Summary:
Montevallo, Alabama is home to two public middle schools serving grades 6-8, both operating under the highly-rated Shelby County school district, which holds a 4-star rating and ranks in the 79th percentile statewide.
For parents comparing the two schools, the most striking difference is in size and resources. Calera Middle is the larger school with 767 students and a student-teacher ratio of 16.8, while Montevallo Middle School serves just 346 students with a much lower ratio of 11.3, suggesting more individualized attention. Interestingly, Montevallo spends 51% more per student ($12,938 vs. $8,564) despite serving a population with higher economic need (78.61% free/reduced lunch vs. 62.45%). Despite this spending gap, Calera actually outperforms Montevallo in 6th-grade math (28.99% vs. 18.35% proficiency) and 7th-grade English (51.3% vs. 43.4%). However, Montevallo takes the lead in 8th-grade science (60.19% vs. 48.43%) and shows stronger year-over-year gains in that subject.
Both schools share several important trends. They have nearly identical overall rankings (233rd and 232nd out of 443 schools), and both showed significant improvement in math across most grade levels—Calera jumped 6.26 points in 8th-grade math while Montevallo gained 5.51 points. Science is a relative strength, with Montevallo exceeding the state average by 6 points. However, both schools struggle with chronic absenteeism (14.4% at Calera, 13.9% at Montevallo), exceeding both district (11.0%) and state (12.0%) averages. Math proficiency remains the critical challenge, with rates ranging from just 18.35% to 28.99% across all grades, compared to English proficiency between 43.4% and 60.19%. Both schools also experienced a ranking dip in 2024-2025 followed by partial recovery, suggesting district-wide factors rather than school-specific issues. For parents, the choice may come down to preferring Calera's stronger early-grade math and English performance versus Montevallo's smaller class sizes and superior science outcomes.
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