Baldwin County Public Schools Score 92 to Claim First A Grade on Alabama State Report Card

BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. — For the first time since Alabama began grading its public school systems, Baldwin County Public Schools has earned an A. The district posted an overall score of 92 on the 2025-2026 Alabama state report card, results that school leaders unveiled to a gathering of principals and administrators Thursday morning, Nov. 12.

The 92 represents a three-point gain over last year’s 89, which fell just short of the A range, and it is the highest score the system has received under the state’s grading model. When the current form of testing and grading began in 2022, Baldwin County scored an 85.

A milestone for one of Alabama’s largest districts

Baldwin County Public Schools is the third-largest school system in Alabama, with 31,483 students enrolled across 44 schools. Based on the state’s 2025-2026 grade and enrollment data, it is the only A-rated system in Alabama with more than 30,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

District leaders emphasized that point at Thursday’s announcement. The superintendent, who took over leadership of the district in July, said he did not believe any other system of comparable size had reached that score. Heading into this year, the top marks among Alabama’s largest systems belonged to Shelby County and Madison County, each of which had earned a 91 on their 2024-2025 report cards. Other systems across the state were expected to release their own results later Thursday.

The superintendent credited everyone in the system for a share of the achievement. He said the district has focused on matching capable staff with the positions where they are needed most and equipping them well, and that students have answered with stronger performance. He added that the district supports every child regardless of background, and he described the A as evidence that the system’s approach is paying off.

The numbers behind the grade

The district’s improvement shows up across nearly every measure the state tracks. Highlights released by the school system include:

• School grades: Of 41 schools that received report cards, 23 earned an A, 15 earned a B and three earned a C. No school received a D or an F. The 23 A schools compare with 18 last year and just eight four years ago.
• Graduation rate: 93.3 percent, compared with 89 percent a year ago.
• College and career readiness: 97.3 percent, a jump from 86.7 percent a year ago.
• Chronic absenteeism: 10.3 percent, an improvement from 16.1 percent the previous year and part of a steady decline across five years.
• State testing: Students set all-time highs on the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program (ACAP) in 13 of 17 grade-level subject areas and outperformed state averages on every ACAP test.
• Proficiency ranking: The system ranks in the top 25 percent of Alabama’s city and county school systems for proficiency in English language arts, math and science.
• ACT: Results topped the state average on each ACT subtest, and the share of students meeting benchmarks exceeded the state’s. In all, 111 students reached a composite of 30 or above, and one earned the maximum possible score of 36.
• Advanced Placement: The district set new records for both participation and pass rates on AP exams.

How the Alabama report card works

Alabama’s state report card assigns a letter grade and numerical score to each public school and school system. The score is built from several components, including academic achievement, academic growth, graduation rate, college and career readiness, progress among English language learners and chronic absenteeism. Not every component applies to every school; elementary schools, for example, do not have graduation rates.

Scores of 90 and above earn an A, while scores in the 80s earn a B. That is why last year’s 89 left Baldwin County one point shy of the top grade.

Academic achievement reflects how many students reach proficiency on state tests, while academic growth measures how much individual students improve from one year to the next. College and career readiness captures whether graduating seniors have earned at least one of several state-recognized indicators, such as a qualifying ACT score, a passing AP exam score, dual enrollment credit, an industry credential or military enlistment. Chronic absenteeism counts students who miss a substantial portion of the school year, a factor educators closely link to learning outcomes.

Statewide scores also rose

Baldwin County’s gains came in a year of broad improvement across Alabama. Alabama’s overall state score climbed to 88.27 from 86.67, while the score used for federal reporting moved up two points, to 88 from 86. State education officials said nearly all categories improved, with academic growth remaining flat compared with the prior year.

Neighboring city systems also earn A’s

Baldwin County’s two city school systems on the coast also earned A grades:

• Orange Beach City Schools, which serves 1,249 students, repeated its score of 98 from a year ago.
• Gulf Shores City Schools, with 2,678 students, improved by one point to a 97 after scoring 96 the year before.

Both systems separated from the county district in recent years and operate their own schools, but they remain part of the broader Baldwin County education landscape.

Principals point to people and local funding

Principals throughout the district credited their faculty, support staff and targeted help for students with driving the improvement, though the specific strategies varied from campus to campus. In several communities, local property tax revenue approved by voters has paid for extra help in classrooms.

Fairhope High School

Fairhope High School scored a 93 this year, one point above the countywide score and up from 91 last year. The school’s principal credited teachers and students for the progress, and he singled out a 3-mill property tax increase that Fairhope voters approved in 2019. Money from that levy has paid for intervention specialists who work with struggling students, along with additional classroom teachers that keep classes small. He described the tax as transformative for the school.

The principal also said Baldwin County residents can see a return on their investment in public education. He said the county’s schools can compete with schools anywhere in the state, including those in the Birmingham and Montgomery areas, and that they are preparing students well for college.

Daphne Elementary School

Daphne Elementary School has seen one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the county. The school scored a 96 this year, up from a score in the high 70s during the 2022-2023 school year. Its principal said the improvement has been a focus of the school for several years.

She attributed the progress primarily to the school’s people and to having more adults available to help children. Daphne voters approved a 3-mill property tax increase in 2022, and together with city funds, that money pays for a team of part-time employees who give students extra reading and math support. She said that extra support has had the biggest impact on student results.

Daphne High School

At Daphne High School, the principal pointed to greater involvement from teachers and changes in how they are teaching, saying those efforts are helping students understand material better. The principal added that state test results and report card grades give schools a chance to show the public what is happening in their classrooms.

Summerdale School

Not every school that improved has the advantage of extra local tax money. Summerdale School, a pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school, raised its score from 80 last year to 85. Unlike the Fairhope and Daphne campuses, it gets no money from a dedicated city property tax.

The school has also seen its federal Title I funding decline from $300,000 to $132,000 since its current principal arrived in December 2024. Title I is a federal program that provides additional money to schools serving high percentages of students from low-income families.

The principal said Summerdale focused intensely on student growth, looking closely at each child’s starting point and path to improvement, with test data shaping day-to-day teaching decisions. The theme is reinforced daily through school announcements and in teachers’ professional learning communities. She said students achieved 100 percent on the school’s growth scores. She said the school accomplishes a great deal with fewer resources than some of its peers in the county, and she gave the credit to teachers, students and families.

Looking ahead, the principal said she would like additional resources to hire intervention specialists who could help push Summerdale and other schools in the Elberta High School feeder pattern toward A grades. She said the school community hopes to pursue a local tax referendum and believes it could greatly benefit those schools.

Understanding the millage debate

Property taxes in Alabama are measured in mills. One mill equals one dollar of tax for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. Because Alabama’s constitution and laws tightly regulate property taxes, local increases generally require approval from voters in the affected area, which is why communities such as Fairhope and Daphne held referendums before their additional school taxes took effect.

Money raised through these local measures is typically directed to the schools in the community that approved it. As a result, schools within the same county system can have noticeably different resources depending on whether their local voters have adopted extra millage. The experience at Summerdale shows that gains are possible without that support, while principals at Fairhope and Daphne say the added funding has been critical to their results.

A growing county raises the stakes

Baldwin County is among the fastest-growing areas of Alabama, with new families arriving in communities from Spanish Fort and Daphne to Foley and the coast. That growth brings added demand for classrooms, teachers and services, and it makes the district’s academic progress especially notable. Maintaining high performance while enrolling more students each year is one of the central challenges facing the system.

What comes next

School leaders said earning an A had been a target they were working toward over the past three to five years, and they described Thursday’s announcement as a moment of celebration for students, teachers, administrators and families. With 23 schools now earning A grades, 15 at B and three at C, the system’s next challenge will be lifting more schools into the top tier while sustaining the gains in graduation, readiness and attendance that helped drive the district’s score to 92.

Families can view individual school and system report cards through the Alabama State Department of Education, which publishes the results for every public school in the state.