Robert C Hatch High School, Uniontown AL

Original Research by School Decision on Robert C Hatch High School

Robert C Hatch High School in Uniontown is a PreK through twelfth grade public school where the same building houses all the town’s students, from preschoolers through seniors. That arrangement, a PK-12 campus, means younger children and teenagers share the same facilities, and a parent who wants their child to stay in one building through graduation will find that continuity here. The student body is very small for a school that covers so many grade levels, and virtually every student is Black. A very high share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which signals that the community faces widespread economic hardship.

Uniontown itself is a small, rural town in Alabama’s Blackbelt region with a deep agricultural history and a population that has been declining. The town has historic architecture and a compact downtown, but commercial activity is limited, and the local economy leans heavily on agriculture and the Arrowhead Landfill, a facility that has drawn attention for accepting out-of-state waste. This is a community where economic opportunity is scarce, and the school reflects that context.

The state’s academic assessments, drawn from the 2024-25 school year, show that proficiency rates are low across tested grades and subjects. In math, the share of students meeting proficiency standards was below a fifth overall. In English language arts, it was roughly a quarter. In science, it was less than a tenth. When the school’s overall proficiency is placed against other districts in Perry County, it falls in the bottom quartile. These results are a single snapshot, from one year, and the district has not supplied trend data that would show whether performance has been improving or declining over time, so a parent should consider that this is a starting point for a deeper conversation with the school about what instruction and support look like.

Because this is a combined PK-12 school, many of the metrics that matter for evaluating a high school specifically were not available. There is no reported graduation rate, no Advanced Placement or career and technical program data, and no chronic absenteeism or disciplinary data. It is common for very small, combined-grade schools to lack some of these measures, but a family that wants to know how well the school prepares students for college or work will need to ask directly. The school offers the full K-12 experience in a single setting, which can mean strong relationships across grades and a consistent peer group, but it also typically means fewer advanced course options than a larger high school would have.

The broader Perry County school district, which Hatch High belongs to, has no publicly reported recent changes of lasting impact that show up in the research. That silence is itself a signal: the district is not actively restructuring, opening programs, or facing headline controversies, but it also does not appear to be expanding opportunities. For a family considering this school, the central fact is that it serves a deeply impoverished rural community with low academic attainment on state tests and very limited program information. A parent should expect to look carefully at what individualized support and postsecondary pathways the school actually provides, because the publicly available numbers raise questions that only a direct visit and conversation with the staff can answer.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=90%Cohort of 42 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 347%

School 47% · District 44% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median

Grade 416%

School 16% · District 15% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 22 pts below state median

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 39% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 5% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median

Grade 70%

School 0% · District 0%

▼ 17 pts below state median

Grade 86%

School 6% · District 6%

▼ 10 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 40% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 37%

▼ 21 pts below state median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 39% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 24 pts below state median

Grade 68%

School 8% · District 14% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 47 pts below state median

Grade 725%

School 25% · District 27% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 23% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 38 pts below state median

Science

Grade 416%

School 16% · District 12% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 23 pts below state median

Grade 86%

School 6% · District 7% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median

This schoolPerry 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income40%Higher-income0%40 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income15%Higher-income0%15 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 8Lower-income6%Higher-income0%6 pp gap