Summary:
Zip code 26151 is home to a single high school, Calhoun Middle/High School, a combined campus serving grades 5 through 12 with 498 students in the Calhoun County Schools district.
For parents, the most important takeaway is that this school presents a tale of two very different experiences. On one hand, the school achieves an outstanding 98.3% graduation rate, far exceeding the state average of 92.8%, and its 5th-grade students are academic standouts, with 67.5% proficiency in math and 60% in English Language Arts—both above state averages. On the other hand, the school's overall state ranking is at the very bottom, placing 112th out of 112 schools in the 2023-2024 school year. The most dramatic finding is the sharp decline after 5th grade: math proficiency plummets from 67.5% in 5th grade to just 11.9% in 6th grade, with a similar drop in English. By 11th grade, only 9.9% of students are proficient in math and 11.5% in science. Overall proficiency rates are well below state averages across all subjects (26.4% math, 35.9% ELA, 21.0% science).
The school's student-teacher ratio is a favorable 13.1, and per-student spending is $11,621. The high graduation rate suggests the school excels at keeping students engaged and on track to earn a diploma, but the low test scores in upper grades indicate that academic preparation for college or careers may be lacking. The strong 5th-grade performance shows the elementary portion of the school is effective, but that success is not being sustained through middle and high school. Since this is the only school in the district serving these grades, its performance directly shapes the entire district's data. Parents should weigh the exceptional graduation rate and strong early-grade instruction against the significant academic struggles in the upper grades when considering this school.
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