Rosalie Elementary School, Pisgah AL

Original Research by School Decision on Rosalie Elementary School

Rosalie Elementary School serves prekindergarten through eighth grade in a rural pocket of Jackson County, on Sand Mountain near the small town of Pisgah. With an enrollment that is modest for a school covering ten grade levels, the building is small enough that most teachers and students know one another. The student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful share of students who are American Indian or Alaska Native, and very few students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a marker of the economic reality of this community.

State testing results from the most recent year show an uneven academic profile that a parent will want to examine by grade. In English language arts, the school has clear bright spots. In one elementary grade, a strong majority of students met the proficiency bar, and by eighth grade the share was high as well. Several other grades posted solid but more modest proficiency rates. Math tells a different story. Across tested grades, the share of students scoring proficient falls in a range that is consistently low, with some grades showing only a small fraction of students at that level. Science results, available for fourth and eighth grades, sit in the middle ground. Overall, the school’s combined proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile among Jackson County districts, a comparison set that includes only a few other systems. The elementary grades show the strongest reading performance, while the middle school years and math across all grades are areas where a parent may want to ask the school about specific interventions or supports.

Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and the data includes no information about chronic absenteeism, discipline rates, or course access. A parent interested in those dimensions of school climate would need to ask the principal directly.

Pisgah itself is a small, slow-changing town. The local economy relies on education and health care, manufacturing, and a modest retail sector, and the population has been flat to declining over recent years. Home values in the area are modest, and there is little sign of new residential development. Families who live here tend to have deep roots. The Jackson County district, meanwhile, has been reshaping its footprint. Publicly reported consolidation efforts have closed some small community schools and redrawn attendance zones, a process that changes which school a child attends and can alter commute times. Rosalie Elementary has not been part of those closures, but the broader district context means a family moving into the area should verify current attendance boundaries with the district office before looking at housing.

The school’s setting is rural and low-density, with minimal walkability. The town center along County Road 58 holds the municipal building, post office, and a handful of businesses. Pisgah Gorge, with its waterfalls and walking trails, is the area’s signature outdoor amenity. There is no public library in town and no public transit. For a family that values a small, familiar school where a child moves from prekindergarten through middle school without switching buildings, Rosalie Elementary offers that continuity. A family whose priority is strong middle-grades math performance or a wide array of elective and advanced coursework may find the school’s academic profile limited and will want to investigate what enrichment or support the school provides in those areas.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 47% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 47%

School 7% · District 43% · ▼ 35 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 36 pts below county median

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 40% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 627%

School 27% · District 42% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 710%

School 10% · District 29% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 29% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 367%

School 67% · District 72% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 63% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 591%

School 91% · District 72% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 664%

School 64% · District 64% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 755%

School 55% · District 63% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 875%

School 75% · District 62% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Science

Grade 436%

School 36% · District 42% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 38% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

This schoolJackson 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.