Greensboro Middle School

Greensboro Middle School in Greensboro, AL, serves 215 students in grades 6 through 8 and is part of the Hale County district, a community where nearly 9 in 10 students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

The most encouraging news is in 8th grade, where students are showing real strength. In the most recent school year, 8th graders posted a 43.94% proficiency rate in science—a huge jump from 25.71% the year before—and 51.52% proficiency in English Language Arts, which is close to the state average of 58.53%. The school also earns a 3-star rating for its work with African American students, ranking in the 54th percentile statewide, which is far better than its overall 1-star rating. That tells us the school is doing something right with specific groups and subjects, and those successes are worth building on.

The biggest challenge is math. Proficiency rates are very low across all grades—just 7.35% in 6th grade, 4.05% in 7th grade, and 12.12% in 8th grade. To put that in perspective, Demopolis Middle School, just 20 miles away in the Demopolis City district, posts math proficiency rates 3 to 8 times higher, even though Demopolis serves a less economically disadvantaged population. Chronic absenteeism (14.2%) is slightly above the state average but not dramatically so, suggesting the academic struggles are more about instruction and resources than attendance. The good news is the school's overall ranking has crept up from the 15th percentile to the 23rd percentile over the past few years. For parents, the takeaway is clear: Greensboro Middle has proven it can achieve in science and reading, and the key question is how to bring that same success to math.