← AL High School Explorer

Brilliant School

Brilliant · AL · Marion County · Public · K-12 combined

📄 Shareable scorecard →

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • ✅ Gifted & talented program
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 25% of US high schools
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 24% by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 75% (Bottom 21% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)

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

💡

How Brilliant School compares for families

What families should know about Brilliant School.

  • LocallyAL trails the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (−10 points). Stronger local schools matter even more.
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Winfield High School, Marion County High School, Lynn High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
📬

Follow Brilliant School

Get an email when Brilliant School's numbers change — new admissions results, enrollment shifts, test scores. A few updates a year, no spam.

SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21

Bottom 24% by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
20
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
22.0
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?

Bottom 21% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
75%
Range: 50–100%
4-year cohort size
9
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)
11.1%
Typical mix. Watch the trend — high turnover can compound.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
66.7%
Elevated. Teacher absence directly affects classroom continuity and student outcomes.

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

65.1%
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)

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.

Chronic absenteeism

Share of students absent 15+ days
29.1%
Elevated above the national average (~16%). Worth understanding — chronic absence compounds into dropout risk, transfer-out risk, and revenue loss.
Students absent 15+ days
75
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. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →

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

Counselor capacity

Student : Counselor
258:1
Above the ASCA 250:1 target but below the US median (~430:1). Capacity is workable.
Counselor FTE
1.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
14
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

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

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -0.8%/year, projecting from 2024's 258 students:

2025
256
2027
252
2029
248

≈ 10 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 $11,810 per student in district revenue, the 10 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $118,100/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.

Nearby high schools — the local competition

The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
Winfield High School
Winfield
Public 6.8 344 +3.9%
Marion County High School
Guin
Public 9.5 158 -2.5%
Lynn High School
Lynn
Public 12.4 130 +8.3%
Hubbertville School
Fayette
Public 13.7 128 +10.3%
Hamilton High School
Hamilton
Public 15.2 449 -9.8%
Haleyville Center Of Technology
Haleyville
Public 16.3
Haleyville High School
Haleyville
Public 16.4 464 -2.3%
Carbon Hill High School
Carbon Hill
Public 17.1 349 -1.4%

Researching colleges for your kid at Brilliant School?

Get a personalized College Plan Audit — find Reach, Target, and Safety colleges matched to your kid's GPA, test scores, intended major, and your family's budget. Free.

Start the College Plan Audit →

For school leaders looking at enrollment trends: request an Enrollment Trend Audit →