Alabama Destinations Career Academy, Chickasaw AL

Original Research by School Decision on Alabama Destinations Career Academy

Alabama Destinations Career Academy is a statewide online public school serving students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. It is run by Chickasaw City Schools, a small city school district in Mobile County that formed its own system a few years ago after separating from the county district. The school’s physical address is in Chickasaw, but its students live throughout Alabama and attend remotely.

The school enrolls a large student body for its grade span, drawing from across the state. The student population is roughly split between white students and Black students, with smaller shares of Hispanic students and students of two or more races. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is an indicator of economic need. Information about students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the data we reviewed.

Alabama Destinations Career Academy, as its name suggests, emphasizes career-focused learning. The school’s model is built around giving students pathways that connect classroom work to career fields, allowing them to earn credentials or college credit while completing high school. This structure typically includes partnerships with industry groups and community colleges, though specific program offerings for this school were not listed in the data we received.

On state assessments, the school’s results are low. In math, proficiency rates across grades three through eight all fall well below state averages, with very few students meeting the bar in any grade level. English language arts results are somewhat higher but still below what most Alabama schools report; across grades three through eight, proficiency ranges from roughly a quarter to just under half of students, with older grade levels performing somewhat better than younger ones. Science scores in grades four and eight are also low. The overall proficiency index, which averages all subjects and grades tested, places the school in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Mobile County. Only one year of testing data was available, so we cannot assess trends over time.

The school serves kindergarten through twelfth grade, but we did not find a graduation rate in the data we received. A parent may want to confirm with the school directly how they track and report high school completion, especially for a fully online model where students may move through coursework at different paces.

Chickasaw, the school’s administrative home, is a small city that was once a busy shipbuilding center. Its population has declined from a mid-twentieth-century peak as shipyard employment shrank. Today it is primarily a residential suburb of Mobile, drawing income from retail and retaining some port and fishery operations. The city has a historic district of shipyard-era homes, two municipal parks, a civic theater, and a marina. Property values in the historic district have been rising, and the city was designated a Preserve America community. Interstate 65 passes nearby, giving easy access to Mobile. No major new housing developments were mentioned in available sources, and the population has been stable or slightly declining in recent estimates.

The school did not have data available on several measures that many parents look at, including chronic absenteeism, discipline rates, staffing levels, and class sizes. For an online school, some of these metrics may look different than they do in a brick-and-mortar setting, but the absence of data makes it hard to compare. The school’s charter status is not applicable; it is a regular public school, not a charter. Information about Title I designation was not available.

For a family considering this school, the main draw is the career-focused online format, which allows flexibility and a curriculum tied to workforce credentials. The trade-off is that state test scores are low across all subjects and grade levels tested. A parent would want to ask the school directly about how it supports students who are behind academically, how it prepares students for postsecondary options beyond career credentials, and how it tracks and reports graduation and college enrollment outcomes, since those numbers were not in the data we reviewed.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 38%

School 8% · District 17% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 44%

School 4% · District 9% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 34 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 53%

School 3% · District 11% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 66%

School 6% · District 7% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 73%

School 3% · District 3% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 84%

School 4% · District 5% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 335%

School 35% · District 47% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 40% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 41% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 37 pts below state median · ▼ 32 pts below county median

Grade 632%

School 32% · District 36% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 744%

School 44% · District 41% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 40% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 418%

School 18% · District 22% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 818%

School 18% · District 19% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

This schoolChickasaw City, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 6Lower-income30%Higher-income42%12 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income42%Higher-income53%11 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income38%Higher-income60%22 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income4%Higher-income4%0 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income3%Higher-income0%3 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income4%Higher-income13%9 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income3%Higher-income3%0 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income2%Higher-income8%6 pp gap