EDUCATION
Our students graduate prepared and eager to pursue dynamic global futures.
Assembled for action, when it comes to 21st-century challenges, Monroe County students graduate “on go.” From early childhood through post-secondary education, Monroe County educational tracks guide students and prepare them for success.
K-12 HIGHLIGHTS
- STEM learning takes a priority position through early emphasis. An advanced, laboratory-based science curriculum enhanced by Science in Motion is implemented in collaboration with the Alabama Department of Education.
- In 2012, just two years after it formed, the Monroeville Junior High’s robotics team became the only robotics team in the state to earn an invitation to compete in the Presidential Science Fair in Washington, D.C.
- Monroe County High and Elementary schools offer students foreign language curricula to help them gain an early advantage in the global market.
COLLEGE & TECHNICAL CAREER PATHWAYS
- Innovation and thinking ahead are vital in navigating the global environment, and that’s why Monroe County rolls out roads to success for careers and college readiness. Routes range from a full lineup of Advanced Placement (AP) high school courses to a high-achieving Career Technical Center, where choices include dual enrollment at Coastal Alabama Community College, one of the nation’s top-ranked community colleges.
- From the West Wing to the Far East, along tracks that lead to great universities or immediately rewarding jobs, Monroe County students are being directed to an unlimited future at every turn and the earliest opportunity. For example, the Alabama Reading Initiative and Alabama Math and Science Technology programs are implemented beginning in kindergarten.
TECHNOLOGY & WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE FOR STUDENTS
- Our Continuous Improvement Plan is propelling our schools from “Good to Great” with a 21st Century Plan that has already provided state-of-the-art wireless infrastructure and a one-to-one device-to-student technology ratio. And while our schools are “wired,” our students are also connected through effective curricula and extracurricular enrichment.
- Monroe County offers the perfect combination for families, a warm and relaxed small-town environment where children aren’t rushed to grow up, but with all the routes to career and college readiness for a satisfying global future.
Higher Education Options
Here and near, the options for pursuing post-secondary education are excellent. A nationally rated community college in Monroe County offers a great start with multiple research universities within two and a half hours by car.
COASTAL ALABAMA COMMUNITY COLLEGE – MONROEVILLE
- It’s telling that Coastal Alabama Community College – Monroeville is home to the Alabama Writers Symposium and the National Network for Paper and Chemical Technology Training. It tells you that students here can pretty much write their ticket with a degree or certification when it comes to work and careers.
- Students can complete certification in 10 different areas, from cosmetology to computer applications to critical industrial skills like machine technology, pipe and plate welding, and industrial maintenance.
- Students can earn an Associate in Applied Science degree with a choice among multiple tracks, including business technology and computer applications, electrical and industrial engineering technology and industrial maintenance, machine technology and millwright, and naturally, paper and chemical technology.
- Credits can count toward a four-year B.A. or B.S. at the University of South Alabama.
- Rounding out the college experience are exciting athletics, an active and engaged student body, and small class sizes that allow students to enjoy the feel of a private college at a fraction of the price.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA
Distance: 90 miles
- Created a little more than a half-century ago from an extension program operated by The University of Alabama, the University of South Alabama in Mobile has risen to become a leading research institution boasting an enrollment of approximately 15,000.
- USA’s 1200-acre wooded campus is home to 10 colleges, including a college of medicine (one of only two state-supported medical schools in Alabama).
- Students can choose among 50 bachelor’s degree and certificate programs and more than 40 master’s degree programs.
- The university is classified as one with “high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation, and areas of study range from archeology to forensic and technology security to lung biology.
- The school is also home to the upper Gulf Coast’s first academic cancer research institute.
- USA’s Jaguar athletics, including a fledgling football team formed in 2009, rack up big crowds and big talent. Future stars in Major League Baseball have been thick on the diamond at USA.
TROY STATE UNIVERSITY
Distance: 102 miles
- Troy University serves nearly 30,000 undergraduate and post-graduate students on the main campus in Troy and three satellite campuses.
- Students can choose from among 46 bachelor’s degree programs, 22 master’s, and two doctoral programs, and once they graduate, their choices are even better. In its rankings of degree value, which is based partly on graduates’ marketplace success, Forbes magazine gives Troy a solid rating.
- Athletics have a proud heritage, with the Trojan football team dating back to 1909.
- The“Sound of the South” marching band is only the most visible component of a rich and diverse music program.
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
Distance: 144 miles
- The University of Alabama was founded in 1831 and is the state’s oldest public university. In 1838, it became one of the first five universities in the nation to offer engineering programs for which it has maintained accreditation since the standards were established in 1936.
- Today, the university’s approximately 38,000 students are pursuing studies among more than 70 undergraduate programs through 12 colleges and schools. Graduate School enrollment is approximately 6,000. The University of Alabama is considered an R1: Doctoral University – Very High Research Activity university through the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
- The University of Alabama is one of three campuses in The University of Alabama System, which also includes The University of Alabama in Birmingham and The University of Alabama in Huntsville.
- Aside from world-class academic opportunities, the university’s many national and athletics championships have made it among the most recognizable in college sports.
AUBURN UNIVERSITY
Distance: 154 miles
- Auburn University was founded as a private male college in 1856 and then transformed into the state’s first land-grant university some 20 years later. The university then transformed over the decade that followed into Alabama’s first four-year co-educational school.
- Auburn is still pioneering boundaries as one of the nation’s few universities designated as a land grant, sea-grant, and space-grant university. Degree options are vast, and while those numbers are significant, so are the quality rankings that Auburn consistently earns from U.S. News & World Report, among others.
- From engineering to English to computer science to veterinary medicine, Auburn offers highly rated programs that lead to successful careers.
- A founding member of the Southeastern Conference, Auburn is leveraging that association in learning through membership in the SEC Academic Consortium, even as it leads the field in athletics with powerhouse Tiger teams.
REID STATE TECHNICAL COLLEGE
Distance: 26 miles
- Reid State Technical College serves Monroe County as well as five other counties in the region.
- The main RSTC campus is located in Evergreen, and the college operates an instructional service center in Monroe County, where it offers an eight-week commercial truck driving certification training program.
- RSTC offers programs for students looking to pursue commercial truck driving, cosmetology, cosmetology instructor training, health sciences, industrial electricity electronics technology, industrial maintenance, nursing assistant, practical nursing, office systems technology, and welding technology.