Leaders Say Efforts for Every Student Led to Tuscaloosa City Schools’ Best-Ever Report Card

Schools in the city of Tuscaloosa are celebrating better-than-ever results on state report cards grading the quality of Alabama's education systems, and leadership said the secret is caring about every student.

That may sound simple, that was the message from Superintendent Mike Daria at a Thursday morning roundtable to discuss Tuscaloosa City Schools' recent record-breaking score of 86 on the annual report cards.

"I'm proud that we truly believe in each and every student. We as a team, as an entire school district, believe in every student we serve, and unfortunately, I don't think that's always been the case," Daria told reporters at the meeting. "I am proud to serve with so many high-performing, committed folk in every school throughout this district, and with a board that is relentless in making sure education is about all students. I think our system is on its way to being premier, but it's because of those people, and we've got these amazing, brilliant, beautiful students who deserve these educators."

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In the 2025 Report Cards issued by the Alabama Department of Education, the TCS District scored an 86 overall, up from 84 last year and 80 in 2023. It's the highest score Tuscaloosa schools have earned since the Report Cards were first issued in 2018.

"When we first got report cards several years ago, we were at a C, and we are not a C school district," Daria said. "So we are committed to moving this school system to become an A, and we are at the highest we have ever been. We're at an 86. And I'm proud of our progress, but we're not done. We still have plenty of miles to go."

Each of the 19 schools in the district is also graded individually, and results improved year over year at 14 of those schools, including giant leaps at Oakdale Elementary and Central Elementary School.

Oakdale's former Principal Lucille Prewitt, who retired this year after more than 40 years in public education, also credited the improvements in their scores to focusing on the individual needs of each student under her care.

"We had a name for every child, knew where every child was, and put things in place," Prewitt said. "We let data drive our direction, and we got the team on the same page, where before we'd had people doing this and doing that, but nobody was really doing the same thing. So we were very consistent and very intentional. We took off all the fluff, and if it didn't help us, we didn't do it."

That approach drove Oakdale from a 69 last year to an 81 on the 2025 report card - the best they've ever done.

At Westlawn Middle, the jump wasn't so high - they improved from a 70 to a 74. But given that the school's average score from 2018 through 2023 was 62, a failing score, Daria and Principal Darlene Atkins continue to celebrate progress there.

"When you're in a school that has historically been underperforming and that has become the expectation from the community, we had to start with a sense of belief," Atkins said. "We had to believe that we had the skill set and the tools we needed, and we also had to instill in our star students that they could truly soar like Falcons. How could we be Falcons and not soar?"

Both principals and others at the roundtable also praised the virtue of celebrating small wins - if assessment scores improved by a single percent, everyone was getting cupcakes, Atkins said.

The Thursday talk also celebrated the higher end of the TCS spectrum -Tuscaloosa Magnet Elementary scored a 100, and both Magnet Middle School and Rock Quarry earned 99s.

TSME Principal Preeti Nichani said her school achieved a perfect score despite losing resources, including math coaches, due to district-wide budget cuts. Those followed the failure of a referendum that would have increased municipal property tax rates to replace expiring pandemic relief funds TCS had been using for the last several years.

"As these other amazing ladies have said, it's the same story at every school," Nichani said. "It's about intentionality and having names to these numbers, because it's not just a number. Who is this kiddo? What's their story? Let's help them in whichever way we can."

The roundtable also featured Cynthia Huff, the principal at Central Elementary School, where scores have skyrocketed from a 63 in 2022 to an 86 this year.

Deputy Superintendent James Darin Pope explained that Report Card scores are based on academic achievement, growth measured over time, attendance metrics, and, for high schools, post-graduate plans.

He said system-wide score surges in the last few years can be attributed to tackling each scoring metric as closely as possible at the individual level.

"The achievement side grew, the attendance side grew, and we're doing great with growth as well," Pope said. "As a system as a whole, because of our E3 concept (plans for education, employment, or enlistment after graduation), the graduation and our college and career readiness indicators have improved drastically."

But even as they touted all this growth and improvement, everyone in the Thursday meeting agreed that Tuscaloosa City Schools has more room to grow as they continue to seek the coveted A grade, reflecting a system-wide average of 90 or higher. Now just four points off, the goal seems more attainable than ever.

The principals and school board members gathered at Oakdale Elementary on Thursday also credited the leadership and dedication of Superintendent Mike Daria, who is retiring after this school year, for the system's growth over time. We'll highlight their comments about him in a breakout piece soon.

For more coverage of local education and other news in West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.