High Schools in Bessemer City

Bessemer City is home to a single public high school, Bessemer City High School, which serves grades 9 through 12 and enrolls approximately 760 students within the Bessemer City district.

For parents, the most pressing concern at Bessemer City High School is academic proficiency, which remains critically low across all subjects. In the most recent testing year, only 5.39% of 11th graders were proficient in math, 9.36% in science, and 8.59% in English—all roughly 20 to 27 percentage points below state averages. The school ranks in the bottom 7% of Alabama high schools and has earned zero stars in the state’s rating system. However, there is a notable positive trend: proficiency rates more than doubled in English and quadrupled in math compared to the prior year, suggesting recent interventions may be starting to take hold. A severe chronic absenteeism crisis compounds these challenges, with 41.7% of students missing significant school days—nearly 3.5 times the state average of 12%. This attendance issue is likely a major driver of the low test scores and should be a primary focus for improvement.

Despite the academic struggles, the graduation rate of 85.5% is only six points below the state average, which is a silver lining, though it may indicate grade inflation or credit recovery rather than true mastery. The school serves a predominantly low-income population, with 79.61% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, and has a relatively high student-teacher ratio of 21.7:1, which can limit individualized attention. Per-student spending is modest at $9,771. The district’s overall ranking of 132 out of 139 in Alabama is entirely tied to this single school’s performance. While the school faces significant, interconnected obstacles, the recent upward trend in test scores and a graduation rate that exceeds expectations offer some hope for families, though the path forward will require aggressive attendance initiatives and targeted academic support.