The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in English language arts. The lowest is 18% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on I3 Academy Phase 1
i3 Academy Phase 1 is a public charter school in Birmingham, Alabama, serving kindergarten through fifth grade. It is part of the i3 Academy charter district. The school is housed in a building on 49th Street North, one of the district’s campuses in the city. The district itself has been expanding, with a stated plan to serve through twelfth grade and a high school already co-located on the campus of Jefferson State Community College, offering dual credit and professional certification courses for older students. For the elementary phase, however, the range ends at fifth grade.
Birmingham is a mid-sized city that functions as a major regional hub for the Deep South. Its economy has shifted from its historic steel and heavy industry base toward banking, healthcare, education, and services. Major employers include Regions Financial, Vulcan Materials, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The city has a diverse built environment, with a downtown core of historic and modern buildings, neighborhoods that vary widely in character and walkability, and notably more green space per capita than many cities its size. The city’s population has gradually declined and it is no longer the state’s most populous city, though the broader metropolitan area remains the largest in Alabama. Housing values in the school’s immediate area are well below state and national benchmarks, and rents are moderate relative to those wider markets. A significant share of students at the school qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a context that shapes the school's work.
The student body is composed predominantly of Black students, with smaller shares of white, Hispanic, and multiracial students, and a handful from other backgrounds. The school is a regular public charter school. State testing data, available for the 2024-25 school year only, shows that proficiency rates in English language arts cluster around the midpoint for third and fourth grade and dip below that for fifth grade. In math, proficiency rates are lower across all tested grades, and in fourth-grade science the rate is similarly low. Only one year of data is available so far, so no trend can be established. Compared with other districts in Jefferson County, the school’s overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint of the county districts, a position that reflects the ELA results rather than the math and science results.
The school offers no high school grade levels on this campus, so measures such as a graduation rate or college-readiness indicators do not apply here. Families considering this school for the primary grades should weigh its charter structure and the district’s plan for a through-grade pathway. The academic picture is mixed: literacy outcomes are a relative strength while mathematics and elementary science are areas where proficiency is lower. A parent may want to talk with the school about what instructional supports and interventions are in place for those subjects. With only a single year of testing data available, it is too soon to say how stable these results are. The school sits within a large, complex city with many school options, and its charter status means it operates with its own board and enrollment process rather than as part of the Birmingham City Schools system.
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