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Check out the 2026 Prioritized Needs
Scope
Scope
School success measures whether children are academically prepared, consistently attending school, and progressing toward graduation. Key indicators include reading proficiency, math proficiency, graduation rates, and absenteeism.
Early academic performance strongly predicts long-term outcomes, including workforce readiness and reduced justice system involvement.School success measures whether children are academically prepared, attending consistently, and graduating ready for work or further education
Why It Matters
Why It Matters
3rd/4th grade reading proficiency predicts high school graduation.
Dropout risk increases juvenile justice involvement.
Chronic absenteeism is an early warning sign of family instability.
Educational attainment correlates strongly with long-term economic stability.
This is a primary “future outcomes” domain.
This is a primary “future outcomes” domain.
Required Data
Required Data
Graduation rate
Chronic absenteeism
4th grade reading proficiency
4th grade math proficiency
95.3% graduation rate
The number of students who graduated from public high schools in Alabama in 2022-2023 with regular, advanced and/or credit-based diplomas. This number is expressed as a percentage of the total number of students who enrolled as first year freshmen four years earlier.
The denominator used in computing the rate includes graduates, completers, students still enrolled, students withdrawn but still enrolled, students who enrolled but failed to attend, dropouts and “other.” It does not include students in the freshman class who were retained from earlier classes.
Data are adjusted for students who transferred into and out of the cohort over the four-year period. This method of measuring the graduation rate is referred to as the “four-year cohort graduation rate.”
27.1% chronic absenteeism
Students who miss 10 or more school days in a given school year.
67% proficient in reading
50.9% proficient in math
Prior to 2019-2020
Percent of total public school students enrolled in Grades 4 and 8 scoring at the “proficient level”
(i.e., Levels 3 and 4 combined) on the ACT Aspire test in mathematics and reading. Level 3 and 4 scores are defined as those which meet or exceed benchmark scores for the specified subject and grade level. Students who exceed benchmark scores are considered on target for college readiness by the time they reach the 11th grade.
Test scores reported in 2013-14 are the first year for this testing series.
Percent of total public school students enrolled in Grades 4 and 8 scoring at the "proficient level" (i.e., Levels 3 and 4 combined) on the ACT Scantron test in mathematics and reading. Level 3 and 4 scores are defined as those which meet or exceed benchmark scores for the specified subject and grade level. Students who exceed benchmark scores are considered on target for college readiness by the time they reach the 11th grade.
2021- 2025 (Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program Assessment Summative Math Scores)
Percent of total public school students enrolled in Grades 4 and 8 scoring at the "proficient level" (i.e., Levels 3 and 4 combined) on the ACT ACAP Summative test in mathematics and reading. Level 3 and 4 scores are defined as those which meet or exceed benchmark scores for the specified subject and grade level. Students who exceed benchmark scores are considered on target for college readiness by the time they reach the 11th grade
Primary Data Sources
Primary Data Sources
Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)
School Report Cards
Alabama Kids Count Data Center
Graduation rate
Reading & math proficiency
Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA)
Education trend analysis
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