Greenville Middle School

Greenville Middle School in Greenville, AL, serves 513 students in grades 5 through 8 within the Butler County district. This is a large school for the area, and it serves a community where economic challenges are significant—over three-quarters of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. The school has faced academic hurdles, with state rankings in the bottom quartile of Alabama middle schools, and chronic absenteeism is a serious concern at roughly 28%, more than double the state average.

Despite these challenges, there are important bright spots and useful comparisons. When looking at the nearest comparable school, Lowndes County Middle School (about 10 miles away), Greenville actually outperforms it in nearly every subject and grade level—for example, 6th-grade math proficiency is 17% at Greenville versus 8% at Lowndes. This is notable because Greenville has a much higher student-teacher ratio (19:1 vs. 12:1) and spends significantly less per student ($8,003 vs. $14,023). The most encouraging trend is in special education: students in this subgroup jumped from the 10th percentile in 2023-2024 to the 55th percentile in 2025-2026, a remarkable turnaround that shows targeted interventions can work.

The most urgent areas for improvement are clear. Mathematics proficiency is critically low, with 7th and 8th-grade scores in the single digits, and performance for low-income students has been declining over the past two years. There is also a modest gender gap, with male students scoring slightly higher than female students. For parents, the takeaway is that Greenville Middle School is a school with real strengths—especially in special education—but it faces systemic issues in math and attendance that directly impact student success. The school's ability to improve outcomes for one subgroup suggests that with focused effort, other areas can improve too.