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If you had an hour of school board time for Ronald McNair 78, what would you bring up?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
390
Middle
DISTRICT 442 · STATE 508
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·HUNTSVILLE CITY·NCES 010180002379
Ronald McNair 78
5000 Pulaski Pike, Huntsville, AL 35810 · (256) 428-7660 · Madison County
GRADES 07–08MIDDLE12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL390 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 7% of Alabama public middle schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats 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 middle schools
Student : Teacher
19.5:1
20 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.9:1 · STATE 17.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
77%
302 students
DISTRICT 50% · STATE 58%
Community
2
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 7 | 200 | 51% |
| Grade 8 | 190 | 49% |
Student demographics
49%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 69% · 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
29.9%
AL avg 52.7%
Math
5.1%
AL avg 31.8%
What this means: On the ACAP, Alabama's statewide test, about 30 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 5 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
16.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
27.7%
based on AL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-11.1pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 17% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 28% 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 →
Schools most like Ronald McNair 78
Ronald McNair 78's state test result (16.6% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ronald McNair 78 this school | 390 | 77.4% | 16.6% |
| Chapman Middle School Huntsville | 315 | 77.5% | 15.4% |
| Southlawn Middle School Montgomery | 494 | 86.0% | 10.0% |
| Irondale Middle School Irondale | 430 | 74.7% | 21.4% |
| Litchfield Middle School Gadsden | 252 | 80.2% | 17.8% |
| CollinsRiverside Middle School Northport | 318 | 74.5% | 34.3% |
Matched among Alabama middle 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 Ronald McNair 78 ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Alabama | In Madison County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 16.6% | #236 of 260 | #18 of 19 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 5.1% | #235 of 260 | #18 of 19 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 29.9% | #233 of 260 | #19 of 19 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 390 | #164 of 265 | #15 of 19 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 19.5:1 | #186 of 244 | #11 of 18 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 49.1% | #126 of 246 | #17 of 18 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 77.4% | #53 of 264 | #2 of 19 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -4.9% | #111 of 151 | #4 of 6 |
Ranked against other public middle 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
390
-34 (-8%) vs 2020
Student : Teacher
19.5:1
was 20.2:1
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 | 390 | 20 | 19.5:1 | 77% (302) |
| 2023-24 | 411 | 20 | 20.6:1 | 88% (362) |
| 2022-23 | 414 | 18.3 | 22.6:1 | 87% (361) |
| 2020-21 | 424 | 21 | 20.2:1 | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 410 | 19.5 | 21.0:1 | N/A |
| 2015-16 | 355 | 25 | 14.2:1 | 68% (242) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Ronald McNair 78.
Since 2017-18: students down 5% (410 to 390); teachers up 3% (19.5 to 20).
About Ronald McNair 78
Ronald McNair 78 is a small middle school that serves part of Huntsville, Alabama. Students in grades 7 through 8 attend the school, which enrolls 390 students. For comparison, middle schools in Alabama average about 508 students.
Ronald McNair 78 is one school in Huntsville City, a system of 44 schools with 24,222 students.
A majority of students at Ronald McNair 78, 67%, are Black. The remaining shares are 25% Hispanic, 4% White, and 4% multiracial. Madison County as a whole is about 24% Black, so the school's share is higher. By the diversity index, Ronald McNair 78 comes in at 49%.
Teachers at the school number 20 full-time equivalents, and the ratio is 19.5:1. The 17.9:1 average for middle schools in Alabama is lower than this school's figure. Lunch subsidy eligibility at Ronald McNair 78 is 77%. By comparison, the figure for public schools in Madison County is 41%.
allk12 grades Ronald McNair 78 a D. The grade compares the school only with Alabama public middle schools, because each state gives its own test.
Ronald McNair 78 scores 16.6% on state tests, averaged across results. The predicted figure, based on its student poverty level, is 27.7%.
Recent Census Bureau figures for Madison County show that median household income is about $86,499, 46% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 7% of people live in poverty. Federal data list 89 public schools in Madison County, with a combined enrollment of about 55,800.
The nearest public school is Jemison High School, at less than a tenth of a mile. Ronald McNair 78 has at least 8 other public schools within five miles. The nearest schools with test data average 34.0%, higher than Ronald McNair 78's 16.6%.
NCES lists the school's locale as City: Mid-size. That means it sits inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
From 2020-21 to 2024-25, Ronald McNair 78 went from 424 students to 390.
Threads on this page can be about school events, clubs, and volunteer needs. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Madison County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
405,718
Census ACS
Median income
$86,499
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
46%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
89
55,800 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Huntsville City
- Virgil Grissom High SchoolHigh · 1,847 students
- Huntsville High SchoolHigh · 1,807 students
- Providence ElementaryElementary · 1,152 students
- GoldsmithSchiffman ElementaryElementary · 935 students
- Columbia High SchoolHigh · 916 students
- Lee High SchoolHigh · 877 students
Other schools in Huntsville
- Virgil Grissom High SchoolHigh · 1,847 students
- Huntsville High SchoolHigh · 1,807 students
- Providence ElementaryElementary · 1,152 students
- Monrovia Middle SchoolMiddle · 988 students
- Columbia High SchoolHigh · 916 students
- Lee High SchoolHigh · 877 students
Nearby schools
- Jemison High School0.1 mi · 858
- Rolling Hills Elementary School0.5 mi · 483
- Academy For Science Foreign Language Middle School1.2 mi · 194
- Academy For Science Foreign Language1.2 mi · 303
- Lakewood Elementary School1.7 mi · 397
- James Dawson Elementary1.8 mi · 447
Frequently asked questions
About Ronald McNair 78How many students attend Ronald McNair 78?
Ronald McNair 78 enrolls approximately 390 students in grades 07-08.
What grades does Ronald McNair 78 serve?
Ronald McNair 78 serves grades 07-08.
How many students per teacher at Ronald McNair 78?
Approximately 19.5:1 students per teacher at Ronald McNair 78.
How diverse is Ronald McNair 78?
Ronald McNair 78 reports a student body of 4% White, 25% Hispanic, 67% Black, 4% Two or more.
Who oversees Ronald McNair 78?
Ronald McNair 78 is overseen by Huntsville City in Madison County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.