Kudos for AHS

Thanks to Zelma Isaacs, a business teacher at Anniston High School, for sending this my way. The state recently recognized the AHS business and marketing program as one of the best in Alabama. Here's the press release from the Alabama Department of Education:

Anniston High School has been selected as having one of the state’s best business and marketing programs and was awarded the Business/Marketing Education Program of the Year Award during the 2007 Alabama Career and Technical Education Professional Development Conference, which was held at Huntsville’s Von Braun Convention Center, July 18-20.

Only the top ten business/marketing education (BME) programs in Alabama receive this award each year. Currently, there are more than 400 different BME programs statewide.

The purpose of the Program of the Year Award, which is sponsored by the Alabama Department of Education’s Career/Technical Education (CTE) Section, is to recognize the outstanding achievements of local high-performing programs.

Teachers attending this year’s Alabama Career and Technical Education Professional Development Conference had an opportunity to participate in over 60 different professional development workshops. The Alabama Jump$tart Coalition, part of the Jump$tart National Coalition based in Washington, D. C., presented financial literacy workshops, sponsored a special awards luncheon for teachers, and gave copies of free professional resources and materials to all BME teachers attending this three-day event. More than 1,100 teachers, administrators, and advisers from public schools statewide attended this conference.

Anniston High School’s business/marketing teachers are Mrs. Zelma Isaacs, Mrs. Nicole Bell and Mrs. Judetta Cowden (Anniston Middle School).

Alabama's BME programs give students an opportunity to develop their leadership skills, and promote student achievement and academic success. The program’s two student organizations, Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda (FBLA-PBL) and DECA, are not clubs, but instead are nonprofit co-curricular programs that teach students the real benefits of career credentials and the importance of earning a high school diploma and postsecondary degree.

CTE is a statewide program designed to prepare students for college and a variety of career opportunities in the fields of Agriscience, Family and Consumer Sciences, Health Science, Technical Education, and Business/Marketing Education. Currently, one out of every two high school students in Alabama participates in a career/tech program.