Alabama lists eight Mobile County schools as ‘failing,’ but officials tout improvements
MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Alabama’s latest list of “failing” schools names eight in Mobile County, but officials highlighted improvement by two schools that were on previous assessments.
This is the first failing schools list in three years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Mobile County list includes seven traditional schools and The Pathway alternative program. They are among the 79 schools statewide ranking in the bottom 6 percent under the Alabama Accountability Act of 2015.
The schools are:
- B.C. Rain High School.
- Booker T. Washington Middle School.
- Blount High School.
- The Pathway.
- Pillans Middle School.
- LeFlore Magnet School.
- Vigor High School.
- Williamson High School.
Schools Superintendent Chresal Threadgill said in a prepared statement that the pandemic created severe challenges for learning.
“Considering all the unprecedented circumstances of the last few years, and considering Mobile County Public Schools has 90 schools, with only seven schools and one alternative school deemed as failing, we have room for both celebration and room for needed improvement,” he stated.
Neither Vigor nor Booker T. Washington appeared on the 2019 lists. But Threadgill pointed to two schools, Calloway-Smith Middle and Chastang-Fournier K-8 School, that came off the list. Chastang-Fournier had been on the list since its inception.
“School leaders made a concerted effort to improve student achievement, and their success is an example to other schools of what is possible with regard to improving student achievement in the days to come,” he stated.
But Threadgill suggested his is not satisfied.
“As for the schools on the list, we acknowledge the need for significant improvement in these schools,” he said in the statement. “We have already put several measures in place to assist the schools with academic achievement. We are currently working on extensive School Improvement Plans for each school, which we are confident will yield positive improvements for each of the schools.”
Baldwin County did not have any schools on the list, nor did any of the municipal school systems in Mobile and Baldwin counties. Several other southwest Alabama schools did make the list, however. They include Escambia County High School and W.S. Neal High School in Escambia County; Clarke County and Jackson high schools in Clarke County; Choctaw County High School; and Monroe County High School.
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