Gadsden City High School

Gadsden City High School is a four-year high school of sizable scale in Gadsden, Alabama, overseen by Gadsden City, enrolling 1,361 students in grades 9 through 12. Enrollment runs roughly 100% above the state mean of about 682.

Gadsden City High School is one of 12 schools operated by Gadsden City, a district that educates 4,940 students overall.

On demographics, Gadsden City High School reports that the most-represented group is Black (45%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school records 30% White, 22% Hispanic. By comparison, Etowah County as a whole is about 15% Black, so the school skews noticeably more Black than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 79 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 17.2:1 students per teacher. That tracks the state average closely. An estimated 69% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is noticeably above Etowah County's rate of about 58%.

With demographic context factored in, Gadsden City High School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 33.9% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 17.5%.

Around the school, ACS estimates for Etowah County put the typical household earns roughly $54,563 per year, about 18% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 12%. Across Etowah County's 42 public schools (combined enrollment of about 15,139 students), Gadsden City High School is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Walnut Park Elementary School, roughly 1.5 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Gadsden City High School ranks 8th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 33.7%.

Gadsden City High School operates from an urban location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Gadsden City High School's enrollment has shrank 11% since 2018, when it stood at 1,524 (now 1,361). Over the same period, the White share shrank from 40% to 30%. Class-load math has rose: from 15.8:1 in 2018 to 17.2:1 in 2025.

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