Breakthrough Charter School, Marion AL

Original Research by School Decision on Breakthrough Charter School

Breakthrough Charter School is a new, tuition-free public charter school serving Marion and surrounding Perry County. It opened as an independent charter district, giving families in this rural Alabama county a publicly funded alternative to the traditional school system. The school currently enrolls students from pre-kindergarten through tenth grade, with plans to eventually serve through twelfth. Its pedagogy is distinct: the school uses project-based learning and service-learning daily, paired with a dedicated social-emotional learning curriculum. A partnership with Marion Military Institute, the nation’s oldest military junior college, provides cadet tutors and mentors for students.

Academically, the picture is mixed and leans soft in several areas. On the state assessments administered in the most recent school year, math proficiency was low across every tested grade. Only a small share of students in each grade from three through eight demonstrated proficiency in math, with the share declining further in the upper elementary and middle grades. In English language arts, performance was stronger in the early grades: a majority of third graders met the proficiency bar, and roughly half of fourth and fifth graders did as well. But that share dropped steadily through middle school, falling to just over a quarter of eighth graders. Science results were also low, with less than a third of fourth graders and an even smaller share of eighth graders reaching proficiency. Because only a single year of testing data is available, there is no trend to compare. The school’s overall proficiency index placed it at the top of the two school districts in Perry County, though that is a small comparison set. No high school graduation rate exists here because the school does not yet serve graduating seniors.

The student body is small and predominantly Black, with a white minority and small shares of Hispanic and multiracial students. About half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not reported in the available records. The school’s location in Marion places it in a town that is itself contracting. Marion is the historic county seat, known as “The College City” for its past association with multiple colleges, but Judson College closed in 2021, leaving Marion Military Institute as the sole remaining institution. The town’s population has been declining, and its economy rests on light industry, poultry processing, and the military institute. Housing values in the area are well below state and national benchmarks, and the local housing market has seen a year-over-year decline.

For a family considering Breakthrough Charter School, the appeal is the alternative educational model in a county with few school choices. The project-based and service-learning approach, along with the military institute partnership, offers a structure unlike what most traditional public schools in the area provide. But the academic results, particularly in math and science, are low enough that a parent would want to investigate further with the school about how it plans to raise proficiency and what support is available for students who are not yet on grade level. The school is still young and building its upper grades; outcomes for high school students are not yet measurable.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 318%

School 18% · District 18%

▼ 25 pts below state median

Grade 426%

School 26% · District 26%

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 12%

▼ 22 pts below state median

Grade 611%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 18 pts below state median

Grade 717%

School 17% · District 17%

even with state median

Grade 88%

School 8% · District 8%

▼ 7 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 365%

School 65% · District 65%

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 457%

School 57% · District 57%

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 52%

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 44%

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 738%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 28%

▼ 24 pts below state median

Science

Grade 435%

School 35% · District 35%

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 816%

School 16% · District 16%

▼ 19 pts below state median

This schoolBreakthrough Charter School, 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.