Summary:
Butler, Alabama, is served by a single high school, Choctaw County High School, a small rural school within the Choctaw County district that enrolls 231 students across grades 7 through 12.
For parents considering this school, the most important takeaway is that Choctaw County High School faces significant academic challenges, particularly in mathematics, where proficiency rates are dramatically below state averages. In the most recent testing year, 7th grade math proficiency was 0%, 8th grade was 3.92%, and 11th grade was 6.06%—all roughly 4 to 8 times lower than the state average. English performance is stronger in the middle grades, with 7th graders reaching 48.65% proficiency (close to the state's 55.25%), but this advantage disappears by 11th grade, where only 6.45% of students are proficient. The school's overall state ranking has been volatile, dropping from the 21st percentile in 2024-2025 to the 8th percentile in 2025-2026, and it currently holds a zero-star rating.
The school also struggles with non-academic factors that impact learning. Chronic absenteeism sits at 15.2%, higher than the state average of 12.0%, and over three-quarters of students (76.62%) qualify for free or reduced lunch, indicating a high-poverty population. The graduation rate of 86.0% trails both the district (88.8%) and state (91.5%). While per-student spending of $10,983 is modest and the student-teacher ratio of 17.1:1 is typical, the combination of small cohort sizes, high poverty, and absenteeism likely contributes to the year-over-year swings in test scores. One relative bright spot is 8th grade science, where 25.49% proficiency, while still below the state's 54.12%, outperforms the school's own math and English scores in that grade. Overall, parents should expect a school with strong foundational literacy efforts in middle school but significant systemic challenges in math and maintaining academic momentum through high school.
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