Story By Katie Hightower
On July 22, Jackson County Schools held its annual data meeting at KDCIA. Teachers and administrators gathered together to review student performance data by year and by school in regards to the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program (ACAP) performance. Educators then used the data to assess the effectiveness of teaching methods and identify areas of improvement.
In 2019, the Alabama Literacy Act was passed. Schools across the state made great strides to improve the literacy of their students with Jackson County Schools being no exception. Another act, the Alabama Numeracy Act, was passed in 2022 in an effort to increase student performance in mathematics. While the Alabama Literacy Act showed clear signs of success state-wide through student testing scores, educators won’t know if the Alabama Numeracy Act will be successful for a couple more years. The ACAP testing assessed students’ performance in English Language Arts (ELA), Math and Science.
The data presented in the meeting compared progress from 2021 through the 2024-2025 school year. The data also assessed students’ performance at the beginning of the last school year, the middle of the last school year and the end of the last school year. The data showed not only cumulative results across all schools but it also broke down each individual school’s performance and grade level performance.
Ashley Paschal, Advisor for ELA with JCS, reviewed the ELA ACAP scores at the meeting. All grades in Jackson County Schools saw gains in their ELA ACAP scores since 2021. Many grades had increased their scores over 20% since 2021. Cumulatively, all grades showed performance above the state level in ELA. Though the data showed performance above the state level as a whole, a couple of schools showed performance below the state level. For the 2024-2025 school year, all grades showed improvement from the beginning of the school year through the end of the school year. Kindergarten showed the biggest increase with the end of year scores nearly tripled from the beginning of the year scores.
“We’re at the point with ELA where we are making great strides. Our data is excellent for what it should be but we still want to get better,” said Paschal. Paschal said it was important to review the data so they can identify grades and schools in need of support so they can better serve those students and coach their teachers.
“In fifth and sixth grades, we have nearly twice as many kids that are scoring proficient since four years ago,” said Jonathan Colvin, Student Services Supervisor. Colvin said the improvement was tied to the instructional foundation students received from kindergarten through fifth grade.
Ashley Lee, Advisor for STEM, Science and Math for Jackson County Schools, reviewed the math and science data at the meeting. In math, all grades in Jackson County Schools saw marked performance improvement since 2021. Sixth grade students had a 29% increase in ACAP scoring between 2021 and 2025. For the 2024-2025 school year, only second grade did not show performance above the state level while the rest scored above the state level.
In science, Jackson County Schools showed ACAP performance comparable to the state’s average. Since 2021, most grades showed marked increases in performance.
“We have something to be proud of with our data,” said Jason Davidson, superintendent of Jackson County Schools. “We’ve been consistent for the past two or three years in getting some programs and some employee training in place and now we’re seeing the fruits of our labors.”
Davidson also said that the data they received would only be beneficial if they used it. He compared the data to baseball card stats. He said it can be overwhelming but it can also be useful when used to identify areas for improvement.
