A new report from Niche has identified Alabama’s highest-performing school districts for 2025. The rankings evaluated 143 school systems across the state, focusing on various criteria such as academic performance, teacher effectiveness, graduation rates, and the overall student experience.
In this year’s rankings, Homewood City Schools emerged as the top district, followed closely by Madison City School and Auburn City School.
It’s worth noting that the annual “Alabama’s best school districts” list reflects changes in assessment methods. This year, it no longer considers SAT and ACT scores, aligning instead with global trends where standardized testing plays a lesser role in college admissions.
Niche’s methodology incorporates feedback from millions of parents and students, in addition to publicly accessible data from the U.S. Department of Education. Key elements of the assessment include academic results, readiness for higher education, teacher quality, and the student-teacher ratio, along with values such as diversity, extracurricular activities, and student well-being.
Here are the top 25 school districts in Alabama for 2025, according to Niche:
| Rank | District Name | City | Niche Grade | Number of Schools | Enrollment |
| 1 | Homewood City Schools | Homewood | A+ | 5 | 4,464 |
| 2 | Madison City School | Madison | A+ | 13 | 12,736 |
| 3 | Auburn City School | Auburn | A+ | 14 | 9,466 |
| 4 | Vestavia Hills City Schools | Vestavia Hills | A+ | 9 | 6,937 |
| 5 | Hoover City School | Hoover | A+ | 18 | 13,524 |
| 6 | Saraland City Schools | Saraland | A+ | 4 | 3,488 |
| 7 | Mountain Brook City Schools | Mountain Brook | A+ | 6 | 4,387 |
| 8 | Trussville City Schools | Trussville | A+ | 5 | 5,012 |
| 9 | Alabaster City Schools | Alabaster | A+ | 5 | 6,348 |
| 10 | Hartsel Municipal School | Hartsel | A | 6 | 3,669 |
| 11 | Calhoun City School | Calhoun | A | 7 | 3,199 |
| 12 | Enterprise City School | Enterprise | A | 9 | 6,585 |
| 13 | Oneonta City Schools | Oneonta | A | 3 | 1,378 |
| 14 | Pelham City Schools | Pelham | A | 4 | 3,407 |
| 15 | Muscle Shoals City School | Muscle Shoals | A | 7 | 2,937 |
| 16 | Piedmont City School | Piedmont | A | 3 | 1,079 |
| 17 | Florence City School | Florence | A | 9 | 4,519 |
| 18 | Athens City School | Athens | A | 8 | 5,034 |
| 19 | Winfield City School | Winfield | A | 3 | 1,221 |
| 20 | Brewton City School | Brewton | A | 3 | 1,171 |
| 21 | Andalusia City Schools | Andalusia | A | 3 | 1,884 |
| 22 | Lamar County Schools | Vernon | A | 5 | 2,176 |
| 23 | Gulf Shores City School | Gulf Shores | A- | 3 | 2,640 |
| 24 | Opelika City Schools | Opelika | A- | 10 | 5,204 |
| 25 | Baldwin County Schools | Bay Minette | A- | 42 | 31,818 |
For additional details on the rankings and to explore profiles of individual districts, visit the Niche website.
