U.S. News & World Report has released its 2027 Best K-8 Schools rankings, showing how 871 Alabama elementary and middle schools stack up based on student performance in reading and math.
Forest Avenue Elementary School in Montgomery ranked No. 1 among elementary schools, while Tuscaloosa Magnet School Middle took the top spot among middle schools.
Seven of Alabama’s top 10 elementary schools are magnet schools, according to state education data. Magnet schools offer specialized programs, and some have admissions requirements that differ from those of traditional public schools.
Most of the top-ranked elementary and middle schools had lower percentages of students from low-income families than other schools across the state, but there were exceptions.
Webb Elementary School in Houston County ranked No. 23, even though 77% of its students were from low-income families. Piedmont Elementary School ranked No. 11, with 72% of students from low-income families.
Alabama’s top 25 elementary schools, as ranked by U.S. News, are in the table below. The full U.S. News Best Elementary and Middle Schools rankings can be found here.
Among middle schools, Piedmont Middle School ranked No. 8, with 63% of students from low-income families. Brewton Middle School ranked No. 19, with 61% of students from low-income families.
U.S. News also ranked charter schools separately in its own category.
University Charter School Elementary in Livingston ranked No. 1 among elementary charter schools but No. 248 among all Alabama elementary schools. Legacy Prep in Birmingham ranked second among elementary charter schools but No. 362 statewide.
The other six charter schools were in the bottom quarter of the statewide rankings.
U.S. News did not publish a separate ranking of Alabama charter middle schools.
How U.S. News ranks schools
Nationwide, U.S. News ranked about 46,000 public elementary schools and more than 24,000 middle schools.
U.S. News ranks individual schools statewide and also ranks schools within districts that have at least three schools eligible for ranking. It does not rank the districts themselves.
The rankings are based on reading and math test results from the 2023-24 school year.
Half of each school’s score is based on student achievement. The other half looks at how well students performed compared with expectations based on the school’s demographics, including poverty and race.
For the 2027 rankings, U.S. News used data collected from state education agencies by RTI International, along with data from the U.S. Department of Education. The rankings now consider how students perform at all achievement levels, rather than just whether they scored proficient on state tests.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Trisha Powell Crain and originally published by the Alabama Daily News.
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