Brewton City Schools earned the highest score to do in Alabama as part of its accreditation process.

BCS Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Varner said the system earned an index of education quality score of 351.74 out of a possible 400.

The IEQ score is generated by combining the ratings of the performance indicators within each AdvancED Standard, the evaluative criteria from the Student Performance Diagnostic, and results from the Stakeholder Feedback Diagnostic (surveys of students, parents, and staff/teachers). To better leverage the information obtained from an institution’s score, the IEQ composite score may be segmented into three sub-scores of performance, called “domains:”

• Teaching and Learning Impact

• Leadership Capacity

• Resource Utilization

“This is the highest score posted in Alabama so far,” Varner said. “We put a lot of work into that.”

Officials were in town Feb. 25-28.

School officials submitted narratives, artifacts, surveys.

Varner said that officials conducted 162 interviews including 32 teachers, 31 community members, 80 students and 48 classroom observations.

Varner said that they received three “powerful practices.”

“It’s something that stood out,” he said “It’s rare to get more than one or two. We got three.”

One of the things they commented on was stakeholder engagement.

“It’s an integral part of our system,” he said.

Varner shared a quote from someone interviewed, who said, “In Brewton, everyone wants everyone to do good.”

They were complimented on their use of data and their use of human, material and fiscal responsibility.

“We have well-equipped classes,” he said. “Music and art teachers at all schools. We have a tuition reimbursement program.”

Opportunities for improvements included reviewing the mission statement to reaffirm it, and promoting researched-based pedagogical strategies to enhance student learning.

“Opportunities to do things such as project-based technology,” he said.

The only required action was to review policies.