Academy for Science Foreign Language, Huntsville AL

Original Research by School Decision on Academy for Science Foreign Language

Academy For Science & Foreign Language is a regular public elementary school in Huntsville, Alabama, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. It is part of the Huntsville City school district. The school has a modest enrollment for a PK-5 building, and a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is majority Black, with a notable share of White students and smaller shares of Hispanic students and students identifying as two or more races; Asian and American Indian students together make up a very small proportion of the enrollment.

Academically, the picture varies by subject and grade. In English language arts, proficiency rates are solid across the tested grade levels, with the strongest showing in third grade. At that grade, a high share of students meet the state standard. The rate remains strong in both fourth and fifth grades. In mathematics, the pattern is different. Third-grade math proficiency is also solid, but it drops noticeably in fourth grade and declines further in fifth grade. This declining trend across the elementary grades in math is something a parent may want to ask the school about—whether the curriculum, instruction, or support structures shift as students move up. In science, the only tested grade is fourth, where about half or more of students are proficient.

Overall, when looking at the school’s proficiency across all tested subjects and grades combined, it sits above the midpoint relative to other schools in Madison County. No multi-year trend data is available because only one year of test results was provided; this school cannot be evaluated for improvement or decline yet in this dataset. Because the school ends at fifth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, and staffing were also not available in the materials reviewed.

The school is located on Mastin Lake Road in a city known nationally as the “Rocket City” for its deep ties to space and defense. Huntsville is a fast-growing, mid-sized city with a technology- and manufacturing-driven economy anchored by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Redstone Arsenal, and a large research park. Major employers include defense contractors, automotive manufacturers, and a data center. This growth context means the city is adding households and families, and housing values in the school’s zip code are above the national median, with rents also high. The area is largely car-dependent outside the downtown core, though cultural amenities like museums, a concert amphitheater, and an arts center are part of the city’s character.

At the district level, Huntsville City Schools shifted to a balanced calendar starting in the 2023–2024 school year, moving the first day of school earlier into late summer and redistributing breaks across the year. This change is now in place for all district families and affects summer and holiday scheduling on an ongoing basis.

This is a school where early literacy appears to be a relative strength, while math performance widens into a challenge as students approach middle school. For a family considering this school, the steady drop in math proficiency across grades is worth a conversation with the school about academic supports and how they intensify for older elementary students. The larger context of a growing, economically dynamic city and a district that has restructured its calendar are also factors to weigh.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 367%

School 67% · District 39% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 448%

School 48% · District 39% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 32% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 376%

School 76% · District 58% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 472%

School 72% · District 55% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 571%

School 71% · District 64% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Science

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 40% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

This schoolHuntsville 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

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income50%Higher-income46%4 pp gap