Greenwood Elementary School, Bessemer AL

Original Research by School Decision on Greenwood Elementary School

Greenwood Elementary School serves students from kindergarten through fifth grade in the Bessemer City school district, an independent system within Jefferson County. The school is located on Roselyn Road Southeast, in the southwestern portion of Bessemer, a mid-sized city with a historic identity as a steelmaking and industrial center. The residential area around the school reflects the city’s broader built environment, which is spread out and car-dependent, with commercial corridors along Interstate 59/20 and a downtown civic core centered on the Jefferson County Courthouse.

The student body is small for an elementary school serving this grade band. The composition is closely split between two groups: Black students and Hispanic students each make up a substantial share of the enrollment, with a much smaller White student population and very few students of other racial backgrounds. A significant majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a community with considerable economic need.

State testing data for the most recent school year is available across math, English language arts, and science for grades three through five. In math, the proportion of students scoring at the proficient level is low in every tested grade. In English language arts, performance varies notably by grade level: third grade shows a modest share of students proficient, fourth grade shows a slightly higher share, and fifth grade shows a majority of students reaching proficiency. Science results for fourth grade are low. The school’s overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places it below the midpoint when compared to other districts across Jefferson County. Only one year of data is available, so no trend can be assessed.

The district brief showed little in the way of recent parent-relevant changes such as curriculum shifts, construction projects, or referendums. Families considering Greenwood Elementary may want to contact the school directly to learn about current academic supports, enrichment offerings, and how the school addresses the variation in performance between subjects and grade levels.

Housing in the school’s ZIP code is moderately priced relative to national benchmarks, with home values and rents that are neither exceptionally high nor low for the region. Bessemer’s population has declined over recent decades, and the local economy has diversified since the collapse of steel manufacturing, with Amazon, Medical West Hospital, and several industrial employers now among the largest job centers. The city’s schools are distributed across its neighborhoods, and Greenwood sits in a residential area southeast of downtown.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 315%

School 15% · District 13% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 416%

School 16% · District 10% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 510%

School 10% · District 17% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 37% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 34% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 45% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 418%

School 18% · District 13% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

This schoolBessemer City, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income51%Higher-income100%49 pp gap