Summary:
Zip code 36206 in Anniston, AL, is home to two high schools—Saks High School and EXCEL Academy—both part of the Calhoun County district, serving grades 6-12 and 7-12 respectively, with a combined enrollment of over 600 students.
For parents, the standout choice in this area is Saks High School, which clearly outperforms EXCEL Academy on nearly every academic metric. Saks has a much better state ranking (273rd vs. 295th), a strong upward trajectory from a 1-star to a 3-star rating, and an impressive 97.3% graduation rate—well above the district and state averages. This is particularly notable given that 72% of its students receive free/reduced lunch, a higher poverty rate than EXCEL's 60%. Saks also has a healthy 15:1 student-to-teacher ratio, compared to EXCEL's staggering 32.6:1, meaning Saks students get far more individual attention. While both schools struggle with 11th-grade math proficiency (8.47% at Saks vs. 2.38% at EXCEL), Saks shows a clear strength in middle grades, with 8th-grade science proficiency at 45.9% compared to EXCEL's 6.67%.
However, EXCEL Academy does have one standout metric: a remarkably low chronic absenteeism rate of 6.4%, better than both the district (10.1%) and state (12.0%), suggesting strong student engagement despite lower test scores. The data also reveals a systemic concern for the entire zip code—both schools have critically low 11th-grade math scores, far below the state average of 27.21%, indicating students may not be prepared for college-level STEM coursework. Additionally, EXCEL's data shows extreme volatility (e.g., 8th-grade math dropping from 18.18% to 0% in one year), likely due to its small cohort size, making its percentages highly sensitive to individual student performance.
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