Five of eight Franklin County Schools receive ‘A’ grades on 24-25 State Report Card

Report card day can either bring a smile to the face of a student or a sense of dread waiting to see mom and dad’s response to a bad report.

For Franklin County Schools Superintendent of Education Greg Hamilton, today was a happy day when the 2024-2025 State Department of Education’s State Report Card was reported.

Franklin County Schools received an overall score of 88, a B grade, the same number the system received on the 2023-24 state report card.

But the really good news came when five of the system’s nine schools received scores of 90 or above, an A under state criteria.

Red Bay High School and Vina High Schools received scores of 91. East Franklin Junior High School, Red Bay Elementary School and Phil Campbell Elementary School earned scores of 90.

Three county schools received B scores: 87 for Phil Campbell High School, 86 for Tharptown Elementary School and 85 for Belgreen High School.

Tharptown High School received the system’s lowest score, a C grade of 78.

Six schools (East Franklin, Phil Campbell High, Phil Campbell Elementary, Red Bay High, Tharptown Elementary and Vina) improved their grade from 2023-24. Two (Red Bay Elementary and Belgreen) schools’ scores were the same as the previous year and Tharptown High was the lone grade to drop from 2023-24.

“These scores represent tremendous successes in our schools,” Hamilton said. “We are a woefully underfunded school system, so to achieve such a high level of success and seeing continued improvement within our schools is absolutely amazing.

“I encourage our board members to reach out to their schools and thank the administrators, teachers, staff and students for a job well done,” he added.

The State Report Card grades every public school system and individual school on six accountability indicators: Academic achievement, academic growth, graduate rate, college and career readiness, chronic absenteeism and progress in English Language proficiency.

Franklin County Schools’ overall score in academic growth was 100. This is one of two criteria, along with academic achievement, that are given more weight in calculating a school’s overall grade.

Academic growth tracks student growth in reading and math over time. Academic achievement measures whether students are proficient in English Language arts and mathematics based on standardized test scores.

The system’s grade on academic achievement was 67.79, a D, but slightly higher than the 67.0 statewide score.

Franklin County Schools’ 91.02 grade on graduation rate comes in slightly lower than the State Department of Education’s overall score of 91.56.

The system’s failing score of 45.32 on progress in English Language proficiency, which assesses the progress of ELL students in becoming English proficient, was slightly lower than the statewide score of 45.65.

Chronic absenteeism measures the percentage of students who miss 18 or more days of school in one school year. Franklin County Schools’ 10.35 is lower than the statewide 12.056, a good thing in this category alone.

Franklin County Schools’ 90.63 in college and career readiness is well above the statewide grade of 87.88. This indicator measures the percentage of students in 9th-12th grade who meet at least one college or career readiness indicator, such as AP exam scores or acceptance into a military branch.

Franklin County Schools’ overall grade of 88, by comparison, is five points higher than Lawrence County Schools (83), the same as Colbert County Schools (88) and one point below Marion County Schools (89).