Graduation and College and Career Readiness
More Alabama high school students graduated ready for college or careers in 2023, according to data recently released by the Alabama Department of Education. Printable PDF available here. Students in the Class of 2023 made gains on all measures, bouncing back from the setbacks suffered during the pandemic and closing the gap between the percentage […]
Huntsville and Baldwin Continue Population Gains, Birmingham Remains in Top 50 of U.S. Metros
The Huntsville area and Baldwin County continue to add more new residents, while growth in Shelby County and St. Clair County helped the Birmingham Metro Area return to positive growth after two years of population loss. That’s according to new estimates of population change in U.S. counties and metro areas published by the U.S. Census […]
Alabama Public Opinion Survey
PARCA’s most recent public opinion survey finds, once again, aversion to certain taxes, support for public education, and mistrust in state government. At the same time, the survey finds a lack of consensus on how the state should respond to other critical issues. Among the findings: PARCA’s annual public opinion survey was conducted between October […]
More Students Workforce Ready in the Class of 2023
The number and percentage of high school seniors graduating workforce-ready rose with the Class of 2023, according to the results of ACT’s WorkKeys Assessment, a test of skills given to public high school seniors. The results are another sign that student performance is recovering from post-pandemic lows, though the recovery is not complete. Printable PDF […]
Alabama ACT Scores Climb
ACT Scores for Alabama public high school students improved in 2023, bucking a downward trend nationally and providing another clue that Alabama schools began recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic more quickly than schools nationally. Students in the graduating class of 2023 were in ninth grade when the COVID-19 pandemic reached the U.S. Printable PDF Document […]
Shifts in Public School Enrollment Seen in the 2023-2024 Fall Attendance Data
Alabama’s public school enrollment is down slightly for the 2023-2024 school year, with a decline in the number of white students enrolled, partially offset by a growing enrollment of Hispanic students. Just over half of public school students, 51% are white, 32% Black, and 11% Hispanic. This year’s enrollment continues a long-term trend. In 2000, […]
Changes to the State Standardized Test and its Scoring
The Alabama State Board of Education voted on Thursday to change the test score students must earn to be considered reading on grade level by the end of third grade. The change was recommended by testing experts due to changes made in the content of the 2023 test and shifts in results. Using the score […]
2022 City and MSA Population Estimates
Huntsville continued to surge ahead as Alabama’s three other largest cities lost population to surrounding suburbs. However, the pace of decline slowed in Birmingham and Montgomery, as it did in many cities nationwide that were hit hard by pandemic-driven change. That’s from the latest estimates produced by U.S. Census Bureau. The estimates cover the period […]
Grad Rate Dipped, but Career Readiness Climbed for Class 2022
As graduation approaches for the Class of 2023, there’s new data available allowing us to look back on last spring’s graduates. The Class of 2022 faced particular challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which struck when they were sophomores and persisted through their junior year. In both those years, the number of kids who dropped […]
ACT Scores Fall for the Class of 2022
In Alabama and across the country, average scores on the ACT, the widely-used college readiness test, dropped for the pandemic-plagued Class of 2022, with Alabama scores reaching their lowest point since 2015. Compared to the Class of 2021, Alabama public high graduates’ average composite score dropped by almost a point from 18.6 to 17.7 on […]