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This is an edition of our Future of Learning newsletter. Sign up today to get it delivered straight to your inbox.
This week, I’m turning the newsletter over to Hechinger contributor Kavitha Cardoza, who shares an inside look at her recent story on a superintendent who was shown the door after winning national attention for serving English learners. – Javeria Salman
Heath Grimes, the superintendent of Russellville City Schools in Alabama, had already received several accolades for his work with English learners when I spoke to him in June 2023 for a story on teacher apprenticeships. So I was surprised at the end of the call when he told me his contract had not been renewed. This happened while he was the elected president of the School Superintendents of Alabama. It was obvious he’d been surprised as well.
I’ve reported on English learners for years and knew their educational outcomes often lagged behind their non-English learner peers because districts don’t always offer the training or have the resources to support them. Yet this conservative Alabama community of 11,000 people, where the district’s English learner population is at 33 percent, was seeing a lot of success. What went wrong?
I began digging, and after months of reporting and research, I finally got to see Russellville for myself in March 2024. Being there reminded me of my eight years reporting in rural Illinois — families had roots that ran generations deep, people valued tradition and “the way things have always been done,” and everyone turned out to support the high school football team. When Grimes had the football field re-turfed so the newly created soccer team could play there as well, it seemed like an apt metaphor for the changes happening in the wider community.
When a former board member told me, “People bleed black and gold” (the school colors), he was only mildly exaggerating. I learned how essential the Russellville school system is to the fabric of the community. The school board provided leadership and a steadying hand as the community struggled through demographic shifts, and educators figured out new methods of instruction and created award-winning classes to support English learners. I learned how, when given a chance, the parents of English learners, often immigrants who were very poor, worked long shifts and didn’t speak English, proudly gave of their time and resources to the district. And I learned how what happens inside a school building is only a part of the story that cannot be separated from the politics of education that happens outside it.
I spoke with dozens of educators, board members and parents, but also a woman who worked at the hotel where I stayed whose niece attended the middle school, a Taco Bell cashier where I ate every night who was an alum, and a couple in a Walmart parking lot who were shopping for school supplies.
Getting to the bottom of why a dedicated superintendent was shown the door was both exhausting and exhilarating. Gradually I built trust with community and school system insiders, and some 18 people, many of whom had knowledge of the events, told me that small-town politics and anti-immigrant sentiment contributed to the superintendent’s departure. (The Russellville mayor and the school board attorney wrote in response to my questions that English learners had thrived in the district long before Grimes and that anti-immigrant sentiment did not play a role in the decision to not renew his contract.)
Read my story, which was part of a collaboration between Hechinger and palabra, an initiative of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, along with AL.com. You can also find it in Spanish. I’d love to hear your reactions and ideas for other stories you think we should cover on English learners, school leaders and other topics. Simply respond to this email to be in touch.
Here’s what stood out to me from a new report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education: the idea of “redesigning schools for the generative AI era.” According to the report’s authors, this means that teachers and schools should emphasize “skills only the human mind possesses,” such as critical and creative thinking, to help students learn how to work with AI. Some districts, like Houston Independent School District and Gwinnett County Public Schools, have already begun working on initiatives like this. It reminded me of calls during the pandemic years about redesigning schools to better meet the needs of students – yet ultimately school systems saw little change. The report highlights some of the more positive thinking on how AI can potentially solve challenges that school systems have faced for years, including teacher shortages and academic recovery.
In other news: The Department of Education announced this week it was once again changing how the 2025-26 FAFSA form will be launched and processed in an effort to minimize some of the problems with the messy rollout of its 2024-25 form. The application will open to a limited number of students and colleges during a testing period starting Oct. 1 and will be available for all students by Dec. 1, the department says.
More on the Future of Learning
“Many kids can’t read, even in high school. Is the solution teaching reading in every class?,” The Hechinger Report
“What education could look like under Harris and Walz,” The Hechinger Report
“What education could look like under Trump and Vance,” The Hechinger Report
“California’s two biggest school districts botched AI deals. Here are lessons from their mistakes.” CalMatters
“New St. Paul Public Schools program will center Black culture and history,” Sahan Journal
“What does Universal Service Fund ruling mean for E-rate?” K-12 Dive
This story about the Russellville superintendent was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
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