Summary:
The city of Cottondale, Alabama is home to 4 schools serving students from elementary through high school, including 1 high school, 2 middle schools, and 1 elementary school. Unfortunately, the data shows that these schools are consistently underperforming compared to state and district averages across key metrics like test scores and statewide rankings.
Across the board, the schools in Cottondale have significantly lower test scores than the Tuscaloosa City and Tuscaloosa County averages. For example, at Paul W. Bryant High School, only 4.62% of 11th graders were proficient or better in Mathematics, compared to 17.77% for Tuscaloosa City and 23.12% for the state. The middle schools and elementary school show similar trends of underperformance.
Additionally, all the Cottondale schools have consistently ranked in the bottom third of their respective school types in the state over the past 3 years. These low-performing schools also serve a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students, with free and reduced-price lunch rates ranging from 48.46% to 95.92%. While per-student spending is in line with state averages, the data suggests that simply increasing funding may not be enough to address the systemic issues facing these schools. Targeted interventions and a deeper understanding of the unique challenges in the Cottondale community will likely be necessary to improve academic outcomes for students in this area.
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