Susan Moore High School, Blountsville AL

Original Research by School Decision on Susan Moore High School

Susan Moore High School is a regular public school serving grades seven through twelve in the Blount County school district, located just outside the small town of Blountsville in northern Alabama. The school has a mid-sized enrollment for a combined middle and high school, and it draws from a largely rural and lower-income community. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly white, with a large Hispanic minority making up a significant portion of the population. State testing data for the most recent year shows that across the tested grades, a quarter of students scored proficient, a number that places the school well below the midpoint among the two districts in Blount County.

The academic picture is uneven by subject. In seventh-grade English language arts, roughly half of students met the proficiency bar, a result that is closer to typical than the school’s other scores. In eighth-grade English, that share drops to under a third. Math proficiency is low in both seventh and eighth grades, with about one in ten students reaching the mark. Science proficiency for eighth graders was similarly low. For a family considering this school, the data suggests a building where the academic floor is soft, particularly in math and science, and where the overall proficiency index is in the bottom quartile relative to the county's other district. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand what supports are in place and what the trajectory has been, as only a single year of test results was available for review.

Blountsville is a low-density rural town situated along a highway corridor between Huntsville and Birmingham. The local economy is heavily weighted toward manufacturing, with educational services and healthcare, retail trade, and construction also present. Spring Valley Beach Waterpark is a notable regional draw. The town has seen slow, steady population growth. There is no documented public transit or significant pedestrian infrastructure, consistent with a rural highway town. The school itself, along with Blountsville Elementary, sits in the center of town, integrated into the community rather than on a separate campus.

At the district level, Blount County Schools recently opened a new Blount County Career Technical Center, which expands career and technical education offerings for students across the district. For families at Susan Moore High School, this represents a pathway beyond a traditional academic sequence, and it is worth noting given that the school’s overall academic picture is mixed. The district also offers dual-credit access through Wallace State Community College, with classes available at the nearby J.B. Pennington High School campus in town, though whether Susan Moore students can readily access those is not detailed in the available data.

Without graduation rate or chronic absenteeism data reported for this school, a full picture of student persistence and completion is not possible. The school serves a high-poverty population by income qualification rates, and the combination of lower test scores and high economic need suggests that a family moving here should engage directly with the school about academic intervention programs, special education services, and English learner supports, none of which had available counts. This is a school where the academic results are well below the county norm, but where the district is investing in career and technical pathways, and where the setting is a small rural town with a modest growth trajectory.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=95%Cohort of 80 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

373 schools plotted. 7 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 711%

School 11% · District 21% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 810%

School 10% · District 19% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 751%

School 51% · District 61% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 51% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median

Science

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 35% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median

This schoolBlount County, 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 8Lower-income22%Higher-income48%27 pp gap