“Last year, less than a quarter of 4th graders were proficient in math, and 1 in 5 Alabama children were food insecure,” states Collier Tynes, CEO of VOICES for Alabama’s Children. “These are not the outcomes of bad teachers or parents.  These are the outcomes of stressed and under-resourced families, teachers, providers, and communities. Historic investments in our children can make tremendous progress in changing these numbers.”

VOICES for Alabama’s Children applauds Alabama Lawmakers for making historic investments in our future, including:

• $17.8 million historic state investment in quality child care programs;
• $22 million increase in First Class Pre-K, expanding access from 42 to 45 percent for four-year olds;
• $1.5 million first-time funding for summer and after-school pilot programs for K-12 students;
• $20 million in provisions of the Alabama Numeracy Act;
• $10 million in flexible grant funding to under-resourced/underperforming school;.
• $5 million mental health pilot program for youth and adolescents;
• $1 million increase for school-based mental health services collaboration; and,
• $4 million postpartum healthcare pilot program for new moms.

Since 1994, the Alabama Kids Count Data Book has documented and tracked the health, education, safety, and economic security of children at the state and county levels. This year’s book confirms the tremendous need for these investments. It also challenges users at the local and statewide levels to look at children’s data as the outcomes of stressed parents, caregivers, providers, and educators.

“To put it simply,” states Tynes, “if we want to see these numbers change, we must support the adults who raise, educate, and care for our children.”

Among this year’s highlights, VOICES points to the following challenges we must continue to address for Alabama’s children and families:

• Child Care: There are only 1,855 licensed child care providers in Alabama to support the workforce of today and tomorrow. Lack of quality child care is a leading reason for decreased workforce participation. Further, babies need quality care and education as their parents work and their brains develop in pivotal years.
• Health: During a youth mental health crisis and increased family stress, there is 1 mental health provider available for every 923 Alabamians. The latest research shows that unaddressed childhood trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) lead to lifelong chronic health issues, along with significant barriers to educational achievement and financial security.
• Economic Security: While 16% of Alabamians live in poverty, 23.9% of Alabama children live in poverty (ex. a household of 4 making $24,750 or less). Further, 1 in 5 children in Alabama are food insecure.
• Education: Poverty leads to significant disparities in education. For Alabama 4th graders in poverty, only 37.9% are proficient in reading and 12.1% are proficient in math.
• Safety and Permanency: In 2021, 3,453 children entered foster care. While cases can have multiple causes of entry, 48% of cases involved parental substance abuse.

“The state is making the right moves to do better for our children and support their families,” states Tynes. “However, we are far from finished. With a bold vision and an unapologetic focus on facts, we can see these numbers change. Most importantly, every child can be happy, healthy, and wildly successful.”

Complete state and county data profiles are available online at
https://alavoices.org/2021-alabama-kids-count/

Additional state and county data visualization, interactive charts and maps available online at https://alavoices.org/kids-count-data-maps/

SAIL was founded in 2012 to build support for rigorous summer learning across the state. It helps educational groups, faith-based foundations, and other community organizations to invest in high-quality summer learning programs and fosters a culture of collaboration among providers. SAIL facilitates assessments, peer learning, and funding opportunities to ensure that high-quality summer learning programs thrive in Alabama.

“SAIL is excited to provide this funding and other support and assistance to summer learning programs across Birmingham and the Black Belt,” said Jim Wooten, the chair of Summer Adventures in Learning. “Every year we see new evidence that reinforces the need for investments in high-quality summer learning. The programs receiving funding this year have shown tremendous gains in reading, math and social skills, helping students succeed during the summer and into the school year.”

In the summer of 2021, 2,000 students participated in a SAIL-supported summer learning camp. Eighty-five percent of students who enrolled completed the full program, and the programs reported an average daily attendance of 84 percent. On average, SAIL students gained 3.2 months in math and 2.6 months in reading. Both totals were record highs for academic growth since SAIL began testing students.

SAIL does not require its grantees to follow a specific curriculum. This flexibility allows each site to design a summer learning program that meets students where they are academically; is tailored to the child’s interests; and addresses the needs of the whole child.

The 2022 SAIL grantees include:

• American Baseball Foundation Inc
• BAMA Kids, Inc.
• Bethel Baptist Church Collegeville
• Blount County Education Foundation
• Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Alabama
• Boys & Girls Clubs of West Alabama
• Breakthrough Birmingham
• BridgeWays
• Build A Better Community
• By Faith Community Development
• CASED, Inc.
• College Admissions Made Possible
• Genius MAP
• Grace Klein Community
• Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church
• IMPACT Family Counseling
• Independent Presbyterian Church
• Kingdom Family Christian Fellowship
• Lifting as We Climb Foundation
• Literacy Council (Walker County)
• NAME Ministries
• Neighborhood Academy, Inc.
• Roanoke City Schools
• Sawyerville
• Tarrant City Schools
• Theo Ratliff Activity Center
• Urban Hope Development
• YMCA of Greater Birmingham
• Zion Spring Baptist Church

Longleaf Strategies advises on communications strategy, leads media outreach, and develops messaging for SAIL.

“Despite Alabama’s unemployment nearing historic lows, the state’s labor force participation and post-secondary attainment rates are lagging behind the rest of the country,” said Dr. Joe Morton, the chairman and president of the Business Education Alliance of Alabama. “Alabama must do more to help students prepare for success after high school graduation. If the state’s labor participation rates were on par with the national average, not only would more Alabamians be working, but wages would be increasing, poverty would be going down, and businesses currently struggling to find help would be more likely to have the support needed to thrive. But, to meet this target, Alabama must work harder and smarter than our neighboring states.”

The BEA report outlines eight proven strategies state policy leaders should invest in to successfully increase the number of students starting school ready to learn, proficient in reading and math, and graduating from high school prepared for college and career. The BEA roadmap encourages state leaders to:

• Achieve universal access to Pre-K by 2026, while maintaining highest in the nation quality standards.
• Ensure all children are reading on grade level by the end of the third grade by Spring 2023. Return Alabama to the national average in reading on NAEP by 2026.
• In 2022, develop and launch a research-based strategic initiative to bring math achievement to the national average on NAEP by 2026. Provide the resources to pay for the teacher education and support needed to implement.
• Eliminate the gap between high school graduation and college and career readiness. Every student should graduate with a valuable career-building credential or with demonstrated readiness for college success.
• Restore the college-going rate for high school graduates to 65 percent.
• Raise Alabama’s labor force participation rate to the national average by 2025. Working in partnership with business and industry, use community colleges, workforce investment programs, and nonprofit support services to target special populations currently underrepresented in the workforce.
• Complete the construction of a longitudinal data system that will allow education and workforce metrics to be tracked and the results analyzed. Data is fundamental to identifying successful or ineffective strategies, understanding outcomes, and weighing cost and benefit.
• Revise and accelerate the state’s Broadband Alabama Strategy to provide Alabamians access to high-speed internet on par with the national average. With an infusion of federal funds available, identify the barriers to bringing access and service to underserved communities, and invest in solutions.

“The abundance of new and one-time funds available to Alabama’s education and workforce development programs this year provides an incredible opportunity to raise educational attainment and workforce participation rates through wise and intentional investments,” said Jay Love, the Business Education Alliance of Alabama’s Finance Chairman. “The BEA report outlines a proven set of strategies our schools and communities can invest in to build the infrastructure and programs needed to help more students succeed.”

“The BEA is right. We cannot expect our students to be prepared for success after school if they are not proficient in reading and math or graduating without meeting any career readiness benchmarks,” said Alabama Governor Kay Ivey. “Alabama’s economy depends on supporting a highly-skilled and innovative workforce prepared for the demands of the modern workplace. No goal is beyond our reach when we work hard and align our efforts towards a common vision. BEA’s report identifies the commonalities between our state’s various efforts including Strong Start, Strong Finish, Success Plus, and Alabama Achieves, and helps all of the entities involved refocus our resources on what matters most.”

“I applaud BEA for its emphasis on using data to know where gaps in Alabama’s workforce preparedness system exist,” said Tim McCartney, the chair of the Alabama Workforce Council. “The establishment of BEA led to a much needed conversation on how our state could better align its nonprofit resources, government services, and educational attainment strategies to help the modern worker succeed. BEA’s research enables the Alabama Workforce Council to assess our progress better and adjust strategies when necessary. While we still have a long way to go to meet our goal of 500,000 newly credentialed Alabamians by the end of 2025, there is no question that BEA’s counsel is keeping us on track.”

The Public Affairs Research Council conducted research and reporting for this report. The A+ Education Partnership provided additional research support and consultation.

“PARCA believes that setting goals, implementing and sustaining research-based strategies, and assessing progress toward those goals is the pathway to improvement,” said Ryan Hankins, the executive director of the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama. “Our students and teachers succeed when we set high expectations and sustain the resources necessary to achieve them. The interdependent initiatives described in this report will require patience, commitment, and the courage to change. But we’ll all benefit from their success.”

Additional findings can be viewed at https://beaalabama.com/research/.

Governor Kay Ivey first proposed the $22.5 million increase in her Fiscal Year 2023 budget request. The Alabama School Readiness Alliance’s Pre-K Task Force included its support for Governor Ivey’s budget request in its 2022 Legislative Recommendations.

The business-led ASRA Pre-K Task Force consists of more than 60 prominent leaders from the business, education, civic, medical, legal, philanthropic, military, and child advocacy communities. The Task Force first proposed expanding voluntary pre-k access to all families in 2012. Since then, state leaders have incrementally increased the level of investment in Alabama’s First Class Pre-K program from $19 million to $151.2 million. In 2012, the program enrolled just six percent of Alabama’s four-year-olds. In the 2020-21 school year, nearly 42 percent of Alabama’s four-year-olds attend First Class Pre-K.

“Alabama must continue to increase investments into the First Class Pre-K program so that more families have an opportunity to voluntarily enroll their four-year-old in a high-quality classroom,” said Allison Muhlendorf, executive director of the Alabama School Readiness Alliance. “PARCA and UAB have studied Alabama’s First Class Pre-K program extensively for several years. Their ongoing, peer-reviewed study shows that not only are First Class Pre-K more prepared for Kindergarten than their peers, but they continue to outperform their peers academically through middle school. The problem is that not enough students have been able to enroll in the state’s program. This year’s funding increase will keep Alabama on path to one day enrolling every family interested in participating in First Class Pre-K.”

In addition to increased funding, the Task Force proposed a series of recommendations to maintain the First Class Pre-K program’s benchmarks for quality and accountability. The Task Force released its plan in a webinar with advocates from across the state.

ASRA’s panel discussion also featured Alabama State Representative Wes Kitchens (HD-27), the co-chair of the Joint Legislative Study Commission on Expanding Access to Quality Pre-Kindergarten. Rep. Kitchens provided an update on his panel’s inquiry to identify solutions that could expand access to early childhood education in underserved communities.

Click here to watch the video from ASRA’s presentation.

The Pre-K Task Force’s Recommendations are available in their entirety at https://www.alabamaschoolreadiness.org/2022Recommendations.

Longleaf Strategies advises on communications strategy, leads media outreach, develops messaging, and produces collateral materials for the Alabama School Readiness Alliance.

Attendees at the Formation Institute focused on understanding the root causes and other circumstances that explain why some students struggle to read proficiently by the end of the third grade. Research shows that a student’s ability to read by the end of the third grade is a strong predictor of that child’s future success. Students who continue to struggle after third grade are more likely to struggle in middle school and high school, less likely to graduate from high school, and less likely to be college- and career-ready.

In addition to reviewing academic proficiency and other school-based data, Bold Goal Coalition members reviewed, among others, regional poverty, health, and food insecurity statistics. Coalition members focused their discussions on the relationship between the datasets, including patterns, systems, and other contributing factors that may explain why these outcomes exist. Coalition members then formed working groups to prioritize new and existing community-based initiatives to address the identified issues.

Among the themes identified by the Coalition were early education and care, family engagement and support, school attendance, out-of-classroom learning, and community partnerships. The Coalition established work groups for each of these areas and are identifying strategies to drive preferred outcomes in each area.

“There are many issues and challenges preventing children from learning to read by the end of the third grade,” said Ron Simmons, president & CEO of the River Region United Way. “No one person or group can solve these issues by themselves. What’s important is that we agree on a common set of outcomes that we influence, and actively work towards achieving them in service of our children.”

Longleaf Strategies manages the River Region Bold Goal Coalition and helped produce the Formation Institute.

This summer, SAIL supported 35 independent summer learning programs enrolling more than 2,000 students across the state. Of those, 30 offered in-person classes, and five were virtual-only.

Eighty-five percent of students who enrolled in a SAIL program this summer completed it, and the programs reported an average daily attendance of 84 percent. On average, SAIL students gained 3.2 months in math and 2.6 months in reading. Both totals represent record highs for academic growth since SAIL began testing students.

“Students, teachers, and families were eager to participate in a summer learning camp this year, and their enthusiasm translated into outstanding academic outcomes,” said Jim Wooten, chair of Summer Adventures in Learning. “Like most school programs, SAIL is still feeling the impact of the pandemic. Enrollment was still below pre-pandemic levels, and we are increasing our use of online learning strategies in in-person programs. However, this summer demonstrates that blending the best approaches from summer camp with summer school appeals to students and families, and it works.”

This year’s students’ success is especially significant due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the 2020-2021 school year. According to pre-camp assessments, students began the summer with the lowest reading and math proficiency rates in SAIL’s history.

Longleaf Strategies advises on communications strategy, leads media outreach, and develops messaging for SAIL.

*Photo courtesy of the Alabama Governor’s office.