Fultondale Elementary School, Fultondale AL

Original Research by School Decision on Fultondale Elementary School

Fultondale Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade as a regular public school in the Jefferson County district. It is a large elementary school, with an enrollment that places it among the bigger feeder schools in the area. The student body is diverse: roughly two-fifths of students are Black, another third are Hispanic, and about one-fifth are White, with small shares of Asian and multiracial students. About half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that indicates a substantial number of families have lower household incomes. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about how it serves those populations.

The school’s academic picture comes from the Alabama ACAP assessments, administered in the 2024–25 school year. In English language arts, proficiency rates were in the high thirty to low forty percent range across grades three through five. That is a moderate result — roughly two-fifths of students met the bar, and a family will want to weigh that against their expectations for foundational reading and writing skills. In math, proficiency was markedly lower, settling in the mid to upper teens across those same grades, and fourth-grade science proficiency was also in the upper teens. These are soft spots worth noting. When combined into an overall proficiency index that averages results across tested subjects and grades, Fultondale Elementary’s index sits above the midpoint among Jefferson County districts. That relative position suggests the school’s performance, while low in absolute terms, is stronger than many other district schools in the county. Only one year of assessment data was available, so no trend can be drawn.

Fultondale itself is a northern suburb of Birmingham that has seen steady retail and residential development in the last two decades, particularly west of Interstate 65. The community is auto-oriented, with no traditional downtown; daily life is stretched along US Highway 31 and the I-65 corridor. Housing costs in the area are roughly in line with state averages, and rents are moderate relative to the national picture. The city’s population has experienced a slight decline since the 2020 census, but new subdivisions and a planned rebuild of Fultondale High School signal continued investment. The elementary school sits on the southern end of town off US 31, and the city maintains a sports complex and parks nearby.

Because this is an elementary school with no high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, nor any data on chronic absenteeism or discipline from the available sources. The district itself did not have recent parent-relevant changes in the publicly reported material. Families considering Fultondale Elementary will find a school with a diverse student body, a moderate level of economic need, and test results that show stronger relative standing in the county than the absolute proficiency numbers might suggest. The low math and science outcomes are areas where a parent would want to ask about interventions, curriculum supports, and how the school tracks progress. The overall impression is of a large suburban elementary school that reflects the demographic and economic composition of its community, with some academic strengths in literacy and clear room for growth in quantitative subjects.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 318%

School 18% · District 31% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 418%

School 18% · District 31% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 28% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 53% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 443%

School 43% · District 53% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 59% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Science

Grade 420%

School 20% · District 33% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

This schoolJefferson County, 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

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income35%Higher-income69%34 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income41%Higher-income50%9 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income13%Higher-income46%34 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income15%Higher-income28%14 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income17%Higher-income14%3 pp gap