English Language Arts
57.7%
State avg 52.7%
District avg 63.3%
County avg 56.6%
District avg 63.3%
County avg 56.6%
Test scores
See how it ranks: all Alabama schools by score · Limestone County schools by score
ACAP, SY 2024-25
All grades, all students. % Proficient.Mathematics
39.0%
State avg 31.8%
District avg 41.4%
County avg 35.8%
District avg 41.4%
County avg 35.8%
Science
N/A
State avg 37.0%
District avg 45.0%
County avg 39.3%
District avg 45.0%
County avg 39.3%
What this means: On the ACAP, Alabama's statewide test, about 58 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 39 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Alabama schools, those numbers are about 53 and 32.
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
48.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
33.6%
based on AL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+14.7pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 48% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 34% typical for Alabama schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Alabama's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
1-year history
All grades, all students. James L Cowart Alabama avgEnglish Language Arts
| Year | School | District | County | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SY 2024-25 | 57.7% | 63.3% | 56.6% | 52.7% |
Mathematics
| Year | School | District | County | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SY 2024-25 | 39.0% | 41.4% | 35.8% | 31.8% |
How to read these scores
What is ACAP?
ACAP is the statewide standardized test administered by Alabama public schools.
What does "% Proficient" mean?
It is the share of students at the school who performed at grade level or above on the test, summed across the top two of four performance levels. A higher number is better.
What does 57.7% mean for English Language Arts at James L Cowart Elementary School?
It means about 57.7 percent of students tested at James L Cowart Elementary School performed at grade level or above on the ACAP English Language Arts test in 2024-25. The statewide average for Alabama that year was 52.7%. The other students fell into the lower performance levels.
How is the state average calculated?
It is a weighted average, not a simple average of each school's number. We multiply each public school's score by how many of its students tested, add those together for all schools in Alabama, and divide by the total students tested that year. This way a big school with 1,500 students counts more than a small school with 50 students, which is the right way to ask "how did the typical student do this year?". District and county averages on this page use the same method, just scoped to that district or county.
Where does this data come from?
Alabama State Department of Education, Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program (ACAP) Summative. School-level All Students subgroup from the Alabama Achieves Participation and Proficiency files. Headline metric is the cumulative 'Proficient' rate (Levels 3 + 4 on the 4-level ACAP scale).
How often is it updated?
ACAP is administered once a year (spring). Results are released by the state in the summer or early fall. We refresh this page after each annual release.