The top reported proficiency rate is 37% in English language arts. The lowest is 17% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Livingston Junior High School
Livingston Junior High School, a regular public school in Sumter County, Alabama, serves students from prekindergarten through eighth grade. It is one of the schools operated by the Sumter County School District and is located in the town of Livingston, a small county seat in west-central Alabama between Tuscaloosa and Meridian, Mississippi. The school building sits near the historic downtown core, where the University of West Alabama campus is also integrated into the town. That university is the dominant employer in Livingston, along with county government and the school district itself.
Livingston has experienced population decline over recent years. The town’s median household income is low, and the poverty rate is high. Reflecting that broader economic context, nearly all of Livingston Junior High’s students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is overwhelmingly Black, with very small numbers of students identifying as Asian, Hispanic, white, or two or more races. Enrollment is modest for a PK‑8 school, with fairly even numbers across kindergarten through eighth grade and a smaller prekindergarten cohort. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. No data were available on the share of students with individualized education programs or those classified as English learners; families may want to ask the school about those supports directly.
State testing data from the latest school year offer a picture of academic performance. In third grade, just under half of students met proficiency in both math and English language arts. By fourth grade, proficiency rates drop: roughly a quarter of students met the bar in math, about three in ten in English language arts, and the share in science was lower still. The school’s overall proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint when compared with other districts in Sumter County. That relative position should be read with a clear context: there are only two school districts in the county, so the comparison set is small. The data cover only a single year, so no trend can be established. A parent reviewing these results may want to ask the school about recent initiatives to support student learning, particularly in the upper elementary grades where proficiency rates are lower.
The school’s grade span means that students remain in the same building from prekindergarten through middle school, which can provide continuity. The high poverty concentration is a significant factor shaping the school’s environment, and the district’s resources likely reflect the rural, economically strained setting. No information was available on disciplinary incidents, chronic absenteeism, staffing ratios, or course access beyond what is implied by the regular school designation. The district’s recent record, based on available public reporting, did not show major structural changes or new initiatives that a family moving to the area would need to track closely.
For a family considering Livingston Junior High, the main considerations are the school’s central role in a small, declining town with a university anchor, its high level of economic need, and academic results that, while above the local median, are below state averages for many grade subjects. The absence of high school grades means students will move on to Sumter Central High School or another option after eighth grade. The university presence offers some community resources, though the extent to which those resources reach the K‑8 school is not captured in the available data. This is a school that serves a population with deep needs, and a parent would benefit from a direct conversation with the principal about academic support, special programs, and how the school addresses the challenges that come with concentrated poverty.
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