Alaska

Parents have decent access to school report cards, but any other efforts to give parents real power fall short. The methods for evaluating and ensuring that great teachers thrive in the traditional classroom also fall short. Coupled with a low-scoring charter law, limited access to digital learning and no choice, it’s no wonder this state is known as The Last Frontier.

The state permits parents some choices among traditional public schools but it restricts such choice to within their district, limiting their options.

SOURCE: The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice

Alaska’s charter school law is considered weak because only the state board of education can authorize charter schools. The need to seek approval from the local board makes it very difficult for charters to open and thrive. In addition, the strong regulatory environment stifles charter school autonomy and innovation.

SOURCE: The Essential Guide to Charter School Law 2013 National Ranking and Scorecard

Flexibility on class-size and student teacher ratios create a favorable policy environment for student access to online learning opportunities. There are restrictions on student eligibility and the state earned an F for failing to open up access to multiple quality providers of digital content.

SOURCE: Digital Learning Now!

Alaska currently does not require annual evaluations of its teachers, nor does it use objective evidence of student learning as a preponderant criterion of evaluation. Legislation was recently passed to allow student learning data to be used in evaluations, this criteria will take effect in the 2015 - 2016 school year and will be fully implemented by 2018-2019 with student learning making up 50% of evaluations. Teachers who receive consistently unsatisfactory evaluations are required to go on improvement plans and eventually are eligible for dismissal, but ineffective classroom performance is not, in itself, grounds for dismissal and is not considered in layoff decisions. Statewide salary or raise schedules are also not codified in law.

SOURCE: National Council on Teacher Quality

School report card data is easily accessible, but parents have to know what they are looking for. Seven clicks into the state’s website and reports can be found, but they are difficult to read. Information on options – charters, homeschooling, online learning and even some private boarding schools – is available. Information about how students and teachers are evaluated, however, is vague. All local school board members are elected on the 1st Tuesday of October each year. So while all board races fall on the same date each year, school officials are not elected during the general election in November when most people know to go to the polls.