The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in English language arts. The lowest is 24% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on W E Striplin Elementary School
W E Striplin Elementary School serves students from prekindergarten through fifth grade in the Gadsden City school system. It is a regular public school located on Cleveland Avenue in Gadsden. The school enrolls a student body that is predominantly Black and Hispanic, with a smaller share of white students. A very large majority of students come from households that qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, making the school one with a high concentration of economic need in its population.
The academic picture, drawn from the Alabama ACAP assessments for the most recent school year, shows a school where literacy scores are higher than math scores, though both areas present significant challenges. In English language arts, about two out of every five third graders met the proficiency benchmark, a rate that rose to about half of fourth graders and held at a similar level for fifth graders. In mathematics, performance dropped each year. About one-third of third graders were proficient, a rate that fell to roughly one in five fourth graders and then to about one in six fifth graders. In fourth-grade science, approximately one in four students reached the proficiency mark. Compared to other districts in Etowah County, an overall index of proficiency across tested subjects and grades places W E Striplin Elementary in the bottom quartile. This is the only year of state testing data available in this profile, so no trend from prior years can be assessed.
The school’s environment is shaped by its urban setting in the county seat of Etowah County. Gadsden is a mid-sized city that was historically a center for heavy industry, particularly tire and steel manufacturing, but has experienced decades of economic transition and population decline after losing many of those jobs. Healthcare, education, and food processing now dominate the local economy. The city government describes Gadsden as growing and innovation-oriented, but underemployment remains a noted problem. There is a walkable downtown core along Broad Street with cultural attractions, but much of the city is car-dependent. Housing values in the area are below the national and state medians, and the typical mortgage payment on a home at current rates is modest relative to the national picture. The unemployment rate is around the national average, and median household income nationally has risen modestly in recent years.
The Gadsden City school system operates fourteen schools across the city. The district brief turned up no recent changes that directly affect parents, such as boundary adjustments, program additions, or policy shifts. A parent considering this school should be aware that while the grade band covers prekindergarten through fifth grade, no information was available on special education services, English learner support, discipline rates, chronic absenteeism, or teacher staffing. These are common gaps in the data, but they are gaps nonetheless, and a family with a child who needs specialized support may want to ask the school directly about what is available. The school’s academic results, particularly in math and science, suggest that many students are not yet meeting grade-level expectations, and the proficiency rate in English language arts, while higher, still leaves a sizable share of students below the benchmark.
For a family weighing options, the primary consideration is fit. The school serves a high-need population in a district that is the only public school system in Gadsden. The housing market in the area is affordable by national standards, and the community offers outdoor recreation along the Coosa River and at Noccalula Falls Park. But the academic performance data points to a school where students, as a whole, are struggling to reach proficiency, and the gap between where they are and where the state expects them to be is largest in math. A parent who values a school where strong test scores are the norm will not find that here, and the absence of chronic absenteeism and discipline data means the full picture of daily school life is not yet clear from what is available.
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