Summary:
The city of Duncanville, Alabama is home to two schools: Maxwell Elementary School and Duncanville Middle School, both part of the Tuscaloosa County district. While the schools share some similarities, they also demonstrate distinct differences in their academic performance and student population characteristics.
Maxwell Elementary School consistently ranks in the top half of Alabama elementary schools and maintains a 3-star rating from SchoolDigger. The school outperforms the Tuscaloosa County and Alabama state averages in several key test score metrics, particularly in English Language Arts. However, it has a relatively high free/reduced lunch rate of 72.1%, indicating a high-need student population. In contrast, Duncanville Middle School also maintains a 3-star rating and is ranked in the top half of Alabama middle schools, but demonstrates stronger performance in English Language Arts compared to Mathematics and Science, with test scores exceeding the county and state averages in ELA. Duncanville Middle School has a free/reduced lunch rate of 64.65%, which is still quite high but lower than Maxwell Elementary.
Both schools struggle with higher-than-average chronic absenteeism rates, with 14.8% of students being chronically absent in the 2023-2024 school year. Additionally, the relatively low statewide rankings for both schools, despite their 3-star ratings, suggest that there may be room for improvement in overall academic achievement compared to other schools in Alabama. The Tuscaloosa County district as a whole ranks 84 out of 135, indicating that the district may be an area of focus for educational improvement efforts.
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