Story By Donald Campbell

Following a presentation at Thursday’s DeKalb County Board of Education meeting, the board was proud to learn of the growth in student achievement taking place throughout the county.

Dr. Anna Hairston shared with the board gains that had been seen after analyzing test data from the previous spring.

“Our proficiency may not be exactly where we want it, but the way we get there is growth,” she said.

According to Hairston, the typical level of growth seen in a school from year to year is usually around three percent, thus meaning that anything above that could be considered significant growth. Based on the most recent data from the iReady program used by the county schools, third-grade reading growth across the entire system was four percent, while fifth-grade reading growth was up six percent. Looking at these same results, first-grade and third-grade math growth were both up five percent, fifth-grade math growth was seven percent, and eighth-grade math growth was four percent.

Similar results could be seen when looking at data from the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program (ACAP). According to the data from ACAP, third-graders showed sevent percent growth in English and Language Arts (ELA), fifth-graders saw eight percent growth, sixth-graders saw six percent growth, seventh-graders had one percent of growth, and eighth-graders showed four percent growth. When broken down by school, Henagar saw the greatest amount of growth, coming in at 17 percent, followed by Geraldine at just over 12 percent.

ACAP math results also had some significant growth numbers to show. Across the board, fourth- and fifth-graders both had two percent growth, while sixth-graders showed three percent growth. Similar to the ELA results, Henagar had the biggest jump in math growth, coming in just shy of 20 percent growth.

“We know that our success is a direct result of teachers using our data, and students’ hard work, and also families’ hard work,” Hairston said. “We want to continue these gains. That’s our goal.” 

There were plenty of other areas of note Hairston pointed out that weren’t measured by test scores. For example, during the 2024-25 school year, students taking part in work-based learning programs earned approximately $931,000 dollars from where they were working, learning valuable job skills to benefit them further after graduation while also helping boost the local economy. Another highlight was the amount of dual enrollment credits high school students earned through either Northeast Alabama Community College or Snead State Community College. Hairston said that, during the past school year, dual enrollment students earned nearly 5,800 college credit hours.

Superintendent Wayne Lyles said he was very proud of all the successes seen in the DeKalb County school system, expressing how it was a testament to all the hard work students put in every day and the dedication teachers have in their classrooms to help students succeed.

The DeKalb County Board of Education also:

•Approved minutes from its meetings on September 11 and 12.

•Passed a motion to pay its monthly bills.

•Increased the pay rate of homebound teachers from $25 an hour to $35 an hour.

•Approved the early graduation of a student from Plainview High School.

•Received information that of the 149 county school buses recently inspected, none were found to have any major deficiencies.

•A project to expand the bleachers at the Valley Head football stadium was approved.

•A new juvenile vape policy was approved, bringing the county schools in line with the state.

•Accepted the retirements of a system-wide maintenance employee and a Collinsville teacher, along with the resignations of four individuals working for the school system.

•Approved 14 leaves of absence, four transfers within the system, and the placement of five certified teachers and nine support staff members.

•Approved bringing on eight volunteer coaches to help with sports at Collinsville, Geraldine, Henagar, Ider, and Sylvania.

•Received an second, updated draft of the 2026-27 school year calendar, and were informed the final draft would likely be very similar to this second version.

The next meeting of the DeKalb County Board of Education will be Thursday, November 20.