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By BARTON PERKINS | Staff Writer

PELHAM– Pelham City Schools received a grade of 88 on the State report card released by the Alabama State Department of Education on Thursday, Dec. 14.

This year’s overall score of 88 reflects increases over last year’s data in the categories of academic achievement, academic growth, college and career readiness and graduation rate, and a decrease in chronic absenteeism.

Overall the state report card lists the following stats which determined PCS’ overall score:

-Academic achievement: 70.34

-Academic growth: 99.70

-Graduation rate: 91.97

-Progress in English Language proficiency: 48.40

-Chronic absenteeism: 12.81

-College and career readiness: 80.94

Each of the schools in Pelham also received a B on the report card individually, with Pelham High School seeing a notable increase to an 86, which is up 6 points from last year’s score of 80.

“We are proud to be on a trajectory that is continuing to improve, as our report card grade shows,” said superintendent Dr. Chuck Ledbetter. 

Pelham High School’s stats break down as follows:

-Academic achievement: 60.23

-Academic growth: 100

-Graduation rate: 91.97

-Progress in English Language proficiency: 40

-Chronic absenteeism: 14.12

-College and career readiness: 80.94

Many factors influence the quality of a school system, and the Alabama State Report Card is one tool that provides a snapshot of our system’s performance in the previous year.

“We continually look at multiple sets of data including assessment results and student work samples to help us make informed decisions regarding student instructional needs,” said Chief Academic Officer Shannon Bogert. “Our students recently took their mid-year diagnostic assessments, and we are excited about our preliminary data and the growth that students have achieved.”

Ongoing assessments and data analysis help guide enrichment and extra learning activities for students. Examples of academic support in Pelham City Schools include after school tutoring in reading and math, K-12 summer programs, reading and math intervention programs in K-8 and high school learning labs.

“We are pleased to have evidence from the report card that shows we are on the right track,” Dr. Ledbetter said, “and we are excited to see how the work we are doing now continues to grow our school system as we meet the needs of every student.”