Barbara S. Allen, Interim Superintendent

Dear parents and community members:

The 2008-2009 school year was a great success for the Birmingham City Schools, and I believe the 2009-2010 school year will be another year of outstanding achievement for our students.

The school district exists for the education of the 27,000 children whose parents have entrusted them to us. That's why I am sure that all of our teachers, principals, assistant principals, counselors, media specialists, administrators and other employees will work their hardest to ensure that our students have the best education possible.

Our students made significant progress in the last year. District-wide, our scores improved on the Alabama Reading and Math Test, Stanford Achievement Test, Alabama Science Test and the Alabama Direct Assessment of Writing in all three grades where it is given.

Our elementary, middle and K-8 schools outshone their previous performance when it comes to making adequate yearly progress on state accountability tests. Forty-nine of the 52 schools in those categories - or 94 percent - made AYP in 2009, according to data released by the Alabama State Department of Education in August.

It makes me feel especially good to see that a number of schools achieved beyond the standards by a considerable margin, and not just our magnet schools. Wilkerson, Smith, Huffman, Center Street, Martha Gaskins and Daniel Payne Middle schools, Hudson K-8 School and Hemphill Elementary School all exceeded the state standard in both reading and math by more than 10 percent.

Our goal is for our schools to do much better than meeting AYP because AYP is just adequate, and our children need more than an adequate education.

Our focus for 2009-2010 will be on our high schools, where six of the seven failed to make AYP. Ramsay met all of its goals, and Parker met its academic goals but fell short on its graduation rate. The greatest weakness in the other schools was reading, and we are strategizing on how we can improve in that area.

We are excited about a new grant from A-Plus College Ready that is helping us increase the number of Advanced Placement courses offered at Wenonah, Huffman and Ramsay high schools. We are using district funds to pay for AP classes at our other schools, which means that all of our high schools have AP classes this school year. In addition, our middle schools now have pre-AP classes designed to prepare students for higher-level classes in high school.

Increasing the number of higher-level classes fits in with the district's focus on academic achievement, which is one of five priority areas in the strategic plan. The other areas are finance, human capital, communication and partnerships and safe and nurturing environment.

Everyone in the district - including those based at schools and those in administrative positions - will be focusing on these priorities during the 2009-2010 school year. We need parents and other stakeholders to work hand in hand with us to achieve our goals. We can achieve much more together than we can separately.

Barbara S. Allen

Interim Superintendent