Alabama’s public schools earned their highest overall score yet on the state’s annual report card released Thursday (Nov. 12), with gains in academic achievement helping push the score from 86.67 to 88.27 out of 100, a B letter grade.
State Superintendent Eric Mackey said he was particularly pleased with the improvement in academic achievement, which measures how well students perform on state tests. The indicator rose from 67 last year to 69.2 this year, continuing a steady climb from 60.1 in 2022.
The increase follows improvement in student performance on the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program, or ACAP, tests administered in spring.
“It’s much harder to move achievement,” Mackey told state school board members, explaining that students scores land in one of four performance levels. Students can improve their scores by dozens of points on the test without moving into a higher level, he said.
Academic achievement accounts for 20 points of the state’s 100-point accountability score. Alabama earned 13.84 of those points this year, up from 13.4 last year.
Academic growth, which measures students’ progress from one year to the next, remained virtually unchanged at 97.07.
Other improvements
Other indicators improved as well, including college and career readiness, graduation rates and English language proficiency.
Chronic absenteeism declined from about 12% last year to 10.54% this year.
While Alabama issues both state and federal report cards for every public school and school district, this Alabama Daily News analysis focuses on the state report card, which assigns letter grades from A to F. Federal report cards use numerical scores but do not assign letter grades
Both report cards are posted on the state department of education website.
13 districts earn their first A grades
Thirteen Alabama school districts earned an A for the first time since the state began issuing letter-grade report cards. All 13 received B grades last year.
The districts were Baldwin County, Calhoun County, Demopolis City, Guntersville City, Henry County, Huntsville City, Jackson County, Leeds City, Marengo County, Marion County, Scottsboro City, Talladega County and Tallapoosa County.
For Huntsville City Schools, the difference was just one point. The district crossed the threshold with a score of 90, up from 89 last year. Its score has risen eight points since 2022, when it received an 82.
“Earning an A is a tremendous accomplishment for Huntsville City Schools and a reflection of the hard work taking place in our classrooms every day,” Superintendent Clarence Sutton said in a news release.
Other districts made larger gains on their way to an A. Marengo County improved five points to 90, while Guntersville City and Marion County each gained four points to reach 93.
The 13 first-time A districts were among 60 school systems earning the state’s highest letter grade this year. Another 63 received B’s, 24 earned C’s and seven received D’s. No district received an F, while one did not have enough data to receive a grade.
Across the state, 23 school systems moved up at least one letter grade, while five moved down.
Notable improvements weren’t limited to districts earning A’s.
Linden City Schools recorded one of the largest gains, jumping 15 points from 68 to 83 and moving from a D to a B.
Bessemer City Schools, which has been receiving state intervention and support, also showed improvement. For the first time since Alabama began issuing letter grades, none of its schools received an F, according to State Superintendent Eric Mackey. The district’s overall score also increased.
“We’re seeing significant growth in Bessemer,” Mackey said.
More schools earn A grades
This year, 447 Alabama schools earned an A, more than double the number in 2022. The number earning a D or F has fallen by more than half during that same period.
More than half of schools improved their overall scores this year, with 277 earning a higher letter grade. Among them were 68 schools that climbed from a D or F to a C or better.
Twenty-seven schools earned perfect scores of 100 this year, compared with 19 last year.
Some schools made particularly large gains. Linden High School jumped from an F to a C, increasing its score by 30 points. Berry High School in Fayette County climbed from a D to an A, while Grant Elementary in Mobile County improved from an F to a C.
But not every school improved. More than 400 saw their overall scores decline, and 36 dropped from a C or better to a D or F.
How are report card scores calculated?
Not all of the numbers on Alabama’s school report cards mean the same thing. Some are percentages, while others are used to calculate a school’s overall grade.
That can make it hard to tell exactly how well a school is doing.
Here’s what the different indicators tell us:
- Academic achievement: A weighted score — not a percentage — measuring how well students score on state tests.
- Academic growth: A weighted score — again, not a percentage — measuring how much students improve on state tests from one year to the next.
- College and career readiness: The percentage of graduates who meet at least one measure showing they’re ready for college or a career.
- Graduation rate: The percentage of students who graduate from high school within four years.
- Chronic absenteeism: The percentage of students who miss 18 or more days of school during the year, excused or unexcused. Lower is better.
- English language proficiency: How well students learning English are progressing toward proficiency.
The graduation and college and career readiness numbers are based on the previous year’s graduating class.
One important thing to remember: A score of 90 doesn’t necessarily mean 90% of students are meeting expectations. It depends on which measure you’re looking at.
Why does Alabama have two report cards?
Alabama’s state and federal report cards measure many of the same things, but they don’t always count the same students when calculating scores.
That’s because lawmakers have changed the rules for the state report card in recent years.
In 2022, lawmakers passed a law excluding English learners’ test results from the state’s academic achievement score until they have attended an Alabama school for six years.
In 2024, lawmakers also excluded students entering public schools from nonpublic schools from that measure until they have been enrolled for four years. Supporters of the change said those students were often academically behind when they entered public schools.
Federal rules don’t allow those same exclusions, so a school’s state and federal scores can be different.
The federal report card also includes more information, such as how different groups of students are performing, teacher certification and whether a school has been identified as needing additional support.
Looking at both report cards can give families a more complete picture of how their schools are doing.
EDITORS NOTE — This story was written by Trisha Powell Crain and was originally published by Alabama Daily News. Crain served on the Accountability Task Force that determined the measures and weights used on the initial set of report cards.
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