Every public school, district, and the headline NCES measures for Alabama - 149 districts, drawn straight from federal records.
Compiled by PlainSchools, Education-data publisher
Scored 0-100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores - the same index shown on every school page, averaged across 1,365 scored Alabama schools. Full methodology →
The state in one line
Alabama runs 1,369 public schools across 149 districts, with a 17.7:1 average classroom and 58.8% of students on subsidized lunch.
1,369
public schools
149
school districts
17.7:1
avg student–teacher
58.8%
free/reduced lunch
How Alabama ranks nationally
Per-pupil spending
$13,538
#41of 51 · highest-spending
Average student-teacher ratio
17.7:1
#46of 51 · lowest ratios
Public schools
1,369
#25of 51 · most schools
On subsidized lunch
58.8%
#12of 43 · highest share
Alabama ranks #41 of 51 nationally on per-pupil spending and #46 of 51 on average student-teacher ratio, derived live by comparing it against every other state. Ranked among all 50 states + DC from NCES enrollment/staffing and the F-33 finance survey. Lunch share is an indicator of student need, not of quality.
What the NCES Data Says About Alabama Schools
Alabama operates 1,369 public K-12 schools organised into 149 independent school districts serving 746,604 students, per the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data 2024-25. The largest district, Mobile County, enrolls 51,979 pupils across 92 schools at $13,245 per student, while smaller rural districts can run fewer than a dozen campuses. This fragmentation, inherited from century-old township governance patterns in many states, is why per-pupil spending, class sizes, and programme availability vary dramatically inside a single state boundary.
Statewide, the average student-teacher ratio is 17.7:1, a useful benchmark for comparing any individual district or school on PlainSchools. Free-lunch eligibility averages 58.8% across Alabama public schools, a federal indicator of economic need that drives Title I funding allocations. The district table below is sortable by enrollment, school count, and per-pupil expenditure, the three fields that best predict a district's financial and demographic profile. For schools specifically, use the rankings links above to view per-category leaderboards covering spending, student-teacher ratio, best schools by composite quality score, chronic absenteeism, and funding-equity distribution within the state.
Every district figure here pulls from two distinct federal surveys: enrollment and demographic data come from the NCES Common Core of Data 2024-25 (school membership and directory), while per-pupil spending, teacher salaries, and federal/state/local revenue shares originate in the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey (FY 2022-23). Civil-rights indicators, gifted enrollment, AP course counts, counselor staffing, chronic absenteeism, in- and out-of-school suspensions, come from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Cross-referencing these three sources is what lets PlainSchools produce composite scores and equity rankings that single-source tools cannot.
Alabama's average student-teacher ratio vs. every US state
Average students per teacher, state by state (lower means more staffing per student)
18lower student-teacher ratio than 10% of 51 US states
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Department of Education, NCES Common Core of Data · 2024-25
Federal data, transparent formula.
PlainSchools publishes the actual federal survey data - enrollment, staffing, finance, and demographics from NCES. The diversity index and composite quality scores referenced on this page are PlainSchools' own transparent derived indices (not an official NCES rating), computed directly from those datasets with the exact formula disclosed on our methodology page; every input number traces to a cited source. These figures describe reported resource allocation across a large, varied state - a starting point for comparing districts and schools, not a substitute for reviewing a specific school's own record.
Alabama per-pupil spending varies 4.7× across districts
Per-pupil spending in Alabama ranges from $9,068 (lowest district) to $42,797 (highest), a spread of $33,729. That spread reflects typical state-level variation between high-property-value suburbs and rural or low-tax-base districts. High-spending districts typically draw on higher property tax bases, a structural feature of state education finance under the federal Title I framework that sets the floor but not the ceiling.
Alabama has higher-than-average Title I eligibility - 58.8% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch
Free-lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), which replaced No Child Left Behind in defining how the federal government distributes K-12 supplemental funding. Districts above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. States with majority eligibility typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local property tax base, which can either offset spending gaps or reinforce them depending on state allocation policy.
Average Alabama student-teacher ratio is 17.7:1 - near the U.S. average of approximately 16:1
Student-teacher ratio is the simplest staffing metric reported on NCES Common Core of Data, but it does not capture push-in specialists, intervention staff, English Language Learner aides, special education co-teachers, or counseling and support staff. Variation between districts within the state is wider than the state-average figure suggests, large urban districts may run 20:1 while small rural districts run 10:1, both inside the same average. Class-load comparisons are most meaningful at the district or school level, not the state aggregate.
Alabama's public schools average a Simpson diversity index of 42.5/100, about the same as the national average of 43.5. The index runs 0-100 from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality. See where Alabama ranks in our national school-diversity analysis.
Data sourced from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25, NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22.
Using the Alabama data
Alabama's 1,369 schools sit inside 149 districts - compare at the district level first.
District boundaries decide enrollment: shortlist 2-3 districts on spending, ratio, and size before comparing individual schools. Compare districts →
Check how Alabama distributes money across its districts, funding equity varies more within states than between them. Funding equity →
Verify any school's federal record (enrollment, staffing, CRDC flags) before a visit or enrollment decision. Look up a school →
Figures are the federal record (CCD 2024-25, F-33 FY 2022-23, CRDC 2021-22) - they lag the current school year. PlainSchools assigns no subjective rating; the composite quality score used in our rankings is a transparent, reproducible index computed from this cited federal data.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many public schools are in Alabama?
Alabama has 1,369 public schools across 149 school districts, serving 746,604 students.
What is the average student-teacher ratio in Alabama?
The average student-teacher ratio in Alabama public schools is 17.7:1. This varies by district, use the district table below to compare.
What percentage of Alabama students qualify for free lunch?
58.8% of students in Alabama qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, an indicator of economic need used for Title I funding.
What is the largest school district in Alabama?
The largest school district in Alabama is Mobile County with 51,979 students across 92 schools.
Largest K-12 public schools by total students enrolled
students
Alabama Connections Ac…
7,822
Alabama Connections Academy
7,822 students
100.0% of the leader · rank #1 · Athens, AL
Alabama Virtual Academ…
6,104
Alabama Virtual Academy at Eufaula City Schools
6,104 students
78.0% of the leader · rank #2 · Eufaula, AL
Hoover High School
2,919
Hoover High School
2,919 students
37.3% of the leader · rank #3 · Hoover, AL
Baker High School
2,271
Baker High School
2,271 students
29.0% of the leader · rank #4 · Mobile, AL
Auburn High School
2,227
Auburn High School
2,227 students
28.5% of the leader · rank #5 · Auburn, AL
Enterprise High School
2,177
Enterprise High School
2,177 students
27.8% of the leader · rank #6 · Enterprise, AL
James Clemens High Sch…
2,159
James Clemens High School
2,159 students
27.6% of the leader · rank #7 · Madison, AL
Thompson High School
2,060
Thompson High School
2,060 students
26.3% of the leader · rank #8 · Alabaster, AL
What this shows The largest public schools in Alabama by enrollment, often statewide virtual academies or large consolidated campuses, so size here reflects reach, not quality.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD) - Public school universe · 2023-2024 Public K-12 school enrollment, demographics, and operational data; collected annually by NCES from state education agencies.