Summary:
The Tarrant City school district in Alabama serves approximately 1,308 students across three schools—Tarrant Elementary School (PK-2), Tarrant Intermediate School (3-6), and Tarrant High School (7-12)—and ranks in the bottom 1% of districts statewide, with all schools carrying a 0-star rating.
Among the three, Tarrant Intermediate School stands out as the strongest performer, posting the highest English Language Arts proficiency rates (38.6% in 5th grade) and the lowest chronic absenteeism at 19.5%, well below the district average of 27.2%. It also improved its state ranking from 641st to 629th. Tarrant High School is the largest school and boasts a 94.3% graduation rate, exceeding the state average, yet its 11th-grade math proficiency is just 1.7% and English proficiency only 7.0%. Tarrant Elementary School has no recent test data, but its 31.3% chronic absenteeism rate is the highest in the district, a red flag for its youngest learners.
The most alarming trend is the "middle school cliff" in math: proficiency peaks at 28.9% in 4th grade, then plummets to 1.4% by 7th grade—a 94% drop. English scores are consistently 2-3 times higher than math but still lag state averages by 25-35 points. With 77.7% of students on free/reduced lunch and per-student spending of $11,212, the district shows that money alone isn't closing the gap. The graduation rate paradox—high graduation despite catastrophic test scores—suggests credit recovery may mask true mastery. Chronic absenteeism, double the state average, and volatile year-over-year scores point to systemic instability. For parents, Tarrant Intermediate offers the best academic footing, while the high school's graduation rate is a bright spot, but all schools require urgent, targeted intervention to reverse these trends.
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