Summary:
The city of Jackson, Alabama, is served by four public schools within the Clarke County school district, which together educate approximately 1,325 students across grades PK-12 in a community where roughly three-quarters of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
For parents, the standout story is Jackson High School, which posted a remarkable turnaround in the last year. Its graduation rate of 97.8% far exceeds both the district (91.4%) and state (91.5%) averages, and its chronic absenteeism rate of 5.2% is less than half the state average. The high school also saw dramatic test score improvements, with English proficiency more than doubling to 31.65% and science nearly doubling to 28.75%, lifting its statewide ranking from the 29th to the 49th percentile. Meanwhile, Jackson Middle School is the attendance champion, with a chronic absenteeism rate of just 3.1%—nearly four times better than the state average. However, the middle school struggles mightily in math, with proficiency rates between 8.33% and 12.16%, roughly one-third of state averages, while its 8th grade science proficiency (42.86%) is five times higher than its math score.
The most concerning trend is the "learning cliff" between Jackson Intermediate School and the middle school: 5th grade math proficiency of 27.93% plummets to just 8.97% in 6th grade. English language arts is a relative strength across all schools, with 5th grade English at 63.06% versus 27.93% in math. Joe M Gillmore Elementary School (PK-2) has the district's highest chronic absenteeism rate at 13.8%, above the state average, which is concerning for such young students. The middle and intermediate schools also have the highest student-teacher ratios (19.3:1 and 19.8:1) and lowest per-student spending, which may contribute to the math struggles. Despite the district ranking in the bottom quarter of Alabama, these schools show strong non-academic foundations in attendance and graduation that provide a solid base for improvement.
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