Lamar County Highintermediate, Vernon AL

Original Research by School Decision on Lamar County Highintermediate

Lamar County HighIntermediate is the single public school serving students from fourth through twelfth grade in this rural west Alabama district. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and it operates as the only school in the Lamar County system that covers this grade span. Located in Vernon, the county seat, the school is central to a community that has seen economic contraction over decades. Vernon’s population has been declining, and its historical reliance on timber, agriculture, and textile manufacturing has narrowed. Manufacturing remains the largest employment sector, with Marathon, a trash compactor manufacturer, as a notable employer. Downtown Vernon centers on the courthouse, the Backstreet Opry venue, and an annual city celebration, but there is no public transit and little new development. The school’s enrollment is modest for covering nine grade levels, and a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which signals a high level of economic need in the community.

State testing results from the most recent year provide a mixed picture. In fourth grade, the share of students meeting proficiency benchmarks in English language arts was strong, and both fourth-grade science and math results were solid. Fifth grade also showed solid proficiency in English language arts, with math results somewhat lower but still ahead of what is typical in many schools. Beginning in sixth grade, however, proficiency rates declined, and the trend continued through seventh and eighth grades, where math proficiency rates were notably low. Eighth-grade science results fell in a middle range, while English language arts in those middle grades dropped to levels that a parent would want to investigate further. The pattern across grade levels suggests that students enter with relatively strong skills in the elementary years but face growing difficulty in the upper grades, particularly in math. The data does not include high school state assessment results, so there is no publicly reported measure of academic performance for grades nine through twelve from this testing program. The school’s own multi-year trend data is limited to a single year, so there is no way to determine whether performance has been improving or declining over time.

Demographically, the student body is predominantly white, with a smaller share of Black students and a modest number of Hispanic students. No data was available on the share of students receiving special education services or those classified as English learners, so a parent should ask the school directly about how those populations are supported. The school serves a wide age range, from fourth graders to high school seniors, which means elementary-aged children share a campus and building with teenagers. This arrangement is relatively uncommon and may be a factor for families weighing the social and academic environment for younger students.

No district-level changes with a lasting impact on parents were identified from publicly available sources, and no information was available on disciplinary rates, chronic absenteeism, staffing ratios, or course access. Because the school covers all grades from fourth through twelfth, there is no separate high school graduation rate to report at the school level within the available data; a parent interested in graduation outcomes should ask the school directly for that figure. The school sits in a county with only one school district, so there is no local basis for comparison among districts.

Housing in the area is very affordable relative to national and state benchmarks, and home values have declined recently. The local unemployment rate is at a moderate level, and median household income is below the national figure. For a family considering relocation, the low cost of housing may be a practical draw, but the economic context is one of limited growth and a contracting population. The school is best understood as a community-grounded institution in a small, struggling rural town, where elementary students perform reasonably well on state assessments but middle school results raise questions that would benefit from a direct conversation with school staff.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

90-94%Cohort of 64 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 475%

School 75% · District 66% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 24 pts above state median

Grade 666%

School 66% · District 61% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median

Grade 733%

School 33% · District 29% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median

Grade 826%

School 26% · District 30% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 11 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 485%

School 85% · District 73% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median

Grade 582%

School 82% · District 80% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 666%

School 66% · District 66%

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 765%

School 65% · District 67% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 860%

School 60% · District 58% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median

Science

Grade 462%

School 62% · District 51% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median

Grade 852%

School 52% · District 43% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median

This schoolLamar 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.