Banks School, Banks AL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Banks School

Banks School is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in the rural Pike County community of Banks, Alabama. The school is part of the Pike County school system, and its enrollment is small. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly white, with a significant Black or African American population and smaller shares of Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students.

The town of Banks is very small and rural, with a population that has declined over recent decades. It originated as a railroad stop, and the built environment remains highway-oriented along US Highway 29. Manufacturing accounts for the largest share of the local workforce, followed by retail trade and educational and healthcare services. Housing in the area is notably affordable relative to national benchmarks, with home values that have seen a modest recent decline. The town shows no signs of active growth or new development; population decline is the prevailing trend. There is no downtown commercial district described in available sources, and civic facilities are limited to a recreation hall. Most residents likely commute to nearby Troy or other communities for work and services.

On state assessments administered in the 2024-25 school year, Banks School’s reading and English language arts results were a clear strength across most tested grades. Proficiency rates in this subject were solid to strong from third through seventh grade. At eighth grade, the reading proficiency rate dropped off, a pattern a parent may want to look into further with the school. In math, results were more uneven. The school showed moderate proficiency in the lower elementary grades, but the rates declined noticeably in the middle grades. The eighth-grade math proficiency rate was very low. Science results mirrored this pattern: a strong showing at fourth grade and a weak one at eighth grade. Overall, the school’s combined proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades sits in the top quartile relative to districts in Pike County, but this comparison set includes only two districts, so the distinction is narrow.

Because Banks School serves only through eighth grade, it has no high school graduation rate to report. The school also does not provide data on the share of students with individualized education programs or English learner status, which means those dimensions of student support are not available to describe. The district’s publicly reported information on recent strategic changes or initiatives yielded little, so that context is absent from this account.

Banks School fills the role of a community K-8 school in a shrinking, rural Alabama town. It offers a small-school environment where the same cohort of families moves through elementary and middle grades together before transitioning to one of the county’s high schools. The academic profile is strongest in reading through seventh grade and weaker in middle-school math and science. For a family considering this school, the reading results in the early and middle grades are a point of confidence, while the math and science performance in the upper grades, particularly eighth grade, would be worth understanding directly from the school. The setting is rural and quiet, with limited local amenities and no nearby concentrations of employers or services.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 57% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 453%

School 53% · District 45% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 32% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 28% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 14% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median

Grade 87%

School 7% · District 18% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 380%

School 80% · District 70% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median

Grade 481%

School 81% · District 52% · ▲ 29 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median

Grade 572%

School 72% · District 64% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median

Grade 676%

School 76% · District 62% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median

Grade 783%

School 83% · District 57% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 53% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median

Science

Grade 469%

School 69% · District 36% · ▲ 33 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median

Grade 823%

School 23% · District 45% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median

This schoolPike 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.