Madison County Elementary School, Gurley AL

Original Research by School Decision on Madison County Elementary School

Madison County Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in the small rural town of Gurley, Alabama. It is a regular public school within the Madison County School System and draws its enrollment from Gurley and the surrounding rural area. The school occupies the building that formerly housed Madison County High School, a detail that reflects the town’s long educational history.

The student body is relatively small for a school spanning this many grades, and the demographic picture is predominantly white, with a notable American Indian or Alaska Native population as well as students identifying as two or more races. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that a significant portion of families face economic challenges. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about how it supports those populations.

On state assessments, the school shows a clear pattern. In English language arts, proficiency rates are solid across most tested grades, with several grade levels showing that a strong majority of students met the state’s proficiency standard. Seventh and eighth graders also performed well. Math performance tells a different story. In third through sixth grade, roughly two-fifths to just over half of students were proficient. But in seventh grade that figure dropped noticeably, and in eighth grade it fell further. The combined schoolwide proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades places Madison County Elementary below the midpoint among districts in Madison County. The gap between reading and math results, particularly in the upper grades, is something a parent may want to explore with the school, especially if a child is heading into those grade levels. Science proficiency was reported for fourth and eighth grade, and while the fourth-grade result was moderate, the eighth-grade result was weaker.

This is not a school with a graduation rate because it does not serve grades beyond eighth. Students who live in the attendance zone move on to Madison County High School, which sits on a separate campus a few miles west of Gurley on US Route 72, built in a more recent year. The high school is part of the same county system, so the transition is within one district.

The town of Gurley itself is a small, rural residential community historically tied to the railroad and now functioning largely as a bedroom community for the Huntsville metropolitan area. Its population has been modest and relatively stable over recent decades, with a slight recent increase. Most residents commute to Huntsville for work and shopping. The town has its own police and fire departments and a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. No public library or specific parks were identified in searches, and civic life appears to center on churches and municipal services. The town’s housing market reflects its proximity to Huntsville, with home values noticeably above the state average. Rent is moderate relative to national benchmarks.

The district brief found no recent policy, curriculum, or tax changes of lasting impact to report, so the picture at the system level is one of continuity rather than transition. A parent considering this school should weigh the solid elementary-level reading performance against the math decline in the upper middle grades, and recognize that the school serves a small, rural community with economic diversity and a straightforward feeder pattern into the county high school. The peer environment is shaped by the town’s rural character and the commuting culture of the Huntsville area.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 53% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 54% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 49% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 653%

School 53% · District 42% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 26% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 819%

School 19% · District 28% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 374%

School 74% · District 74% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 469%

School 69% · District 70% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 575%

School 75% · District 74% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 66% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 770%

School 70% · District 64% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 870%

School 70% · District 65% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Science

Grade 453%

School 53% · District 54% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 842%

School 42% · District 48% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

This schoolMadison 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.