Alabama Connections Academy
Athens · AL · Limestone County · Public · K-12 combined
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Athens Renaissance School → Athens High School → Athens Bible School → Elkmont High School → Limestone County Area Vocational Technology → West Limestone High School → Lindsay Lane Christian Academy → Clements High School →📋 At a glance
- 📚 9 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 1 calculus classes · 2 physics · 6 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 73th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 94th percentile by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 79% (Bottom 26% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Alabama Connections Academy compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 73th percentile nationally with 9 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: Athens Renaissance School, Athens High School, Athens Bible School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
73th percentile nationally
✅ Gifted/talented 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 · 2020-2194th percentile by test-taker volume
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?
Bottom 26% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate
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
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 Schoolwide eligible
≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program
40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.
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.
Counselor capacity
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
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of +4.6%/year, projecting from 2024's 7,822 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $10,265 per student in district revenue, the 1,974 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $20,263,110/year in additional funding.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Nearby high schools — the local competition
The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athens Renaissance School Athens |
Public | 6.0 | 178 | -19.8% |
| Athens High School Athens |
Public | 6.2 | 1,278 | +14.0% |
| Athens Bible School Athens |
Private | 6.4 | 256 | +6.7% |
| Elkmont High School Elkmont |
Public | 6.8 | 355 | +0.0% |
| Limestone County Area Vocational Technology Athens |
Public | 7.2 | — | — |
| West Limestone High School Lester |
Public | 7.3 | 426 | +1.9% |
| Lindsay Lane Christian Academy Athens |
Private | 8.0 | 570 | +42.5% |
| Clements High School Athens |
Public | 8.6 | 319 | +10.0% |