City Schools Aim to Be The Best

Schools will be schools, some do well while others do not, and the Tuscaloosa school system isn't exempt. There's also work needed to make it one of the best schools systems in the state.

The City is out to fix this failing system and doing whatever it takes. On Tuesday, the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education discussed Central High School and University Place Middle School, two of 75 schools across Alabama measuring in the bottom 6 percent of student performance in the ACT Aspire for the 2015-16 school year.

At Central, nearly 91 percent of 10th-graders were "in need of support" in math, while 68.6 percent were in need of support in reading.

With University Place, which made the list for the first time, Williams said it would be crucial to extend after-school sessions, but more importantly, reach students with targeted, customized development approaches.

"With a faculty as small as University Place, we can't have one-on-one development if that's what we're working towards," she said. "Within all of our middle schools, we're looking at developing appropriate decision making; certainly at University Place, we're looking at making sure what we're doing something that fits our adolescent learners in middle school."