#middle district of alabama

[garadinervi]

Testimony from Aurelia S. Browder et al. v. W. A. Gayle, et al., No 1147, District Court of the United States for the Middle District of Alabama, Northern Division, May 11, 1956 (pdf here) [Civil Case Files, 1938-1995, Records of the District Courts of the United States, Civil Rights Digital Library, Digital Library of Georgia, GALILEO, University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, GA]

[hometoursandotherstuff]

If any Victorian lovers wouldn't mind living on Main St. entering the historic district of Oxford, Alabama, this 1880 beauty is a bargain. 5bds, 3ba, $275K. It's worth every penny, too.

The kitchen looks pretty good, considering some others we've seen. This looks like an original pantry.

Double glass doors open to a middle hall separating the dining and living rooms. There are pocket doors to close off each room.

Lovely dining room has the table placement right in front of the fireplace. Usually, they're off to the side.

This home has so many original features. This door has a colored glass framed window and the wood in the hall was painted white, but I think that it makes it looks brighter - look at how dark the wood on the door is.

The door is very old and has the original doorbell.

The bedrooms have beautiful original fireplaces. And the doors, molding, etc., have not been painted.

The bath was modernized but still has most of the vintage elements, including the painted floor.

Cozy little sitting room.

This looks like the primary bedroom, and it's lovely.

The other bathroom has an original clawfoot tub.

Bedroom #3 is also lovely and has a pretty, white fireplace.

The bedrooms are all quite spacious and all have original fireplaces with beautiful fire screens.

The front porch has a lovely railing.

The wood on the exterior needs some attention, like scraping, repainting, and some repair.

Maybe some patching for the cement stairs.

There's a garage, and old barn and an outbuilding.

Lots of land, too- 2.22 acres.

[radiofreederry]

Happy birthday, Rosa Parks! (February 4, 1913)

An icon of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks was born in Tuskeegee, Alabama at the height of Jim Crow, to a Black family with partial Scots-Irish and Native ancestry. Her activism began in the 1940s, when she became the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. She attended the Highlander Folk School in 1955, an institution which instructed activists in the struggles for racial and gender equality. Parks is best known for her pivotol role in instigating the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56, a key turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. Parks was arrested for refusing to relinquish her seat on the bus to a white passenger, and the subsequent protest and boycott by Black residents and activists lasted a year and succeeded in having bus segregation found to be unconstitutional by the Middle District Court of Alabama. Parks' role in the boycott caused her hardship, and she ultimately left the South entirely to settle in Detroit, where she became an activist for fair housing and against police brutality. She died in 2005.

“Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground.”

[anarchywoofwoof]

so today, a new study was released by the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy and it's all about how the richest 1% in 41 states are literally paying less in taxes than the rest of us.

you heard that right. while the average person is out here struggling to make ends meet, the data reveals a truth that you probably already suspected: the ultra-wealthy are basically getting a free pass.

this isn't just some random report. it's a detailed analysis of tax systems across all 50 states and DC, looking at how different income groups are taxed. and the findings are kind of infuriating.

first off, most state and local tax systems are regressive in nature. this means they hit the low- and middle-income families the hardest. the bottom 20% are paying tax rates almost 60% higher than the top 1%.

and here's the kicker – in 41 out of 50 states, the rich are taxed at lower rates than everyone else. we're talking about the top 1% of earners here. they're literally paying less than any other income group.

if we look solely at Appendix A and Appendix B from the data, for example:

Appendix A - Tax Burden by Income Group: this tab on the worksheet shows the total state and local taxes as a share of family income for different income groups in each state. the columns represent different income groups, ranging from the lowest 20% of income earners in the given state to the top 1%. you can get the per capita income by state here.

for instance, in Alabama, the lowest 20% of earners pay about 11.87% of their income in taxes, while the top 1% pay only about 5.38%.

likewise, in Alaska, the lowest 20% pay around 8.71%, and the top 1% pay about 2.78%.

Appendix B - Tax Inequality Index: this section ranks states based on their tax inequality index and provides effective tax rates for different groups. states like Florida and Washington rank highest in terms of tax regressivity.

for example, in Florida, the lowest 20% pay an effective tax rate of 13.17%, while the top 1% pay just 2.74%.

Washington shows a similar pattern with the lowest 20% paying 13.80% and the top 1% paying 4.05%.

oh, and if you're low-income, it's even worse. in 34 states, low-income families are taxed at higher rates than anyone else. these are people who can barely afford to pay their bills, and they're being taxed higher than the richest people in the state.

the most regressive tax systems are in Florida, Washington, Tennessee, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. these places lean heavily on sales and excise taxes, which hit the poorest the hardest. states that are often branded as "low tax" – like Florida and Texas – are actually high-tax hells for low-income families.

some states are actually trying to fix this mess. New Mexico, Massachusetts, and even Washington are making moves toward less regressive taxes. they're making efforts to up taxes on the rich and giving some relief to the rest of us.

on the flip side however, some states are just making things worse. Arizona, Kentucky, South Dakota, and others are cutting taxes for the wealthy and screwing over low-income families even more. between 2021 and 2023, twenty-six states in total cut their personal income tax rates and/or corporate income tax rates, 13 of them multiple times

this report should serve as a wake-up call. it's showing us in black and white math how rigged the system is against the average person. the bottom line is that the rich are getting richer, and they're doing it at the expense of the rest of us. it's time to start calling out the gross disparity a little louder for the people in the back.

[mariacallous]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee would join the ranks of states where public school employees have to out transgender students to their parents under a bill advancing in the Republican-supermajority Legislature.

GOP House lawmakers gave near-final passage to the bill on Monday, putting Tennessee just a few hurdles away from joining states such as Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana and North Carolina with similar laws. Virginia has such guidance for school boards, as well. The bill goes back for another vote in the Senate, which had already passed a version of it, before it can go to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for his signature.

The bill’s progression comes as Tennessee Republican lawmakers have established the state as one of the most eager to pass policies aimed at the LGBTQ+ community as Republicans pursue legislation nationwide.

During Monday’s limited but heated House floor hearing, Democrats took turns alleging that their Republican colleagues were constantly finding new ways to bully LGBTQ+ kids.

“These are the most vulnerable kids in our state who are just trying to make it out of middle school alive,” said Democratic Rep. Aftyn Behn. “And we are weaponizing their identities instead of actually passing bills that help Tennesseans.”

Audible gasps could be heard from the public galleries when the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Mary Littleton, argued that the legislation was needed so parents could know if their student would need therapy.

“I feel like the parents, they have the right to know what’s happening in the school with their children,” Littleton said. “And I also think that possibly they could get that child some therapy that could help them solve their problems and make their way through school.”

Littleton also confirmed she did not speak to any transgender students before introducing the proposal but said some teachers had told her that they did not want the responsibility of having such information.

According to the legislation that passed Monday, school employees would be required to pass on information about a student to an administrator, who would have to tell the parent. That includes a student asking for action to affirm their gender identity, such as using a different name or pronoun.

However, the bill also would allow parents or the state’s attorney general to sue if they felt the school district was not following this new law.

The proposal is just one of several targeting the LGBTQ+ community over the years.

Earlier this year, Tennessee Republicans passed a measure that would allow LGBTQ+ foster children to be placed with families that hold anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs. Gov. Lee signed the bill into law last week. Lawmakers are still considering criminalizing adults who help minors receive gender-affirming care without parental consent.

Meanwhile, Tennessee Republicans have banned gender-affirming care for most minors, attempted to limit events where certain drag performers may appear, and allow, but not require, LGBTQ+ children to be placed with families that hold anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs.

In schools, they already have approved legal protections for teachers who do not use a transgender student’s preferred pronoun, restricted transgender athletes, limited transgender students’ use of bathrooms aligning with their gender identity and allowed parents to opt students out of classroom conversations about gender and sexuality.

[beardedmrbean]

U.S. students’ math scores lag behind also dreary reading ones and have struggled even before the pandemic, but changes to the math curriculum to combat the problem have been slow-moving.  

Over the past few years, reading curricula have seen changes in dozens of states as lawmakers and experts have united around the “science of reading” to improve literacy and fight learning loss.

But similar efforts have not manifested for math despite lower scores in national assessments, and some experts say that’s because this is one problem that can’t be fixed with new state laws.

“There are places where this science of reading has been legislated, right? But it’s a frightening thing to think that the same thing could happen for mathematics because there isn’t, like I said, one clean answer here,” said Ted Coe, a mathematics expert with the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), an education research organization.  

“But so much of the mathematics that we teach and learn depends on so many factors, and it would be a frightening thing if somebody tried to legislate how to teach mathematics,” Coe added.  

Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results showed U.S. students hit an all-time low in their math scores last year while reading scores appear to have plateaued. Out of 81 countries, the U.S. was sixth in reading and 26th in math.  

“I think that the science of reading has captured the imagination of the public in part because parents and adults understand the value of literacy to their own well-being as citizens and employees. And as parents, they’re able to help their students with reading,” said Michelle Stie, who works on program design and innovation at the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI).    

“So math does sometimes get a little short shift in our imagination, maybe because of our own experience and in school. But I do think [the emphasis on] reading is because it is something that we all know and appreciate the value of, and it does capture our imagination,” Stie added. 

And student’s math problems haven’t been completely ignored at the state level.  

California instituted substantial reforms in its math curriculum last year that put a bigger emphasis on topics such as data science and moved algebra up to higher grades, a controversial move that critics say indicated the state was backing away from a tough subject.

West Virginia passed a law that created more benchmarks for where students should be in math and reading literacy and allowed students to be held back at third grade if they were not meeting the educational standards.

Colorado passed a bill that focused on teacher training in math, providing more help outside the classroom on the subject and a bigger focus on math in preschool.

And math coaches were introduced in Alabama to help students in lower-performing school districts.  

A “couple of themes” in the math changes have been training teachers and helping them get professional development opportunities to become more comfortable with math, according to Jeremy Anderson, CEO of NMSI and previously president of the Education Commission of the States. 

Stie said often teachers, particularly those of younger students, “don’t have the kind of in-depth math preparation, as part of their post-secondary training themselves” to be the best possible educators on the subject.

“So really thinking about how do we build the confidence, the expertise of elementary teachers, middle school teachers in math, so that math is presented in their classrooms confidently, joyfully and really focusing in on what makes math fun and relevant for their students is part of the puzzle here,” Stie said.  

While reading has dominated conversations about curriculum changes, math researchers are in the wings working on what the next steps will be for schools, including a renewed emphasis on the discipline’s importance.

“A lot of effort and money has been put into conceptualizing literacy as extremely important, extremely lacking amongst our kids and worth investing in, and it hasn’t been the same case for mathematics. But there is work being done to alleviate that, put math up on that same level of importance. It hasn’t happened yet, but it is in motion,” said Kirby Schoephoerster, program manager for the National Math Foundation.   

“I’m extremely hopeful because from the researcher’s perspective, it seems like all hands are on deck to try to answer these questions from a number of different angles,” he added.

[tieflingkisser]

Lawsuit alleges Alabama prisons using forced labor

Alabama’s prison labor program system is a form of modern-day slavery, according to a 126-page lawsuit filed by former and currently incarcerated Alabamians, unions and civil rights organizations on Tuesday morning. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama in Montgomery, alleges that Alabama prison labor is sustained by punishing those who refuse to work or those who encourage other prisoners to refuse to work. It also accuses public and private entities, ranging from local governments to fast food restaurants and grocery stores, of benefitting from the labor. “They have been entrapped in a system of ‘convict leasing’ in which incarcerated people are forced to work, often for little or no money, for the ‘benefit of the numerous government entities and private businesses that ’employ them,’” the lawsuit alleged. The Alabama Department of Corrections said Tuesday it does not comment on ongoing litigation. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit — who include currently and formerly incarcerated Alabamians, three unions representing service industry employees and the Woods Foundation, a civil rights organization — are asking the court to issue an injunction, ending Alabama’s current practice of “forced [prison] labor;” to release individuals qualified for parole; require the state to pay the plaintiffs what they earn through working in the prison system, as well as monetary damages to be determined at trial.

[...]

Janet Herold, legal director at Justice Catalyst Law and an attorney representing the plaintiffs, compared the current system to Alabama’s convict-leasing system, which ran from the 1870s to 1928. Under convict-leasing, private companies paid the state for uncompensated labor by state inmates, most of whom were Black, to work in degrading and often deadly conditions. The lawsuit claims Alabama made almost half a billion dollars from prison labor in 2023. “We’re not talking here today about a new Jim Crow, we’re talking here about the old Jim Crow,” Herold said. The lawsuit also alleged that the state grew these programs by favoring white over Black prisoners in parole decisions for release. It further alleges that the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, which has sharply curtailed parole grants in recent years, has “unlawfully refused to release people from prison and further skewed the racial composition of the incarcerated population by wrongfully denying parole to thousands of Alabamians—and to Black Alabamians in particular.”

[batboyblog]

Justice Department Challenges Tennessee Law that Bans Critical, Medically Necessary Care for Transgender Youth

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

The Justice Department today filed a complaint challenging Tennessee Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), a recently enacted law that denies necessary medical care to youth based solely on who they are. The complaint alleges that SB 1’s ban on providing certain medically necessary care to transgender minors violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The department is also asking the court to issue an immediate order to prevent the law from going into effect on July 1, 2023.

SB 1 makes it unlawful to provide or offer to provide certain types of medical care for transgender minors with diagnosed gender dysphoria. SB 1’s blanket ban prohibits potential treatment options that have been recommended by major medical associations for consideration in limited circumstances in accordance with established and comprehensive guidelines and standards of care. By denying only transgender youth access to these forms of medically necessary care while allowing non-transgender minors access to the same or similar procedures, SB 1 discriminates against transgender youth. The department’s complaint alleges that SB 1 violates the Equal Protection Clause by discriminating on the basis of both sex and transgender status. Doctors, parents and anyone else who provides or offers to provide the prohibited care faces the possibility of civil suits for 30 years and other sanctions.

“No person should be denied access to necessary medical care just because of their transgender status,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The right to consider your health and medically-approved treatment options with your family and doctors is a right that everyone should have, including transgender children, who are especially vulnerable to serious risks of depression, anxiety and suicide. The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department will continue to aggressively challenge all forms of discrimination and unlawful barriers faced by the LGBTQI+ community.”

“SB1 violates the constitutional rights of some of Tennessee’s most vulnerable citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee. “Left unchallenged, it would prohibit transgender children from receiving health care that their medical providers and their parents have determined to be medically necessary. In doing so, the law seeks to substitute the judgment of trained medical professionals and parents with that of elected officials and codifies discrimination against children who already face far too many obstacles.”

Today’s filings are the latest action by the Justice Department to combat LGBTQI+ discrimination, including unlawful restrictions on medical care for transgender youth. On March 31, 2022, Assistant Attorney General Clarke issued a letter to all state attorneys general reminding them of federal constitutional and statutory provisions that protect transgender youth against discrimination. On April 29, 2022, the Justice Department intervened in a lawsuit challenging a law in Alabama (Senate Bill 184) that imposes a felony ban on medically necessary care for transgender minors. As a result of that litigation, the most significant provisions of Alabama’s Senate Bill 184 have been preliminarily halted from going into effect, and the United States continues to challenge its constitutionality.

Additional information about the Civil Rights Division’s work to uphold and protect the civil and constitutional rights of LGBTQI+ individuals is available on its website at www.justice.gov/crt/lgbtqi-working-group. Complaints about discriminatory practices may be reported to the Civil Rights Division through its internet reporting portal at civilrights.justice.gov.

[coochiequeens]

Today for Women’s History March we honor Claudette Colvin

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

A full nine months before Rosa Parks's famous act of civil disobedience, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin is arrested on March 2, 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama bus. 

Colvin was traveling home from school when the bus' driver ordered her, along with three fellow Black students, to give up their row of seats to a white passenger. Colvin’s friends obliged, but she refused to move. At school, she had recently learned about abolitionists, and later recalled that “it felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down. I couldn’t get up.”

Montgomery segregation laws at the time dictated that Black passengers sit behind white passengers on public transportation, and bus drivers routinely moved Black passengers to make room for white passengers. Colvin, in refusing to move, cited that she paid her fare and staying seated was her constitutional right. She was then forcibly removed from the bus by two police officers, handcuffed and arrested, and booked in a local adult jail. She was charged with violating segregation law, disorderly conduct and assaulting a police officer. (The former two charges were dropped, but the latter stayed on her record until it was expunged over six decades later in 2021.)

After being picked up by her parents that day, Colvin recalled her father’s fear of reprisal from the Ku Klux Klan and recounted that he did not sleep that night and instead sat armed with a fully loaded shotgun.

Colvin’s arrest was not the first instance of a Black person in the South refusing to give up their seat on a bus to a white passenger, but it did come at a pivotal moment for the civil rights movement. Fred D. Gray, a prominent Montgomery lawyer and activist, took Colvin on as a client—his first civil rights case—with the aim of filing a federal suit to desegregate Alabama's bus system. Local civil rights leaders, however, decided not to proceed, in part due to Colvin’s age but also because, by her own assessment, she was too dark-skinned and soon became pregnant at age 16. These factors, some feared, would hurt her chances of winning the case—unlike the known community figure who soon followed in her footsteps: Rosa Parks. 

On December 1, 1955, Parks, a 42-year-old seamstress and NAACP secretary, also refused to vacate her seat on a Montgomery bus for a white passenger, and was arrested. Days later, segregated buses became a central site of struggle: The Montgomery Bus Boycott, during which Black residents refused to use the city bus system, began on December 5, 1955. On its first day, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., proclaimed: “My friends, I want it to be known that we’re going to work with grim and bold determination to gain justice on the buses in this city. … we are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong.”

In 1956, that claim went to court: Gray, alongside Charles D. Langford, brought a legal case before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, which challenged the constitutionality of bus segregation in both the city of Montgomery and the state as a whole. Known as Browder v. Gayle, it was filed on behalf of four Black women who, the district court later determined, were treated unconstitutionally on the Montgomery’s bus system: Colvin, Susie McDonald, Aurelia S. Browder and Mary Louise Smith—another teenager whose bus protest predated Park's. (A fifth plaintiff, Jeanetta Reese, was intimidated to withdraw from the case.)

Browder v. Gayle ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the earlier ruling that bus segregation was in violation of the 14th Amendment. Attempts at appeal were rejected, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott—considered the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation—came to a close on December 20, 1956, 381 days after it began, and one year, nine months and 18 days after Colvin's arrest.

[xtruss]

The 12 States That Pay The Highest Minimum Wage! Some States Are More Worker-Friendly Than Others.

— By Jake Rossen | Apr 16, 2024

Minimum Wage Varies by State. PM Images/Stone via Getty Images

California disrupted the wage worker industry this year when it announced a new $20 minimum hourly rate for fast food workers. The move has prompted giants like McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and others to cut positions and hike prices.

Corporations may not be happy, but state laws are increasingly bolstering minimum wage bumps to address longstanding misalignment between service-industry earnings and extreme cost of living increases. (At the federal level, minimum wage is just $7.25—the same as it was in 2009.)

Recently, finance hub Visual Capitalist collected the 11 states—plus one district—that can boast of the highest minimum wages. All of them virtually double the federal rate, paying workers at least $14 an hour. The breakdown:

District of Columbia // $17

Washington // $16.28

California // $16

Connecticut // $15.69

New Jersey // $15.13

Maryland // $15

New York // $15

Massachusetts // $15

Colorado // $14.42

Arizona // $14.35

Oregon // $14.20

Maine // $14.15

The District of Columbia mandates $17.50 an hour, the highest minimum wage in the country currently. (The minimum is set to take effect July 1, 2024. As of this writing, it’s $17.) The district is also looking out for tipped workers: They make a minimum $10 beginning in July, up from $8.

The state with the highest minimum is Washington at $16.28, followed closely by California at $16. Both may be outpaced come 2028, when Hawaii plans on raising the minimum from $14 to $18.

Just as states have the latitude to raise wages, so do cities. In the Portland, Oregon, metro area, workers earn $15.45. (In non-urban areas, it’s $13.20.) While Washington is the top state, it pays to be in a specific area: Seattle offers workers $19.97 per hour. In Tukwila, Washington, companies with 500 or more employees must pay $20.29 hourly—currently the highest in the country.

While many states are proactive in acknowledging affordability, some are not. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, five states—Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee—have no state minimum wage, which means they default to the federal minimum. Two states, Wyoming and Georgia, set their minimum below $7.25. Again, federal law supersedes it. But in Georgia, an employee must be covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act. If not, their wage defaults to $5.15 hourly.

Naturally, wages only tell part of the story when it comes to cost of living. While these states are the most generous from a wage worker standpoint, they also tend to rank toward the top when it comes to cost of living. Only Arizona and Maine are middle-of-the-road, coming in at 29 and 30 on the U.S. News and World Report ranking of affordability. The most affordable state, Mississippi, sticks to the federal minimum.

California’s fast food employee law is sometimes seen as emblematic of companies who will pass wage hike expenses on to consumers. Recently, burger franchise In-N-Out president Lynsi Snyder pushed back on that, vowing the company wouldn’t dramatically raise prices.

[garadinervi]

Claudette Colvin – Testimony from Aurelia S. Browder et al. v. W. A. Gayle, et al., No 1147, District Court of the United States for the Middle District of Alabama, Northern Division, May 11, 1956, pp. 17-22 (pdf here) [Civil Case Files, 1938-1995, Records of the District Courts of the United States, Civil Rights Digital Library, Digital Library of Georgia, GALILEO, University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, GA]

[brookston]

Holidays 3.8

Holidays

Be Nasty Day

The Bikini Bottom Free (Crabcakes) Day (SpongeBob Squarepants)

Brčko District Establishment Day (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Colorism Awareness Day

Cybele Asteroid Day

Decoration Day (Liberia)

Donkey Appreciation Day

Exceed Medical Microneedling Day

False Case Day

Farmer's Day

Fill Our Staplers Day

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Day

International Akita Day

International Women's Day (a.k.a. ... 

Big Boots Brew Day (Pink Boots Society)

Day For Women's Rights and International Peace (UN)

Embrace Equality Day (2023 Theme)

Girls Write Now Day

International Women's Collaboration Brew Day

Journée Internationale des Femmes (France)

Nari Dibas (Nepal)

Uppity Women Day

Xalaqaro Xotin-Qizlar Kuni (Uzbekistan)

Yellow Mimosa Day (Italy)

Jedi Day

Mother’s Day (Albania, Eastern Europe, Russia, Soviet Bloc)

National August Day

National Biobased Products Day

National Breast Implant Awareness Day

National Heroes and Benefactors Day (Belize)

National Oregon Day

National Proofreading Day

National Retro Video Game Day

Order of Charity Day

Pimpernel Day (French Republic)

Private George Watson Day

Revolution Day (Syria)

Stab e-Barat (Night of Records; Bangladesh)

Shuttlecock Day (Leicester, Yorkshire)

Tar and Feather Day

Teacher’s Day (Lebanon)

308 Day

Volunteers of America Day

World Maths Day

World Potocki-Lupski Syndrome Awareness Day

Ziua Mamei (Mother’s Day; România)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Big Boots Brew Day (Pink Boots Society)

Drink It Now Day

International Women's Collaboration Brew Day

National Peanut Cluster Day

2nd Friday in March

Arbor Day (New Mexico) [2nd Friday]

Cookie Beer Day [2nd Friday]

Fry Day (Pastafarian; Fritism) [Every Friday]

International Grant Professionals Day [2nd Friday]

Middle Name Pride Day [Friday of Name Week]

National Freelancers Day [2nd Friday]

National Preschooler’s Day [2nd Friday]

National Pyjama Day (Belgium) [2nd Friday]

Solar Appreciation Day [2nd Friday]

SXSW Day (South by Southwest begins) [2nd Friday]

Weekly Holidays beginning March 8 (1st Week)

National Catholic Sisters Week [thru 3.14]

National Science & Engineering Week [begins Friday of 1st Full Week; thru 3.17]

World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup (Sweetwater, Texas) [2nd Friday; thru 3.10]

Independence & Related Days

Mahonia (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Matyár (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Revolution Day (St. Petersburg, Russia; 1917)

Vietnam (Proclaimed within French Union; 1949)

Festivals Beginning March 8, 2024

BBQ & Blues Cook-Off (Foley, Alabama) [thru 3.9]

Boysenberry Festival (Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, California) [thru 4.28]

Japan Golf Fair (Yokohama, Japan) [thru 3.10]

Kaziukas Fair (Vilnius, Lithuania) [thru 3.10]

Open Season Sportsman’s Expo (Overland Park, Kansas) [thru 3.10]

Ostrich Festival (Chandler, Arizona) [thru 3.10 + 3.15-17]

Port Fairy Folk Festival (Victoria, Australia) [thru 3.11]

Rattlesnake Roundup (Sweetwater, Texas) [thru 3.10]

South by Southwest [SXSW] (Austin, Texas) [thru 3.16]

Wine, Spirits & Culinary Celebration (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)

WOMAD (Melbourne, Australia) [thru 3.11]

Feast Days

Annie Bonny Day (Pastafarian)

Anselm Kiefer (Artology)

Apollonius, Philemon, and others, of Egypt (Christian; Martyrs)

Birthday of Mother Earth (Pagan)

Colin Campbell Cooper (Artology)

Day of No Interest to Fairies (Shamanism)

Duthak, Bishop of Ross (Christian; Saint)

Edward King (Church of England)

Felix of Burgundy (or Dunwich; Christian; Saint)

Festival of the Earth Goddess (China)

Humphrey (or Hunfrid; Christian; Saint)

John of God (Christian; Saint) [Against Alcoholism]

Julian, Archbishop of Toledo (Christian; Saint)

Kenneth Grahame (Writerism)

Mother Earth Day (Everyday Wicca)

Neil Postman (Writerism)

Philemon the actor (Christian; Saint)

Pontius (Christian; Saint)

Psalmoid of Ireland (a.k.a. Saumay; Christian; Saint)

Romeo Scuggs (Muppetism)

Rosa, Virgin of Viterbo (Christian; Saint)

Rosso Fiorentino (Artology)

Senan, Bishop in Ireland (Christian; Saint)

Stephen of Obazine (Christian; Saint)

Thucydides (Positivist; Saint)

Veremund (Christian; Saint)

Weird Al Yankovic Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Lucky Day (Philippines) [16 of 71]

Perilous Day (13th Century England) [13 of 32]

Prime Number Day: 67 [19 of 72]

Unfortunate Day (Pagan) [18 of 57]

Premieres

The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (Film; 1967)

After Life (TV Series; 2019)

All’s Well That Ends Well (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1940)

Banquet Busters (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1948)

Beavis and Butt-Head (Animated TV Series; 1993)

Brutal Youth, by Elvis Costello (Album; 1994)

Captain Marvel (Film; 2019)

Chungking Express (Film; 1996)

A College for Two or Rock Enrolls (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 352; 1965)

Damsel (Film; 2024)

The Downward Spiral, by Nine Inch Nails (Album; 1994)

Duck Hunt (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1937)

Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time (Animal Film; 2021)

Fargo (Film; 1996)

Females is Fickle (Flesicher Popeye Cartoon; 1940)

Heavy Metal (Animated Film; 1996)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Radio Play; 1978)

Japanese Lanterns (Rainbow Parade Cartoon; 1935)

Just Like a Woman, recorded by Bob Dylan (Song; 1966)

A Knight for a Day (Disney Cartoon; 1946)

Kung Fu Panda 4 (Animated Film; 2024)

La Femme Nikita (Film; 1991)

Mask (Film; 1985)

The Moth and the Spider (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1935)

Musique d’Ameublement (Furniture Music), by Erik Satie (Muzak; 1920)

New Jack City (Film; 1991)

Oz the Great and Powerful (Film; 2013)

The Peanuts Movie (Animated Film; 2015)

Poldark (TV Mini-Series; 2015)

The Prospecting Bear (MGM Cartoon; 1941)

Quack, Quack (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1931)

Queen II, by Queen (Album; 1974)

The Road to Wigan Pier, by George Orwell (Book; 1936)

Roberta (Film; 1935)

Robin Hood Daffy (WB MM Cartoon; 1958)

Royal Wedding (Film; 1951)

Subterranean Homesick Blues, by Bob Dylan (Song; 1965)

Superunknown, by Soundgarden (Album; 1994)

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, by Jean Sibelius (Symphony; 1902)

The Wicked Wolf (Mighty Mouse Cartoon; 1946)

Wossamotta U, Part 1 (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 351; 1965)

Today’s Name Days

Gerhard, Johannes (Austria)

Boško, Ivan, Ivša (Croatia)

Gabriela (Czech Republic)

Beata (Denmark)

Lepo, Viilo, Viilup, Vilbo (Estonia)

Vilppu (Finland)

Jean (France)

Gerhard, Johannes (Germany)

Hermes, Theofylaktos (Greece)

Zoltán (Hungary)

Giovanni, Salvatore, Severino (Italy)

Dagmāra, Marga, Margita (Latvia)

Beata, Gaudvilė, Laima, Vydminas (Lithuania)

Beate, Bettina, Betty (Norway)

Beata, Filemon, Jan, Julian, Miligost, Miłogost, Stefan, Wincenty (Poland)

Teofilact (Romania)

Alan, Alana (Slovakia)

Juan (Spain)

Filippa, Siv (Sweden)

Humfrey, Humphrey, Ponty (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 68 of 2024; 298 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 5 of week 10 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Nuin (Ash) [Day 20 of 28]

Chinese: Month 1 (Bing-Yin), Day 28 (Xin-Wei)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025)

Hebrew: 28 Adair I 5784

Islamic: 27 Sha’ban 1445

J Cal: 8 Green; Oneday [8 of 30]

Julian: 24 February 2024

Moon: 4%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 12 Aristotle (3rd Month) [Archytas]

Runic Half Month: Tyr (Cosmic Pillar) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 79 of 89)

Week: 1st Week of March

Zodiac: Pisces (Day 19 of 30)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 3.8

Holidays

Be Nasty Day

The Bikini Bottom Free (Crabcakes) Day (SpongeBob Squarepants)

Brčko District Establishment Day (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Colorism Awareness Day

Cybele Asteroid Day

Decoration Day (Liberia)

Donkey Appreciation Day

Exceed Medical Microneedling Day

False Case Day

Farmer's Day

Fill Our Staplers Day

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Day

International Akita Day

International Women's Day (a.k.a. ... 

Big Boots Brew Day (Pink Boots Society)

Day For Women's Rights and International Peace (UN)

Embrace Equality Day (2023 Theme)

Girls Write Now Day

International Women's Collaboration Brew Day

Journée Internationale des Femmes (France)

Nari Dibas (Nepal)

Uppity Women Day

Xalaqaro Xotin-Qizlar Kuni (Uzbekistan)

Yellow Mimosa Day (Italy)

Jedi Day

Mother’s Day (Albania, Eastern Europe, Russia, Soviet Bloc)

National August Day

National Biobased Products Day

National Breast Implant Awareness Day

National Heroes and Benefactors Day (Belize)

National Oregon Day

National Proofreading Day

National Retro Video Game Day

Order of Charity Day

Pimpernel Day (French Republic)

Private George Watson Day

Revolution Day (Syria)

Stab e-Barat (Night of Records; Bangladesh)

Shuttlecock Day (Leicester, Yorkshire)

Tar and Feather Day

Teacher’s Day (Lebanon)

308 Day

Volunteers of America Day

World Maths Day

World Potocki-Lupski Syndrome Awareness Day

Ziua Mamei (Mother’s Day; România)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Big Boots Brew Day (Pink Boots Society)

Drink It Now Day

International Women's Collaboration Brew Day

National Peanut Cluster Day

2nd Friday in March

Arbor Day (New Mexico) [2nd Friday]

Cookie Beer Day [2nd Friday]

Fry Day (Pastafarian; Fritism) [Every Friday]

International Grant Professionals Day [2nd Friday]

Middle Name Pride Day [Friday of Name Week]

National Freelancers Day [2nd Friday]

National Preschooler’s Day [2nd Friday]

National Pyjama Day (Belgium) [2nd Friday]

Solar Appreciation Day [2nd Friday]

SXSW Day (South by Southwest begins) [2nd Friday]

Weekly Holidays beginning March 8 (1st Week)

National Catholic Sisters Week [thru 3.14]

National Science & Engineering Week [begins Friday of 1st Full Week; thru 3.17]

World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup (Sweetwater, Texas) [2nd Friday; thru 3.10]

Independence & Related Days

Mahonia (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Matyár (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Revolution Day (St. Petersburg, Russia; 1917)

Vietnam (Proclaimed within French Union; 1949)

Festivals Beginning March 8, 2024

BBQ & Blues Cook-Off (Foley, Alabama) [thru 3.9]

Boysenberry Festival (Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, California) [thru 4.28]

Japan Golf Fair (Yokohama, Japan) [thru 3.10]

Kaziukas Fair (Vilnius, Lithuania) [thru 3.10]

Open Season Sportsman’s Expo (Overland Park, Kansas) [thru 3.10]

Ostrich Festival (Chandler, Arizona) [thru 3.10 + 3.15-17]

Port Fairy Folk Festival (Victoria, Australia) [thru 3.11]

Rattlesnake Roundup (Sweetwater, Texas) [thru 3.10]

South by Southwest [SXSW] (Austin, Texas) [thru 3.16]

Wine, Spirits & Culinary Celebration (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)

WOMAD (Melbourne, Australia) [thru 3.11]

Feast Days

Annie Bonny Day (Pastafarian)

Anselm Kiefer (Artology)

Apollonius, Philemon, and others, of Egypt (Christian; Martyrs)

Birthday of Mother Earth (Pagan)

Colin Campbell Cooper (Artology)

Day of No Interest to Fairies (Shamanism)

Duthak, Bishop of Ross (Christian; Saint)

Edward King (Church of England)

Felix of Burgundy (or Dunwich; Christian; Saint)

Festival of the Earth Goddess (China)

Humphrey (or Hunfrid; Christian; Saint)

John of God (Christian; Saint) [Against Alcoholism]

Julian, Archbishop of Toledo (Christian; Saint)

Kenneth Grahame (Writerism)

Mother Earth Day (Everyday Wicca)

Neil Postman (Writerism)

Philemon the actor (Christian; Saint)

Pontius (Christian; Saint)

Psalmoid of Ireland (a.k.a. Saumay; Christian; Saint)

Romeo Scuggs (Muppetism)

Rosa, Virgin of Viterbo (Christian; Saint)

Rosso Fiorentino (Artology)

Senan, Bishop in Ireland (Christian; Saint)

Stephen of Obazine (Christian; Saint)

Thucydides (Positivist; Saint)

Veremund (Christian; Saint)

Weird Al Yankovic Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Lucky Day (Philippines) [16 of 71]

Perilous Day (13th Century England) [13 of 32]

Prime Number Day: 67 [19 of 72]

Unfortunate Day (Pagan) [18 of 57]

Premieres

The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (Film; 1967)

After Life (TV Series; 2019)

All’s Well That Ends Well (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1940)

Banquet Busters (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1948)

Beavis and Butt-Head (Animated TV Series; 1993)

Brutal Youth, by Elvis Costello (Album; 1994)

Captain Marvel (Film; 2019)

Chungking Express (Film; 1996)

A College for Two or Rock Enrolls (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 352; 1965)

Damsel (Film; 2024)

The Downward Spiral, by Nine Inch Nails (Album; 1994)

Duck Hunt (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1937)

Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time (Animal Film; 2021)

Fargo (Film; 1996)

Females is Fickle (Flesicher Popeye Cartoon; 1940)

Heavy Metal (Animated Film; 1996)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Radio Play; 1978)

Japanese Lanterns (Rainbow Parade Cartoon; 1935)

Just Like a Woman, recorded by Bob Dylan (Song; 1966)

A Knight for a Day (Disney Cartoon; 1946)

Kung Fu Panda 4 (Animated Film; 2024)

La Femme Nikita (Film; 1991)

Mask (Film; 1985)

The Moth and the Spider (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1935)

Musique d’Ameublement (Furniture Music), by Erik Satie (Muzak; 1920)

New Jack City (Film; 1991)

Oz the Great and Powerful (Film; 2013)

The Peanuts Movie (Animated Film; 2015)

Poldark (TV Mini-Series; 2015)

The Prospecting Bear (MGM Cartoon; 1941)

Quack, Quack (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1931)

Queen II, by Queen (Album; 1974)

The Road to Wigan Pier, by George Orwell (Book; 1936)

Roberta (Film; 1935)

Robin Hood Daffy (WB MM Cartoon; 1958)

Royal Wedding (Film; 1951)

Subterranean Homesick Blues, by Bob Dylan (Song; 1965)

Superunknown, by Soundgarden (Album; 1994)

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, by Jean Sibelius (Symphony; 1902)

The Wicked Wolf (Mighty Mouse Cartoon; 1946)

Wossamotta U, Part 1 (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 351; 1965)

Today’s Name Days

Gerhard, Johannes (Austria)

Boško, Ivan, Ivša (Croatia)

Gabriela (Czech Republic)

Beata (Denmark)

Lepo, Viilo, Viilup, Vilbo (Estonia)

Vilppu (Finland)

Jean (France)

Gerhard, Johannes (Germany)

Hermes, Theofylaktos (Greece)

Zoltán (Hungary)

Giovanni, Salvatore, Severino (Italy)

Dagmāra, Marga, Margita (Latvia)

Beata, Gaudvilė, Laima, Vydminas (Lithuania)

Beate, Bettina, Betty (Norway)

Beata, Filemon, Jan, Julian, Miligost, Miłogost, Stefan, Wincenty (Poland)

Teofilact (Romania)

Alan, Alana (Slovakia)

Juan (Spain)

Filippa, Siv (Sweden)

Humfrey, Humphrey, Ponty (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 68 of 2024; 298 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 5 of week 10 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Nuin (Ash) [Day 20 of 28]

Chinese: Month 1 (Bing-Yin), Day 28 (Xin-Wei)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025)

Hebrew: 28 Adair I 5784

Islamic: 27 Sha’ban 1445

J Cal: 8 Green; Oneday [8 of 30]

Julian: 24 February 2024

Moon: 4%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 12 Aristotle (3rd Month) [Archytas]

Runic Half Month: Tyr (Cosmic Pillar) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 79 of 89)

Week: 1st Week of March

Zodiac: Pisces (Day 19 of 30)

[usnewsper-politics]

Federal Judge Rules That Alabama's Congressional Districts Violate Constitution #alabamagerrymandering #alabamaredistricting #congressionaldistrictalabama #congressionalredistricting #redistrictingalabama

[lovethesagefan]

Thank You Mr. Goodrum!!!

One of my favorite ABBA songs is Take a Chance on Me! That is how I felt when I started my teaching career. I had only been a "teacher" for 4 months when I got a call to come interview in Griffin, GA. You see, for those 4 months, I "taught" at an alternative school. In other words babysat kids who got kicked out of their home school. So in June of 1991, I drove to Griffin, GA to meet with Dr. Pyron, the principal at the 9th Grade School. I thought the interview went well, however, by the time I got home, I received a call from Mr. Johnny Goodrum asking me if I could return back to Griffin to interview for a 7th grade Social Studies position he had.

Of course, I wanted high school. My mind was always geared for high school. I knew nothing about teaching middle school. But a job is a job and you have to get your foot in the door somewhere. You see, it took me nearly 3 years since graduating from Georgia State University did I even have a chance for a job. I applied in so many school districts that I had a running joke. I applied up I-75 to Tennessee, west along I-20 to Alabama, down 75 to Florida. I even applied in Caddo, Louisiana and get this...GUAM! Nothing until the job in Macon and for 4 months I babysat.

Mr. Goodrum told me how I came up on his radar. Dr. Pyron told him that he couldn't use me but Griffin couldn't let a fine teacher like me get away. So with all my trepidations, I accepted the job. I was going to start teaching 7th grade Social Studies at Flynt Middle School.

I was always grateful to Mr. Goodrum for taking a chance on me. It was at Flynt I met some of the nicest teachers on God's green earth. I know I kept Mr. Goodrum wandering if the decision was a good one. One time a student was working on her Social Studies Fair project. I get called into the office. My heart was beating a thousand times a minute. He asked me if I gave the student permission to do a project relating to sex. She was doing a survey and happened to asked the head media specialist. I was flabbergasted! "No" I said. I told him the original topic. My documentation saved me.

Another time, I was teaching about the U.S. and the kids were set on claiming that Canada was a state in the United States. So I said, I would give the first student who could produce documented proof that Canada was a state. Boy! That lit a fire under those students. They asked everyone from lunch ladies to Mr. Goodrum. He came to me for an explanation. I apologized for causing such a disruption, but the kids understood research after that. This would not be the last time I would have to explain myself to him. Toby was working overtime, but I didn't know Toby back then.

The kids had made me mad. They were off the chain. I got so fed up with them, I told them I was quitting the following week. I started taking down my posters. I packed my desk up. Then Mr. Goodrum came to me while I was doing hall duty and with a frantic look in his eyes, asking me what was going on. I explained to him that I had insinuated that I was resigning. From our conversation, I knew I had to fix this problem. I spoke to the kids and talked about how to treat people. Their actions have consequences. After that incident, the rest of the year went smoother.

I hadn't seen Mr. Goodrum in a month of Sundays. In fact, the last time I had seen him I believe was at his retirement party. We were to be shifted out of our building to across the parking lot to the 9th Grade building and we were to get a new principal, Mr. Matchett. The man who took a chance on me was not to lead us going forward. Like Moses unable to cross the River Jordan, Mr. Goodrum wasn't going to be leading us into the new wilderness.

I will be forever grateful for Mr. Goodrum choosing to hire me. From that one act so many events followed. I count my FMS days some of the best days of my teaching career. I didn't want to teach 7th grade but by the time I left it 10 years later, I too afraid to leave it. Another story for my book. But whatever accolades I received later in life, I wouldn't have if Mr. Goodrum hadn't picked up that phone and called a shy, uncertain young black man in Marietta asking him to come to Griffin to interview.

Thank you Mr. Goodrum! I know you and Elaine Graves are having a time. You have earned your rest!

[beardedmrbean]

It isn’t clear if a $90 million program designed to recruit and retain math and science teachers in middle and high school is working, the Alabama Commission on the Evaluation of Services wrote in a report released last week.

The Teacher Excellence and Accountability for Mathematics and Science, or TEAMS, Program, launched at the start of the 2021-22 school year, “deviates from implementation best practices, lacks defined goals and maintains vague performance metrics,” the report’s authors wrote.

The law establishing the program lacked a specific set of measurable goals, ACES noted, leaving an evaluation of the program without metrics by which to judge the success of the program.

“Without established benchmarks, the overall success of the program cannot be determined in a verifiable way,” ACES stated.

Addressing those findings, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Education said they appreciate the authors’ findings and that they’ve identified similar issues in internal reviews of the TEAMS program.

The department has a different view about how to judge the program overall, however.

“The TEAMS program is working,” Communications Director Michael Sibley told AL.com. “Alabama now has more high-quality math and science teachers than ever before. We look for continued success and will make any positive changes necessary.”

Initially, the most notable aspect of the TEAMS program was how much more eligible teachers could be paid - up to $20,000 more depending on a teacher’s credentials and whether they teach in a hard-to-staff school. Middle and high school math, science and computer science teachers are eligible for the higher pay.

Lawmakers allocated $90 million to the program for each of the past two school years, though only $38 million was spent in the first year and $59 million has been spent for year two, which is still underway. Outside of direct costs associated with TEAMS, lawmakers allocated $1 million for a marketing campaign to highlight the program.

Teachers have to apply for an allocated TEAMs position; school districts receive one math and one science position for every 105 sixth through 12th grade students enrolled in a school district. Teachers deemed eligible must sign a contract agreeing to complete required training and to have or to be working on a professional credential - either National Board Certification or a STEM credential.

According to information the Alabama Department of Education provided to ACES, one-third of the 7,500 allocated TEAMS positions statewide were filled by a TEAMS-contracted teacher.

But that doesn’t mean the other 5,000 positions weren’t filled, authors noted, just that TEAMS contracts weren’t signed. The state department did not track whether allocated TEAMS positions were filled by highly-qualified teachers who chose not to sign the contract or if those positions were filled by teachers not certified properly.

One early win noted in the report is that districts reported more fully credentialed math and science teachers teaching during the 2022-23 school year. Further, 29 TEAMS teachers came from outside of Alabama to teach, according to reports from the 55 school districts surveyed.

An unintended consequence of paying TEAMS teachers from a higher salary schedule is that the difference in pay caused morale issues among teachers teaching subjects other than math, science and computer science, according to the report. Nearly half of administrators surveyed for the report said the program negatively affected staff morale.

“The leading motivation to sign a TEAMS contract is higher pay, but the incentive negatively affected the morale among other teachers within the system,” the report found.

Improving student achievement in math and science is also a goal, but ACES found no achievement goals have been set. Additionally, the state only requires annual testing in sixth, seventh, eighth and 11th grade.

Even in the tested grades, ACES found, the state currently does not link test scores to individual teachers and therefore can’t measure the impact of a student taught by a TEAMS teacher. Authors recommended the department develop accurate measures and goals for student growth.

The report’s authors noted the short amount of time Alabama Department of Education had to get the program up and running but were critical of implementation, starting with not knowing how many highly-qualified math and science teachers were teaching in Alabama’s classrooms before the TEAMS program began.

“Without determining how many of these teachers existed and where they were located throughout the state,” according to the report, “the growth and progress toward this outcome are difficult to measure.”

Authors said the teacher application and verification process is very slow and paper-heavy, and requires school officials to enter the information manually. That makes it difficult to get teachers into the system. The state department plans to begin automating the credential verification process this summer, but that process won’t be completed until next summer.

ACES noted other problems with the TEAMS program, including the requirement that TEAMS teachers teach only one course not on the list of approved courses. That course, however, still must be designed to improve student achievement in math, science or computer science. Nearly half of the surveyed administrators said that limitation was a “significant issue,” according to the report.

ACES issued nine recommendations for improvement, including streamlining the application process for teachers wanting to become a TEAMS teacher to establishing benchmarks and developing metrics that measure student growth associated with TEAMS teachers.

ACES has completed multiple evaluations of other education-related programs since it was created in 2019.