MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Testing rules and budgets for this year and next shared the spotlight as Alabama’s state school board met recently, devoting its longest debate to whether juniors should keep taking the ACT as the state’s main gauge of high school performance.
Board members spent most of their work session on a proposal to add the ACT WorkKeys exam alongside the ACT for accountability purposes – a shift aimed at putting career readiness on par with college readiness.
They also refined a $6.6 billion spending request for fiscal year 2027 and, in a short meeting prior to the work session, approved changes to teacher certification, updated rules for lunchroom staff and adopted the department’s fiscal ’26 operating budget…