Cleburne County Middle School, Heflin AL

Original Research by School Decision on Cleburne County Middle School

Cleburne County Middle School serves grades five through seven in Heflin, the county seat of Cleburne County, Alabama. The town sits midway between Birmingham and Atlanta along Interstate 20, surrounded by the Talladega National Forest. With a historic downtown anchored by the courthouse and a handful of Main Street storefronts, Heflin markets itself as Alabama’s Trail Town, leaning into outdoor recreation and a rural-Appalachian identity. The school’s campus is one of several operated by the Cleburne County school district, all sitting on separated grounds rather than integrated into the downtown core.

The school’s enrollment is small and predominantly white, with a modest share of Black and Hispanic students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this school in a higher-need context.

State testing results from the 2024-25 school year tell a mixed story. In reading, the school posted strong results overall, with solid proficiency rates across the three main grade levels. The middle-grade reading performance was somewhat lower, but the overall picture in English language arts is one of a school where a majority of students are meeting the state bar. In math, the results are markedly weaker. Proficiency rates across all tested grades were low, with none reaching the halfway mark and some grades notably lower. This is an area where a parent would want to understand the school’s approach and whether any targeted interventions are in place. Science testing data for eighth grade, the only tested science grade, was not available in a meaningful form, as the results were suppressed, likely due to a very small number of students taking that assessment. Because the school serves grades five through seven, there is no graduation rate to report, and no one-year trend line is meaningful from the single year of data available. The district had no publicly reported recent changes or initiatives that surfaced in a search.

Housing in the area around Heflin is more affordable than national benchmarks, which is typical for this part of Alabama. The town is experiencing slow, steady growth, consistent with a small rural county seat. Civic investments include a recreation center and a community arts center, but no large-scale new subdivisions or major commercial developments have surfaced in available records.

For a family considering this school, the takeaway is shaped by the gap between reading and math performance. The reading results suggest that many students are acquiring foundational literacy skills in line with state expectations. The math numbers are substantially lower, and a parent would want to talk with the school about what supports are in place and whether recent cohorts have shown any upward movement. The school’s size is small, which can mean more individualized attention, but it also means fewer program offerings than a larger middle school might provide; the data available did not include a detailed course catalog or extracurricular list, so parents should ask about electives, clubs, and any career or enrichment options. The broader community context is rural and outdoors-oriented, with a quiet downtown and access to national forest recreation. For a family that values a small-town setting and wants to understand the academic baseline before enrolling, the math performance is the most significant item to investigate further with the school itself.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 534%

School 34% · District 37% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 620%

School 20% · District 32% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 726%

School 26% · District 25%

▲ 9 pts above state median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 13% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 580%

School 80% · District 72% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median

Grade 659%

School 59% · District 60% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 776%

School 76% · District 69% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 55% · ▼ 55 pts below district

▼ 52 pts below state median

Science

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 45% · ▼ 45 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median

This schoolCleburne 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 7Lower-income65%Higher-income86%21 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income15%Higher-income36%21 pp gap