Original Research by School Decision on Hazel Green High School
Hazel Green High School serves grades nine through twelve as a regular public high school in the Madison County school system. The school sits in an unincorporated community in north Alabama that is in the midst of a rapid transformation from a rural farming crossroads into a suburban commuter area, driven by job growth in nearby Huntsville. Farmland has given way to residential subdivisions, apartment complexes, and retail chains along the major highway that runs through town, and the Madison County school system has responded to the growth by proposing new school construction. The area remains unincorporated, and residents have discussed whether to incorporate to manage the pace of development. The community has a public library branch and is served by a volunteer fire and rescue service, but lacks a traditional downtown or pedestrian-oriented commercial district.
The school enrolls a student body that is majority white, with a substantial Black population and smaller shares of Hispanic students and students who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native or as two or more races. The Asian and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander populations are very small. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, indicating a moderate level of economic need across the student body. Data on the share of students with individualized education programs and the share who are English learners was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the scale of special education and language support services.
On state assessments, the school posted proficiency rates that varied by subject. English language arts proficiency landed in the middle range, with roughly half of students meeting the bar. Science proficiency was in a similar band, also around half of students demonstrating proficiency. Math proficiency was notably lower, with about a quarter of students scoring at the proficient level. These results come from a single year of testing, so there is no trend data to show whether performance is improving or declining. A parent considering the school may want to ask about the math curriculum, intervention programs, and any recent changes to instruction that could affect these outcomes. Because the school serves only high school grades and the state does not report an adjusted cohort graduation rate in the available data, no graduation rate is included here, which limits a full picture of how students finish.
The school operates under the Madison County school district, and the comparison framework places it relative to districts in Madison County. However, the proficiency index metric that would allow a direct academic comparison across districts was not applicable in this case, so the available data does not support positioning the school against its neighbors on overall test performance. Similarly, chronic absenteeism and graduation rate metrics were not applicable in the comparison data. This means that while a parent can look at the school’s own test results, the broader district-level context for how it compares to other high schools in the county is not available from these figures.
The school environment and access section did not include data on discipline rates, course access such as Advanced Placement or dual enrollment offerings, staffing ratios, or attendance patterns. A parent interested in the school’s disciplinary climate, the breadth of its academic pathways, class sizes, or daily attendance may need to request that information from the school or district directly. The absence of these fields does not indicate a problem, but it does leave meaningful questions unanswered for a family trying to gauge the school’s day-to-day environment.
The community itself has a housing market with home values that sit a bit above the state average but below the national average, reflecting the area’s relative affordability compared to many parts of the country. The typical mortgage payment on a median-priced home would be a substantial monthly cost, and rent would be notably lower than a mortgage payment on the same property, a pattern common in many markets today. The unemployment rate and median household income figures available at the national level give a general economic backdrop, but no local employer data or income figures specific to Hazel Green were found in the search, so a family should look at local job market conditions directly.
Hazel Green High School presents as a comprehensive public high school in a community that is growing and changing quickly. The test results show a mixed picture, with math as a clear soft spot that merits a closer look. The lack of data on graduation rates, advanced coursework, discipline, and staffing means that a family will need to do additional outreach to the school to fill in the picture. For a family that values being in a rapidly growing area with relative housing affordability and proximity to Huntsville’s job market, the school fits that context, but the academic and support details beyond the basic test scores are incomplete in this profile.
See more original research from School Decision →