New Schools for Alabama

Meet Tamara Knight, Senior Accountant at NSFA. With more than 15 years of accounting experience and six years in school finance, Tamara brings both precision and heart to her work, helping schools make thoughtful financial decisions that support students and strengthen communities.

From budget development to mentoring others, Tamara understands that strong financial management is about more than spreadsheets. It is about aligning resources to priorities and making every dollar count for the mission.

Read more about Tamara below and get to know the passion, perspective, and care she brings to the work every day.

We are excited for another graduated cohort of our School Founders Fellowship. Closing exercises yesterday reminded us of the magnitude of this work, but also the strength and courage it takes to step out on faith and believe in what’s possible for all kids!

Congrats, fellows, now the real work awaits you! We believe in you and what you will accomplish on behalf of Alabama’s children!

At New Schools for Alabama, we are proud to support work that helps school leaders strengthen both their vision and their practice. When leaders have opportunities to step back, learn from others, sharpen their thinking, and grow in their leadership, schools are better positioned to serve students well.

Investing in school leaders is one of the most important ways we can help create stronger outcomes for students, families, and communities across Alabama.

Congrats to Legacy Prep 🎉

83% of their 3rd Grade Scholars earned a passing score on the ACAP Reading Assessment for the 2025–2026 school year.

Alabama public charters are showing what’s possible when children have more quality educational options.

🎉 We are celebrating excellence at Legacy Prep Elementary! 🎉

Congratulations to our amazing 3rd Grade Scholars, teachers, staff, and families! We are proud to share that 83% of our 3rd Grade Scholars earned a passing score on the ACAP Reading Assessment for the 2025–2026 school year.

This achievement reflects the hard work, dedication, and commitment of our entire Legacy Prep community.

💚🧡 At Legacy Prep Elementary, we lead with Love, Joy & Excellence!

Today is Juneteenth, a day to honor freedom, reflect on our history, and celebrate the resilience and contributions of Black communities.

We remember that freedom is not just a moment in time. It is a continued commitment to dignity, opportunity, and justice for every person.

In education, that means doing the work to ensure every student is seen, supported, and prepared for a bright future.

❤️🖤💚 Take a moment today to learn, reflect, and celebrate.

📚🎉 Congratulations to Covenant Academy Of Mobile who are celebrating their third graders for achieving an impressive 87.8% reading proficiency rate on the Spring 2026 ACAP Reading Assessment.

Alabama public charters continue to prove that children deserve high quality options regardless of their zip code!

🎉📚 Congratulations to University Charter School!!!

We are excited to celebrate the outstanding performance of UCS third graders, whose recent reading results place them among some of the strongest-performing school systems in Alabama.

Alabama public charters are putting in the work for continued student success! 👏🏽👏🏽

We are excited to share that recent statewide reading comparison data shows University Charter School 3rd graders performing at a strong level compared to schools across Alabama: https://aldailynews.com/new-reading-results-show-which-alabama-districts-gained-lost-ground/

UCS 3rd graders are VERY impressive!

We encourage families to take a close look at the full comparison data and notice the schools UCS is seated with at the top of the list. It is especially meaningful to see how UCS compares not only locally, but also regionally and statewide. The results highlight just how strong our students’ performance is when viewed alongside other school systems across Alabama.

This reflects the hard work happening every day in classrooms and the strong partnership between teachers and families. We are proud of our students’ progress and will continue to focus on ensuring every child grows as a confident, skilled reader.

Thank you for your continued support of UCS!

👏🏽👏🏽 Celebrating the power of possibility, persistence, and student success!

Alabama’s public charter schools continue to prove what is possible when students, educators, families, and communities work together with a shared commitment to achievement.

We are especially proud to recognize three Alabama public charter schools that ranked among the most improved in third-grade reading performance from 2022-23 to 2025-26:

📚 Breakthrough Charter School
44.4% → 89.3%
+44.9 percentage points

📚 Life Academy
42.3% → 74.5%
+32.2 percentage points

📚 I3 Academy
57.8% → 87.3%
+29.6 percentage points

These gains represent more than numbers. They reflect students building confidence, teachers investing in literacy, families supporting learning at home, and schools creating opportunities for every child to thrive.

As Alabama’s statewide third-grade reading scores remain strong, these schools stand out as examples of what focused instruction, high expectations, and a commitment to student success can accomplish. Congratulations to the students, educators, leaders, and families who made this growth possible. Your hard work is making a difference.

Alabama 3rd-grade reading scores hold steady in 2025-26, but post-pandemic gains begin to fade Alabama’s third-graders largely held their ground on state reading assessments in the 2025-26 school year, with 88.2% of students scoring on or above grade level, a figure that represents dramatic improvement over three years ago but also signals a potential plateau after a historic post-pandemic ...

Our work is rooted in a belief that students, educators, schools, and communities all deserve the support they need to thrive.

For Bernard Mitchell, Director of Federal Programs, that belief is what keeps the mission clear.

“I personally do this work because I believe:
*Every child deserves access to opportunity,
*Every educator deserves support and development,
*Every school deserves direction and alignment, and
*Every community deserves hope and progress.” - Bernard Mitchell

That is a powerful reflection of what this work is: creating the conditions for opportunity, growth, and long-term impact so that schools and communities across Alabama can move forward stronger.