The Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) revealed on Thursday that there were marked improvements across several benchmarks in the 2025 school year compared to 2024.
The data was presented to the State Board of Education (SBOE) during a Thursday work session.
The first metric to show improvement was the four-year cohort graduation rate, which measures the number of first-time 9th-grade students who graduate on time within the four academic years. The graduation rate increased from 91.56% to 92.77% between 2024 and 2025, an increase of 1.21%.
"It's an amazing body of work that takes a lot of people for us to report to our communities [and] to our parents and families that, not only are students graduating from high school with a diploma, they're also graduating prepared for whatever it is their next stage of life will be," said instructional services coordinator Sean Stevens.
He continued, "We're really, really proud of this. And we should be. To increase an entire percentage point is something we should be proud of."
Stevens stated that Bibb County had the largest increase in graduation rates among school systems.
Next up were College and Career Readiness (CCR) standards, which are based on ACT and other testing benchmarks, approved college or postsecondary credit completion, apprenticeship programs, military enlistment, and more.
The state's CCR rate also increased by 2.82%, rising from 87.88% to 90.70% from 2024 to 2025.
"These are all very standard, high bars to meet, and these are not easy things to attain," said State Education Superintendent Eric Mackey. "The board's done a very good job of setting, not just benchmarks, but benchmarks that mean something to industry or mean something to college. They mean something out there. We've been meeting with a lot of folks around the state. Meeting with a lot of business people about what these mean, and what are new things. We've got people wanting to bring new things to the table, too, where 'here are other kinds of credentials that we value too.' We are always open to looking at those."
The SBOE also heard preliminary data on the state's 2026 third-grade reading performance under the state's Literacy Act, which requires all public kindergarten through third-grade students to be assessed on foundational reading skills.
The preliminary data show a slight decrease in the number of students who did not meet the 444 reading score cutoff. The numbers show that 88.3% of students met or exceeded the cut score, meaning that 47,956 students will not be held back. Based on the numbers provided, roughly 11.7% of third graders, or 6,354 total, did not meet the minimum reading score.
Mackey called the reading scores "essentially unchanged, statistically." He also stated that the number would change for students who are reassessed or engage in a Summer reading program.
"The letters are going out to parents that their students are on or above grade level or they are not," Mackey said. "And what that means for the summer. They're getting their Summer programming list together."
He continued, "Reading research tells us that this group, this 11%-12%, are really going to be struggling readers. As we know, the research tells us that up to 20% have dyslexia of some sort. So, what it tells me is that a lot of those students have dyslexia, so they have a neurological condition that makes it difficult for them to learn how to read. But they are learning how to read."
He also stated the numbers could likely be lower in 2027, since the cutoff score would increase by 10 points.
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