The top reported proficiency rate is 42% in English language arts. The lowest is 17% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Glen Oaks Elementary School
Glen Oaks Elementary School serves students in third through fifth grade in Fairfield, a small, historically industrial suburb of Birmingham that was originally founded as a planned company town for steel workers. The city has experienced considerable economic strain, including a bankruptcy filing, retail closures, and the termination of public bus service, and its population has been contracting rather than growing. The school is part of the Fairfield City district, which also includes other K-5 elementary schools, a middle school, a high school, and an alternative school. The district data available did not point to any recent major changes or initiatives, so this account focuses on what the school itself presents.
The student body at Glen Oaks is almost entirely Black or African American, and a substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school in a high-poverty context. The enrollment is moderate for an elementary school serving three grades. State testing data is available from the Alabama ACAP assessments, which the school took in the 2024-2025 school year. Overall proficiency across all tested subjects and grades is close to the midpoint among districts in Jefferson County, falling slightly above that midpoint. That said, the results vary considerably by subject and grade level.
In English language arts, roughly half of third graders met the proficiency benchmark, with lower rates in fourth and fifth grades, where around two-fifths of students were proficient. Math results were notably lower across all three grades, with the highest proficiency rate in third grade and rates dropping in fourth and fifth grades. Science results, tested only in fourth grade, also showed a modest proficiency rate. Combined across grades and subjects, the school produced an overall proficiency index that sits in the middle of the range among Jefferson County districts, neither unusually high nor unusually low for the county, but the pattern of stronger reading than math is clear. A parent may want to discuss with the school how math instruction is targeted across the upper elementary grades, given the gap.
The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and it does not serve preschool, kindergarten, or the early primary grades, so it has no state testing data for those years because they are not tested in Alabama at those levels. No information was available on chronic absenteeism or discipline rates, and special education and English learner counts were not reported in the available data, so a parent interested in those areas should ask the school directly. There was no data on course access, staffing ratios, or attendance patterns either.
The housing market in the area reflects the broader economic context. Home values are low compared to state and national benchmarks, and values have declined recently. Rents are also relatively low, and home affordability by standard measures is high, though that calculation reflects the depressed price base and current mortgage rates rather than rising household incomes. For a family considering a move to Fairfield specifically for the school, the low cost of housing is a practical factor, but the city's population decline and financial distress are realities to weigh alongside it.
Glen Oaks is a neighborhood elementary school in a challenged community. Its academic profile shows that many students are meeting reading benchmarks, particularly in the earliest tested grade, while math and science proficiency are areas where the school is working from a lower base. The school sits within a small, financially strained district in a city that has lost population and major retail anchors, and the student body is predominantly from low-income households. For a parent, the question is whether the school's academic trajectory and the supports available in the district align with what a child needs, and whether the broader community context is one the family is prepared for. The available data does not provide a full picture of student support services or school climate, so a visit and conversation with the principal would be valuable.
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