1
What's the vibe like in the hallways at Cora Castlen Elementary right now?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
423
Elementary
DISTRICT 483 · STATE 480
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MOBILE COUNTY·NCES 010237000924
Cora Castlen Elementary
9960 School House Rd, Grand Bay, AL 36541 · (251) 865-6733 · Mobile County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY42-RURALTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL423 STUDENTS
A-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 82% of Alabama public elementary schools
- B+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- A-Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Alabama public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
19.2:1
22 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 18.2:1 · STATE 17.0:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
55%
233 students
DISTRICT 70% · STATE 58%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 17 | 4% |
| Kindergarten | 72 | 17% |
| Grade 1 | 62 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 73 | 17% |
| Grade 3 | 66 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 70 | 17% |
| Grade 5 | 63 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (72) is 14% larger than its 5th grade class (63).
Student demographics
35%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 62% · STATE 63% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
ACAP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
71.3%
AL avg 52.7%
Math
51.5%
AL avg 31.8%
What this means: On the ACAP, Alabama's statewide test, about 71 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 52 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Alabama schools, those numbers are about 53 and 32.
Source: ACAP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of AL schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
61.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
43.9%
based on AL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+17.4pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 61% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 44% typical for Alabama schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 17 points, placing it in Alabama's top 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Cora Castlen Elementary
Cora Castlen Elementary's state test result (61.4% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cora Castlen Elementary this school | 423 | 55.1% | 61.4% |
| Coosa Valley Elementary School Cropwell | 404 | 57.2% | 69.5% |
| Geneva County Elementary School Hartford | 474 | 57.6% | 68.8% |
| Madison County Elementary School Gurley | 421 | 55.8% | 51.9% |
| Ohatchee Elementary School Ohatchee | 472 | 53.6% | 49.6% |
| Woodland Elementary School Woodland | 338 | 50.6% | 60.6% |
Matched among Alabama elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Cora Castlen Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Alabama | In Mobile County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 61.4% | #163 of 626 | #8 of 52 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 51.5% | #179 of 626 | #9 of 52 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 71.3% | #207 of 626 | #9 of 52 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 423 | #413 of 709 | #39 of 59 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 19.2:1 | #560 of 655 | #39 of 56 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 35.3% | #446 of 658 | #33 of 56 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 55.1% | #410 of 696 | #46 of 56 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -9.2% | #216 of 364 | #22 of 34 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
423
-16 (-4%) vs 2020
-55% since 1990-91, when it was 939
Student : Teacher
19.2:1
was 17.6:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 423 | 22 | 19.2:1 | 55% (233) |
| 2023-24 | 424 | 22 | 19.3:1 | 64% (273) |
| 2022-23 | 439 | 22 | 19.9:1 | 64% (280) |
| 2020-21 | 439 | 25 | 17.6:1 | 64% (282) |
| 2017-18 | 466 | 27 | 17.3:1 | 67% (313) |
| 2015-16 | 508 | 29 | 17.5:1 | 40% (201) |
| 2010-11 | 487 | 34 | 14.3:1 | 58% (283) |
| 2000-01 | 974 | 68 | 14.3:1 | 55% (537) |
| 1990-91 | 939 | 48 | 19.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Cora Castlen Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 9% (466 to 423); teachers down 19% (27 to 22).
About Cora Castlen Elementary
Cora Castlen Elementary runs as a medium-sized elementary school in Grand Bay, Alabama. The school serves 423 students in pre-K through 5 in 2024-25.
Mobile County has 85 schools and 49,946 students, and Cora Castlen Elementary is one of those schools.
White students account for 80% of enrollment at Cora Castlen Elementary. Other groups make up 8% Black, 7% multiracial, 4% Hispanic, and 2% Asian. Mobile County as a whole is about 56% White, so the school's share is higher. The chance that two students picked at random at Cora Castlen Elementary belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 35%.
Teacher staffing is 22 full-time equivalents, or about 19.2 students per teacher. Among elementary schools in Alabama, the typical ratio is 17.0:1. About 55% of students, or 233, qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. It compares with 67% for public schools in Mobile County.
allk12 grades Cora Castlen Elementary an A-. The grade compares the school only with Alabama public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
Cora Castlen Elementary is 17.4 points above expectations on state tests, given its student poverty level, placing it in the top 10% in Alabama.
Across Mobile County, median household income is about $58,880, roughly 26% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and about 12% of residents live below the federal poverty line. The public schools of Mobile County number 107 and enroll about 59,070.
Nearby, Grand Bay Middle School is about 0.3 miles away. Other public schools within five miles number 4. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 41.9%; Cora Castlen Elementary's is 61.4%, ranking 1st of 9.
Cora Castlen Elementary is coded as Rural: Distant in federal locale data.
Cora Castlen Elementary had 439 students in 2020-21 and 423 in 2024-25, a 4% decrease. Its ratio of students to teachers was 17.6:1 in 2020-21, and 19.2:1 in 2024-25.
If you have questions about science fairs, picture day, and bus routes at Cora Castlen Elementary, you can post them here. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Mobile County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
412,590
Census ACS
Median income
$58,880
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
26%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
12%
Below federal line
Schools in county
107
59,070 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Mobile County
- Baker High SchoolHigh · 2,271 students
- Mary G Montgomery High SchoolHigh · 1,888 students
- Alma Bryant High SchoolHigh · 1,624 students
- WP Davidson High SchoolHigh · 1,470 students
- Bernice J Causey Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,339 students
- Theodore High SchoolHigh · 1,218 students
Other schools in Grand Bay
- Grand Bay Middle SchoolMiddle · 751 students
- Breitling Elementary SchoolElementary · 471 students
Nearby schools
- Grand Bay Middle School0.3 mi · 751
- Breitling Elementary School2.3 mi · 471
- Anna F Booth Elementary School4.3 mi · 391
- Alma Bryant High School4.8 mi · 1,624
- Saint Elmo Elementary School6.3 mi · 451
- Dixon Elementary School6.5 mi · 526
Frequently asked questions
About Cora Castlen ElementaryHow many students attend Cora Castlen Elementary?
Cora Castlen Elementary enrolls approximately 423 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Cora Castlen Elementary serve?
Cora Castlen Elementary serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at Cora Castlen Elementary?
Approximately 19.2:1 students per teacher at Cora Castlen Elementary.
What is the student diversity at Cora Castlen Elementary?
Student demographics at Cora Castlen Elementary are roughly 80% White, 4% Hispanic, 8% Black, 2% Asian, 7% Two or more.
Is Cora Castlen Elementary public or private?
Cora Castlen Elementary is a public K-12 school, overseen by Mobile County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.