The Transparency Project

Alabama School Connection

Legislative Issues

The ASCIN produced this review of Alabama's school districts' web sites in an effort to shine a light on those districts working hard to be open and transparent with their local school communities. We hope that these efforts will lead to a desire for local school districts to put as much information as possible on their district sites.

The author looked at only the district web site, not individual school web sites. We recognize that some of the information we sought on the district web site may have been available on individual school web sites, but that was not the purpose of this review. Our belief is that the district web site should contain the 34 specific pieces of information sought in the review, as that is a reflection of the level of transparency a school district embraces.

The ASCIN is available to assist local school districts in establishing a workflow and an organizational structure to make it easier to post information to their web sites. Please contact ASCIN@ASCIN.org if you would like us to assist your district.

Recognizing that school district web sites are "works-in-progress", the ASCIN will re-review these web sites in September 2009 and will publish the results of that review on this site.

A quick glance at a few district sites prior to publishing this review showed that some districts, even since April 5 when this review was concluded, have completely re-vamped their sites while others have made great efforts to post additional information on their sites which might have resulted in their obtaining higher total "point" scores in our review.

We hope to recognize that progress in our re-review in September.

If you have any questions about this review, please contact the author, Trisha Crain, at 205/527-0904.

Letter to All State Superintendents - NEW!

June 10, 2009 - An e-mail was sent to all of Alabama's public school superintendents this morning. Click to read the letter. Unfortunately, 9 of the e-mails were returned as invalid e-mail addresses, further highlighting the difficulty in online communications in our Alabama public school districts. The ASCIN utilized contact information for superintendents from the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) web site. We have contacted the ALSDE to let them know the information is invalid.

UPDATE! Wilcox County Schools Has a Web Site!

June 9, 2009 - The author, Trisha Crain, was contacted by a representative of Wilcox County Schools on June 9, 2009, stating that Wilcox County Schools does, in fact, maintain a web site at this address: www.wilcox.k12.al.us. However, the State Department of Education lists their web address as www.wilcoxschools.org. Mrs. Parham, of Wilcox County Schools, stated that they have maintained a web site at the www.wilcox.k12.al.us for some time. However, when conducting the research for the project, the primary researcher, Ms. Crain, was unable to locate any web address for the Wilcox County School system. A call to the Wilcox County School system this morning also found that their pre-recorded message directs people to the wilcoxschools.org address.

The ASCIN is thrilled to learn that Wilcox County does, in fact, maintain a web site. After reviewing our "Final Report", we acknowledge that the statement "all but one currently operate web sites" was inaccurate and should have read "all but one web site could be located." We have corrected the "Final Report" above and apologize for the error.

Please remember that the purpose of the study was to search for information through the Internet. The primary web addresses were obtained from a State Department of Education list of web addresses. Seven systems' web address information was inaccurate, but six of those systems' web addresses were found through a Google or other search engine search. Unfortunately, Crain could not locate a web address for Wilcox County Schools other than the invalid www.wilcoxschools.org address during the review period in March and April.

We encourage all school districts to ensure that the State Department of Education has a current web site address for your system.

We look forward to including Wilcox County's web site in the re-review in September and appreciate the call from Mrs. Parham letting us know.

The Transparency Project - May 2009

Final Report - updated June 9, 2009, as indicated above.

Table 1 - National Web Sites Providing Alabama District Information

Table 2 - Information Type by District

Table 3 - Information Totals by Type

Table 4 - Total Point Scores by District

Table 5 - Breakdown of Total Point Scores in Rank Order

Definitions of Data

System Web Addresses

Press Release

Just Added! School System Home Page PDFs!

Click here to view a PDF compilation of each of the home pages of the web sites that were reviewed in March and April, 2009. Please note that those web sites that utilized SchoolINSites as their web vendor did not produce "complete" views of their home page when converted to PDFs. Note, too, that two school systems had transformed in a period of a few days (Tuscaloosa County had two different templates for the same site while Vestavia Hills City completely re-vamped their site some time between March 27 to April 5). This is further proof that these web sites are "works in progress" and are constantly being updated.

When the ASCIN conducts the next review in September, we expect to see even more total re-vamping and updating. Kudos to those who are working so hard to keep our school communities informed and engaged through their school district web sites!

Media Coverage of The Transparency Project

Shelby Schools Tops in Online Data - The Birmingham News, June 2, 2009

Two School System Web Sites Rank Low - The Montgomery Advertiser, June 3, 2009
Central Alabama System Scores - The Montgomery Advertiser, June 3, 2009

Click on This - Editorial - The Anniston Star, June 3, 2009

OUR VIEW: A Survey of Alabama's Public School System Web Sites Shows Good News, But Also Some Areas Needing Work - The Birmingham News, June 4, 2009