Madison County High School

Gurley · AL · Madison County · Public


📚AP rigor: 78th percentile nationally 📖11 AP courses 🎓97% 4-yr grad rate

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • 📚 11 AP courses offered — Elite
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • 🔢 1 calculus classes · 1 physics · 6 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: 78th percentile nationally
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 64th percentile by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 97% (90th percentile nationally)

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts graduation data, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

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How Madison County High School compares for families

Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.

  • StatewideAP rigor in the top 22% nationally with 11 AP courses.
  • LocallyAL trails the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (−10 points). Stronger local schools matter even more.
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: New Century Technology High School, New Hope High School, Kate D Smith DAR High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.

🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth

78th percentile nationally

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
AP courses offered
11
Math ✓ · Science ✓
Students taking AP courses
174
≈39 per 100 students · uptake, not just offerings
Advanced math classes
4
1 calculus · 3 advanced
Lab science classes
7
1 physics · 6 chemistry
Other rigor signals
✅ Dual-enrollment program

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).

SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21

64th percentile by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
117
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
25.9
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12
Compared against
18,426
US high schools reporting SAT/ACT participation

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.

🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts

What % of students graduate on time?

90th percentile nationally

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
97%
Range: 95–100%
4-year cohort size
114
Students in the 9th-grade entry class tracked over 4 years
Compared against
17,988
US high schools reporting 4-year ACGR

Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.

👩‍🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC

Teacher experience & reliability

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
26.7%
Elevated — a quarter or more of teachers are in years 1-2. Often correlates with school instability.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
6.7%
Around the national average. Worth watching.

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.

🏛️ Federal Title I context

Title I Targeted Assistance eligible

35-39% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Targeted Assistance

35.0%
FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).
0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

35-39% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The school can receive Title I funds targeted to identified students (not schoolwide).

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.

🏛️ Your state's public flagship

The University of Alabama

76%
admit rate
$12,180
in-state tuition/yr · $34,172 out-of-state
1170–1400
SAT 25–75 · ACT 24–31

The in-state tuition gap is the flagship's biggest draw — most in-state families pay far less than the out-of-state sticker. Average net price after aid runs about $22,420/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.

See the full The University of Alabama profile → Estimate your odds with your scores →

Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.

Chronic absenteeism

Share of students absent 15+ days
22.6%
Elevated above the national average (~16%). Worth understanding — chronic absence compounds into dropout risk, transfer-out risk, and revenue loss.
Students absent 15+ days
102
Federal definition: absent (excused or unexcused) for at least 15 of ~180 school days — about 10% of the school year.

Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the most reliable early indicator that a student will leave a school — either by transferring out, dropping out, or matriculating to a charter or private alternative. At this level, today's absentees become next year's enrollment loss and the year-after's revenue loss.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.

Counselor capacity

Student : Counselor
226:1
Below the ASCA 250:1 recommendation — strong capacity for college planning, course selection, and student supports.
Counselor FTE
2.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
30
Full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.

Enrollment trend & projection

Grade 12 went from 115 in 2021 to 125 in 2024 — over 3 years.
+8.7%

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -3.3%/year, projecting from 2024's 451 students:

2025
436
2027
408
2029
382

≈ 69 fewer students by 2029 — a real revenue/relevance risk worth getting ahead of.

An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.

Revenue at risk

At $11,955 per student in district revenue, the 69 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $824,895/year in funding at risk.

District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.

Most similar nearby high schools

The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
New Century Technology High School
Huntsville
Public 8.4 366 -15.3%
New Hope High School
New Hope
Public 13.8 386 +1.8%
Kate D Smith DAR High School
Grant
Public 17.3 372 -9.9%
Lee High School
Huntsville
Public 8.4 877 +10.7%
Madison County Career Technical Center
Huntsville
Public 6.1
Jemison High School
Huntsville
Public 10.9 858 -1.5%
Mental Health Center
Huntsville
Public 9.2
Huntsville Center For Technology
Huntsville
Public 9.3

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