Lanett City

Lanett City Schools is a small, three-school district in east Alabama serving approximately 971 students in grades PK-12, and it currently ranks near the bottom of all Alabama districts, with all three schools receiving zero stars in the latest ranking cycle.

For parents, the picture is challenging but not uniform across the district. W O Lance Elementary is the clear bright spot, showing the strongest academics in the district, particularly in English Language Arts where proficiency ranges from 24-32% in grades 3-6—roughly two to five times higher than its own math scores (5-15%). It also has the lowest chronic absenteeism rate at 12.6%, nearly matching the state average. In contrast, Lanett Senior High School is the most concerning, with a graduation rate of just 78.6% (state: 91.5%), a chronic absenteeism rate of 29.6%—more than double the state average—and only 3.45% of 11th graders proficient in English and 4.92% in math. Lanett Junior High School sits in between but shows a dramatic math crisis, with just 1.18% of 7th graders proficient in math, though it did show notable improvement in 8th grade science, jumping from 10.61% to 20.59% proficiency year-over-year.

Across the district, math proficiency declines sharply as students advance—from 15.48% in 3rd grade to just 1.18% in 7th grade—while English consistently outperforms math at every level. The transition to high school represents a cliff, with 8th grade English proficiency of 20.59% collapsing to 3.45% by 11th grade. The district serves a predominantly economically disadvantaged population (58-68% free/reduced lunch), and spending does not correlate with outcomes: the high school spends the most per student ($12,758) yet produces the worst results, while the elementary school spends the least ($9,031) and achieves the best. The district has also been losing ground relative to other Alabama schools over the past three years, dropping from the 9th to the 2nd percentile in elementary rankings.