One-Third of Alabama’s Failing Schools Are in the Birmingham Metro Area
By Cheryl Slocum
The Alabama State Department of Education has posted its list of the state’s failing public schools, and 25 Birmingham metro-area public schools are on it. Statewide, 76 public schools are on the list.
The list is based on standardized test score performances and compiled yearly as a requirement of the Alabama Accountability Act. The law requires that schools with scores that fall into the lowest 6 percent be designated as failing schools.
Birmingham City Schools comprise 26 percent of the failing schools, with 20 schools on the list. That number is up from the lists released in 2018 and 2017, when 14 and 13 schools, respectively, were designated as failing.
In Birmingham City Schools, eight of the 20 schools have consistently been categorized as failing schools over the past four years: George Washington Carver High, Hayes K-8, Jackson-Olin High, Jones Valley Middle, Parker High, Smith Middle, Washington Elementary and Woodlawn High Magnet schools.
For the first time, Huffman Middle, Inglenook and Robinson Elementary schools were included on the list of failing Birmingham City Schools.
In the Bessemer city system, the only school on the list is Bessemer City High School, which has been on the failing list since 2016. In 2016, the school system had five schools on the failing school list, but it improved to have two on the list in 2018 and one this year.
The Jefferson County system’s Center Point High School has been on the bottom 6 percent list since 2017. It was the only school in the system on the list this year, which is an improvement from 2017, when six schools were classified as failing, and 2018, when the district had two schools on the list. The county system had no schools on the list in 2016.
Below is a list of all of the Birmingham metro area schools that were designated as failing for 2019. You can find a full listing of all 76 of Alabama’s failing public schools here.
The Alabama Accountability Act stipulates that the parents of any student enrolled in a failing school can take one of four actions. The parents can choose for the student to remain at the failing school; transfer to another non-failing school within the district, providing there is space available; transfer to another school district, providing the district has room and is willing to accept the student; or transfer to a private school. The act also established a tax credit-based scholarship program to pay costs for students who transfer to qualifying private schools.
Here are Birmingham-area schools on the list:
Bessemer City Schools
Bessemer City High School
Birmingham City Schools
Bush Hills Academy
Charles A Brown Elementary School
George Washington Carver High School
Green Acres Middle School
Hayes K-8
Hudson K-8 School
Huffman Middle School
Huffman High School-Magnet
Inglenook School
Jackson-Olin High School
Parker High School
WE Putnam Middle School-Magnet
Ossie Ware Mitchell Middle School
Robinson Elementary School
Smith Middle School
Arrington Middle School
Washington Elementary School
Jones Valley Middle School
Wenonah High School
Woodlawn High School-Magnet
Fairfield City
Fairfield High Preparatory School
Robinson Elementary School
Jefferson County Schools
Center Point High School
Tarrant City
Tarrant High School
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