Summary:
Zip code 35756 is home to a single, large public high school, James Clemens High School, serving grades 9-12 in the Madison, AL area as part of the highly-rated Madison City school district.
For parents, the standout feature here is exceptional academic performance. James Clemens is ranked in the top 4% of all Alabama high schools (14th out of 380) and holds a consistent 5-star rating. Its 11th-grade proficiency rates are roughly double the state average in Math (58% vs. 27%), Science (63% vs. 36%), and English (55% vs. 34%). The school also shows strong year-over-year improvement, with math proficiency jumping nearly 13 percentage points in a single year. With a 95.8% graduation rate, it exceeds the state average of 91.5%, though it sits just below its own district's 96.0% rate. The student-teacher ratio is 17.8:1, and about 23% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch, indicating a relatively affluent student body.
One notable anomaly is chronic absenteeism. While the school outperforms its district in test scores, its absenteeism rate of 11.2% is notably higher than the district average of 8.6%, though still slightly below the state's 12.0%. This suggests that while attending students perform exceptionally well, a larger share of the student body is missing significant school days compared to peers in other district schools—a potential risk factor to watch. The school's state ranking has been remarkably stable over the past three years, indicating a reliable, high-quality education system. One caveat: spending data is from 2018-2019 ($9,387 per student), so current resource allocation is unclear. Overall, this is a top-tier school with outstanding academics, though parents may want to inquire about attendance patterns.
Thank you for your feedback!