The top reported proficiency rate is 70% in English language arts. The lowest is 34% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Headland Middle School
Headland Middle School serves students from sixth through ninth grade in the Henry County district, making it the upper middle school and early high school entry point for the city of Headland. The building sits on Martin Luther King Drive, one of the town’s main corridors, and feeds into Headland High School for tenth through twelfth grade. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and its enrollment counts a substantial share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
The most complete picture of student performance comes from the 2024-25 Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program (ACAP), which covers math, English language arts, and science. This is the first year for which assessment data is available in a multi-year format, so there is no prior year to compare and no trend to report. Across the tested grades, the school’s strongest results are in ELA. In sixth grade, a clear majority of students met proficiency, and that share rose slightly in seventh grade before settling at a similar level in eighth grade. Science results, tested only in eighth grade, also show that a solid majority of students are proficient.
Math proficiency is a noticeably softer spot. In sixth grade, about a quarter of students reached proficiency. That figure improved substantially in seventh grade, reaching a level around two-fifths of students, then dipped back somewhat in eighth grade. The pattern suggests that while many students are doing well in reading and science, a significant portion are struggling with math, particularly at the sixth-grade entry point. A parent considering this school may want to ask the school directly about its math support structures, interventions, and how it addresses the drop-off between grade levels.
Demographically, the student body is predominantly white, with a sizable Black minority and small shares of Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students. Information on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the data, leaving a gap for families who need to know about special education services or language supports. No data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, or staffing ratios was reported either, so those dimensions of school climate cannot be assessed from the available evidence.
The school itself operates within a community that has been growing steadily. Headland, the largest city in Henry County, has expanded its population over the past two decades, driven by its proximity to Dothan and its role as a commercial and agribusiness hub. The city’s economy is rooted in peanut processing and agricultural research, anchored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Peanut Research Laboratory. The town centers on a traditional public square, and its schools are on separate campuses rather than clustered together, so middle school students attend a dedicated site away from the elementary and high school buildings.
The district context is thin. Headland Middle School is the only middle school in the Henry County system, and the county has only one school district, so there is no intra-county comparison to make against neighboring districts. The school’s performance can be gauged only against state-level expectations, not against a local peer set.
For families looking for a school where ELA and science results are solid and the community is small enough to feel connected but growing fast enough to bring new amenities and housing, Headland Middle School fits that description. The math results, however, are an area where more inquiry is warranted. Parents should also be aware that the school covers ninth grade, meaning that students complete their first year of high school here before moving to a separate high school campus. That transition structure may matter for how a family thinks about the overall secondary experience. Missing data on special populations and school climate means some of the usual questions a parent would ask cannot be answered from the public record alone.
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