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Elections

General elections for Alabama school boards serving county districts were held on November 8, 2016; city school district elections were held on August 23, 2016. Twelve of the 18 Alabama school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held elections for 27 seats.

Here are several quick facts about Alabama's school board elections in 2016:

• The largest school district by enrollment with an election in 2016 was the Mobile County Public Schools with 58,808 K-12 students.
• The smallest Alabama school district among the nation's largest with an election in 2016 was the Autauga County School System with 9,556 K-12 students.
• Autauga County School System had the most seats on the 2016 ballot with five seats up for election.
• Mobile County Public Schools had the fewest seats on the 2016 ballot with one seat up for election.

The districts listed below served 281,453 K-12 students during the 2013-2014 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district names for more information on each one and its school board elections.

Education policy

See also: Education reform: State funding battles and local responses (2016)

Teacher pay raise granted in Alabama—evaluations challenged in California

See also: Alabama school board elections, 2016 and California school board elections, 2016

During its 2016 legislative session (February 2, 2016-May 4, 2016), the Alabama State Legislature passed HB121, which secured a four percent pay increase for Alabama educators and support staff. Those eligible for the four percent raise had to earn less than $75,000 annually and be active employees. Educators and support staff earning more than $75,000 annually received a two percent pay raise. The bill also granted principals and assistant principals a four percent pay raise, even if they earned more than the $75,000 annual cap.^[1] According to the Alabama Political Reporter, educators in Alabama had not received a significant pay increase since 2007.^[1]

The final version of HB121, signed into law by Gov. Robert Bentley (R), was a compromise between Alabama House and Senate Education Committee members. Sen. Del Marsh (R-12) amended the bill to limit pay increases for teachers that sought an advanced degree but who did not choose to teach in that subject area after obtaining the degree. The House Education Committee, led by Rep. Bill Poole (R-63), also omitted a provision to grant bonus checks to retired educators during the 2016-2017 school year.^[1]

State Sen. Del Marsh (R-12)

In 2015, Sen. Marsh introduced the Rewarding Advancement in Instruction and Student Excellence (RAISE) Act, which would have granted pay increases to all educators but offered larger increases to teachers who would agree to a performance-based merit pay scale without tenure. Although the bill died in committee, the RAISE Act would have used annual evaluations for teachers, principals, and assistant principals to set pay rates based on three criteria: classroom observations, student and parent surveys, and growth in student achievement as measured by the ACT Aspire examination. Had the bill become law, a ruling by California judge Barry Goode could have been used by opponents to fight its assessment provisions. In September 2016, Goode ruled that California school districts could not mandate the use of student test scores in teacher evaluations. The California ruling highlights the preemption conflicts that often arise between state and local governments.^[2]

Election trends

Trends in Alabama school board elections

See also: School boards in session: 2014 elections by the numbers

The following sections analyze competitiveness and incumbency advantage in school board elections held in Alabama's largest school districts by student enrollment. All but one of these districts utilized primary elections. Huntsville City Schools did not. Winners in that election had to receive a plurality, or relative majority, of votes in the general election to secure a seat on the board. Nearly all of the school board elections held in the state in 2014 and 2016 were partisan, requiring candidates to run with a political party designation. Huntsville City Schools, however, held nonpartisan elections.

Details of the data discussed here can be found in the table below.

Competitiveness

Twenty-six school board seats in Alabama's largest school districts by enrollment were up for election in 2016. In 2014, 25 seats were on the ballot, and 40 candidates ran in the elections. That created an average of 1.60 candidates per seat, which was lower than the 2014 national average of 1.89 candidates per seat. A total of 44 percent of school board seats up for election in Alabama were unopposed in 2014. Nationwide that year, 32.57 percent of school board seats were unopposed.

Incumbency advantage

See also: Analysis of incumbency advantage in the 2014 school board elections

A total of 76 percent of the school board incumbents whose terms were on the ballot in Alabama in 2014 ran to retain their seats, and 78.95 percent of them won. Nationally, 81.37 percent of incumbents won re-election in 2014.

Ten newcomers were elected to school boards in the state in 2014. They took 40 percent of the seats on the ballot, which was higher than the 38.19 percent of school board seats that went to newcomers nationally in 2014.

The map below details the success rates for incumbents who ran in the 2014 school board elections that were held in the largest school districts by enrollment in the U.S.

Data table

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Alabama

The sections below do not contain the most recently published data on this subject. If you would like to help our coverage grow, consider donating to Ballotpedia.

Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state for a full comparison of all states

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The chart below presents the percentage of fourth and eighth grade students that scored at or above proficient in reading and math during school year 2012-2013. Compared to three neighboring states (Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi), Alabama's eighth grade students fared the worst in mathematics, with only 20 percent scoring at or above proficient. See the table below for a full comparison.^[3]

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the United States

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Alabama and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.^[3][4][5]

In the United States, public schools reported graduation rates that averaged to about 81.4 percent. About 54 percent of all students in the country took the ACT, while 50 percent reported taking the SAT. The average national composite scores for those tests were 20.9 out of a possible 36 for the ACT, and 1498 out of a possible 2400 for the SAT.^[6]

Alabama schools reported a graduation rate of 80 percent, second highest when compared to surrounding states.

In Alabama, more students took the ACT than the SAT, earning an average ACT score of 20.4.

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades nine through 12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Alabama was lower than the national average at 1.4 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 1.4 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.^[7]

State profile

State profile

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Alabama

Alabama voted Republican in all six presidential elections between 2000 and 2020.

More Alabama coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Alabama
• United States congressional delegations from Alabama
• Public policy in Alabama
• Influencers in Alabama
• Alabama fact checks
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See also

Alabama	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Alabama List of school districts in Alabama	School board elections, 2016 Alabama school board elections, 2015 Alabama school board elections, 2014	Education reform at the state and local levels (2016) School boards in session: 2015 in brief Analysis of spending in America's largest school districts Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey

Footnotes