The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in English language arts. The lowest is 21% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Academy for Academics Arts Elementary School
Academy For Academics & Arts Elementary School is a regular public school in Huntsville, Alabama, serving students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. It is not a magnet or charter school. The school sits within Huntsville City Schools, a district that in 2023 moved to a balanced calendar with an earlier start in late July or early August and breaks redistributed across the year, a lasting shift that families in the district should be aware of when planning summer schedules and childcare.
The school’s academic picture on state assessments is uneven. In the 2024-25 Alabama ACAP results, reading proficiency varied widely by grade. Among third graders, roughly half were proficient. Fourth graders showed a lower share. Fifth graders, however, posted a much stronger result, with a large majority meeting the bar in English language arts. That fifth-grade reading performance is a clear strength for the school. In mathematics, however, proficiency rates across grades three through five were modest, with fewer than one in four students reaching that level in each tested grade. Science, tested only in fourth grade, also showed a low proficiency result. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index placed it in the bottom quartile relative to other school districts in Madison County. The school does not have chronic absenteeism data or graduation rate data — it serves only elementary grades, so the graduation measure does not apply.
The student body is diverse. A majority of students are Black, with a substantial White enrollment and a notable share of students identifying as two or more races. A small Hispanic population and a tiny Asian population round out the demographics. About two in five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, a gap a parent may want to ask about directly.
Huntsville itself is a mid-sized, fast-growing city anchored by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Redstone Arsenal, and Cummings Research Park, one of the largest research parks in the country. Major employers include aerospace and defense contractors, a Toyota-Mazda joint manufacturing plant, and a Meta data center. The city’s housing market shows home values that are modest relative to national averages, with rents stable. The broader economic context reflects a low unemployment rate and rising median household income nationally.
The school’s location on Sparkman Drive places it in a residential area of Huntsville. Because this is an elementary school, families looking ahead to middle and high school will need to consider the feeder patterns within Huntsville City Schools. The district’s transition to a balanced calendar is one concrete change that affects the rhythm of the school year for all family schedules.
Program offerings at this school were not reported in the data used for this profile. Similarly, classroom staffing ratios, discipline data, and magnet or Title I status were not available. A parent interested in the availability of specialized programs such as gifted services, art, music, or extracurriculars may want to contact the school directly.
In sum, Academy For Academics & Arts Elementary School offers a setting with notable strengths in fifth-grade reading, a diverse student body, and a location in a growing city with a strong employment base. The math and science results are areas where the school appears to be working to improve, and the limited data on special populations and programming means some questions will require a follow-up conversation with the school or district.
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