The top reported proficiency rate is 68% in English language arts. The lowest is 43% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Pleasant Grove Elementary School
Pleasant Grove Elementary School is a regular public school serving Heflin and the surrounding area of Cleburne County, Alabama, from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. It is one of several county-operated campuses that sit on their own grounds, separate from Heflin’s historic downtown. The school’s setting is a small county-seat town midway between Birmingham and Atlanta, with a rural-Appalachian character shaped by the nearby Talladega National Forest. Heflin brands itself as Alabama’s Trail Town, with hiking, biking, and canoeing trails that draw outdoor recreation, and its civic life centers on a courthouse placed on the National Register of Historic Places, a community arts center, and a recreation center added in recent years. Growth has been slow but steady, with modest civic investments and no major new housing developments identified in available sources.
The school itself enrolls about that size for its grade band, with a student body that is predominantly White and includes a noticeable Hispanic share, along with small numbers of Black and multiracial students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic need common in the area. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not reported in the available records, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.
Academically, Pleasant Grove’s state testing results from the 2024-25 ACAP assessments show a clear pattern. In English language arts, the school performs solidly across the tested grades. In third grade a large majority of students met the proficiency bar, and in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades the majority of students did as well, though the share dropped somewhat by sixth. Math tells a different story. In third and fourth grades roughly half of students were proficient, but in fifth and sixth grades the share fell to about a quarter of students. Science results, available only for fourth grade, showed about half of students proficient. Because only one year of data is present, there is no way to see whether these numbers are improving or declining. The math dip in the upper elementary grades is a soft spot a family may want to look into further with the school.
There is no graduation rate to report, as the school ends at sixth grade. No comparison to other districts is possible because Cleburne County has only one school district, so the data cannot place this school’s performance relative to local peers. Missing information includes discipline rates, attendance patterns, staffing ratios, and course access. These gaps are common for schools in this data set, but a parent interested in those details should seek them from the school or district.
Pleasant Grove Elementary offers a small, rural environment where reading results are a noted strength in the early grades, but math achievement in the upper grades lags behind. The community around it is quiet, slow-growing, and outdoor-oriented, with a county government and school district as primary employers. For a family looking for a neighborhood elementary school in a small town with reasonable housing costs and easy interstate access to Birmingham or Atlanta, Pleasant Grove fits that description. For a family focused on closing the math gap or needing detailed information on special education or English learner services, more conversation with the school would be warranted.
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