistently had low performance in math, reading and language arts according to state assessments from 2018 until now.

Progress updates are scheduled for this month, February 2023 and April 2023. The ALSDE will provide an annual report to present to lawmakers, the governor, the local school superintendent and the principal at each school.

“We don’t expect for anything to change overnight,” State School Supt. Eric Mackey said in a statement. “At a minimum, it will take two or three years for any realistic attempt to bridge the learning loss gap and turn around chronically underperforming schools,” he said.

READ THE COMPLETE REPORT ON TARGETING SCHOOLS