New State School Superintendent Lays Out Plan
Thursday was the first time that Michael Sentance took his seat as superintendent at a state board meeting.
After doing some research, he says that the first thing the state absolutely must address is math.
“If we want to compete in the future for those high skill high knowledge jobs, biotech, engineering you know, all these kinds of well paying jobs then we need to have a deep understanding of mathematics to set those kind of foundations and to be able to attract those kind of industries to the state,” said Sentance.
He says without that firm foundation, students will never be able to thrive in areas like science.
While there are programs like the Alabama Math Science and Technology Initiative, or AMSTI in place, he says it’s not a strategy.
“The state is very bad at the moment. 52nd in fourth grade in math, 51st in 8th grade math. Those are very challenging numbers. It just means we’re not only not moving ahead fast enough, we are actually falling behind other states,” said Sentance.
It took a lot of work to select Sentance as the new superintendent with some even petitioning to rescind his contract.
But now that he’s officially started, longtime board member Stephanie Bell says she thinks he can turn things around.
“Well he has done it in another state where they were basically where we are now. And he has a plan that I think in a very short period of time once we put in place we will see results and they’ll be dramatic results. He is hitting at every area where we need to work,” said Bell.
