Niche lauds faculty at Horizon Elementary School

MADISON – The faculty of Horizon Elementary School has been honored in Niche’s 2018 List of Alabama Schools With Best Teachers.

The Niche list commended 15 elementary schools across the state. Horizon ranked as seventh place in the list. Niche’s study stated Horizon has 617 students, and the student/teacher ratio is 18:1.

Another local honoree is Central School with Madison County Schools, ranked as no. 6. Central has 764 students and student/teacher ratio of 17:1.

Mountain Brook Junior High School in Mountain Brook City Schools claimed the no. 1 slot. The Mountain Brook campus has 1,091 students, with a student/teacher ratio of 13:1.

Neighboring schools in Birmingham’s suburbs claimed most places on the list, including Brookwood Forest Elementary School in Mountain Brook City Schools at no. 9; and Edgewood, Shades Cahaba and Hall Kent elementary schools in Homewood City Schools at no. 15, no. 4 and no. 3, respectively.

Niche’s methodology in rating the faculties used several factors. “Academics Grade” had the largest weighting at 30 percent and used state assessments and surveys from parents and students. Next, “Parent/Student Surveys on Teachers: accounted for 25 percent and used surveys that rated teachers on a 1-5 scale.

“Teacher Absenteeism” showed the percentage of teachers who missed 10 or more days for sick or personal leave per school year. This factor was given 15 percent in the overall scoring.

Niche used “Teacher Salary Index” for the average teacher salary compared to median household income by county (10 percent). “Teachers in First/Second Year,” the percentage of teachers in their first or second year of teaching, accounted for 10 percent in the rating.

The remaining two factors received 5 percent in overall rating. Using the National Center for Education Statistics findings, Niche determined “Average Teacher Salary” and “Student-Teacher Ratio” for ratio of students to full-time teachers.

For more information, visit niche.com.