By Staff Reports  

Grades are in for all public schools in Alabama. The Alabama Department of Education released its state report cards this past Friday. Due to the impact of COVID-19, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) issued a waiver to Alabama on March 27, 2020 waiving the requirement of reporting accountability results for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years, according to its website.  

Hartselle schools scored a 92 on the state report card, down from a 94 in 2018-19. Though the district scored an A, Hartselle Intermediate School and Hartselle Junior High decreased from a 92 in 2018-19 to an 88 for 2021-22. 

Josh Swindall, Hartselle City Schools’ secondary curriculum coordinator, said he has also seen the toll of the pandemic on his middle school students and more is expected of them academically than in the past. 

“Some of those learning gaps are likely attributable to age and maturity and the increase in rigor and standards,” Swindall said. “The ACAP is more rigorous in all domains than the Scantron. It seems to be in those middle school grades, the proficiency is even harder to achieve.” 

Michael Sibley, director of communications with the state Department of Education, said the state uses academic achievement, academic growth, graduation rates, college and career readiness, chronic absenteeism and progress in English language proficiency to calculate each school and district’s overall letter grade and numerical score. 

Hartselle scored the following on the metrics used to calculate its overall grade:  

• Academic achievement: 77.35 
• Academic growth: 100 
• Graduation rates: 94.76 

• College and career readiness: 91.01 
• Chronic absenteeism: 12.72 
• Progress in English language proficiency:  

Morgan County Schools scored at B at 86, down one point from its score of 87 in 2018-19. 

In 2018, Morgan County Schools reported its 17 served 7,452 with a graduation rate of 93.77%. That rate now sits at 91.41%.  

By school, grades this year for Morgan County high schools are C’s and B’s, with Falkville and Danville high schools both scoring 79, Brewer coming in at 75 and Priceville scoring an 82.  

6.02% of Morgan County students have limited English language proficiency while 39.83% are economically disadvantaged, according to state report card data.  

The state as a whole scored a B coming in with a score of 84 and hitting the following metrics:  

Academic achievement – 59.74; academic growth – 97.18; graduation rate – 90.68; and college and career readiness – 76.48.  

Wes Tomlinson contributed to this report.