The top reported proficiency rate is 56% in English language arts. The lowest is 21% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Avondale Elementary School
Avondale Elementary School is a regular public school in the Birmingham City Schools district, serving students from prekindergarten through fifth grade. This is a neighborhood-based elementary school, not a magnet or charter, and it operates within a district that has been navigating declining enrollment and a consolidating school footprint.
Academically, Avondale presents a mixed picture. State assessment results from the 2024–2025 ACAP tests show that English language arts is the school’s relative strength, particularly in third grade, where substantially more than half of students scored at a proficient level. Proficiency in ELA declines across fourth and fifth grades but remains within a moderate range. Math is a weaker area. While third-grade math proficiency is about half of students, the rate drops sharply by fourth grade and remains low through fifth. Science, tested only in fourth grade, also shows a low proficiency level. When all tested subjects and grades are averaged together, Avondale’s overall proficiency index lands above the midpoint among districts in Jefferson County a parent may find that the school’s overall standing in the county is somewhat better than the grade-by-grade numbers might suggest, but the steep drop in upper-grade math and the low science results are reasons to ask the school directly about its curriculum and intervention strategies in those subjects.
Since Avondale serves only through fifth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. The school has one year of test data available, so trend information is not yet meaningful.
The student body is majority Black, with a smaller share of White students, and a noticeable Hispanic enrollment. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a community with significant economic need. Information on special education or English learner populations was not available in the data, so a parent may want to inquire about those supports directly.
The school is located in the Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, a mid-sized city that functions as a major regional hub for healthcare, banking, and higher education. Birmingham’s population has been gradually declining, and the city lost its status as Alabama’s largest to Huntsville after the 2020 census. Housing values in the school’s zip code are above both the state and national benchmarks, while rents are more moderate relative to mortgage costs, making renting a more accessible option than buying for many households. The city offers a range of parks, a downtown core with cultural institutions, and a civic landscape shaped by its industrial history and civil rights legacy.
The district context matters here. Birmingham City Schools has been implementing a consolidation plan approved in 2023, merging several schools and repurposing buildings as part of a strategy to address a multiyear enrollment decline and aging facilities. The district has also opened a new Career Tech Academy for high school students, though that does not directly affect an elementary school. State-level literacy policy has added pressure: the Alabama Literacy Act’s third-grade retention provision now requires that students meet reading proficiency before moving to fourth grade, which elevates the importance of Avondale’s third-grade ELA results and the school’s intervention efforts in early literacy.
For a family considering Avondale, the school offers a regular elementary program in a city with deep institutional resources, set within a district undergoing physical and programmatic change. The academic data shows a school that performs above the county average overall but wrestles with math proficiency in the intermediate grades—a pattern worth exploring through a visit and a conversation with the principal about how the school approaches math instruction and supports students who fall behind.
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