Maxwell Elementary School, Duncanville AL

Original Research by School Decision on Maxwell Elementary School

Maxwell Elementary School serves students in prekindergarten through fifth grade in the unincorporated community of Duncanville, Alabama, a rural area along U.S. Route 82 southeast of Tuscaloosa. It is part of the Tuscaloosa County school district. The school is a regular public school and is not a charter or magnet.

Because the school only serves elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report. State testing data from the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program (ACAP) for the 2024-25 school year is available for grades three through five. In English language arts, third graders scored above half proficient, fourth graders came in just below that mark, and fifth graders reached a level that suggests a strong majority of students met the standard. In math, proficiency rates rose steadily from third to fifth grade, with the share of students meeting the bar climbing into the majority by fifth grade. Fourth graders took the science assessment, where roughly two in five scored proficient. For parents evaluating academic performance, the overall picture is a school where literacy outcomes tend to be stronger than math outcomes, and where proficiency generally trends upward as students move through the grades. When compared to other districts in Tuscaloosa County, Maxwell’s average proficiency rate across all tested subjects and grades lands in the top quartile, a strong relative showing. Only one year of assessment data was available, so no trend can be drawn.

The school enrolls a student body that is predominantly white, with a substantial share of Black students and a smaller share of Hispanic students. A very large portion of the student population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which signals that the school serves a community with significant economic need. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not reported.

Duncanville is a small and lightly documented place. It has a post office and is named after either a local landowner or a railroad official. The area is rural and spread along a highway corridor. Information on walkability, downtown layout, major employers, and recent growth was not found in publicly available sources. For housing, some detail is available. Typical home values in the area are below the statewide median, suggesting that housing is more affordable here than in many parts of Alabama. A family considering a move for this school would be looking at a relatively low-cost market. Mortgage and unemployment figures are national context data, not local, so they do not speak directly to Duncanville’s economy.

The district did not have any recent parent-relevant changes reported in public sources. That means no major boundary adjustments, curriculum shifts, or leadership transitions were found to factor in.

For a family deciding whether Maxwell Elementary is the right fit, the key points are these. The school posts proficiency numbers that compare well against other elementary schools in the county, especially in English language arts in the upper grades. It serves a high-poverty population and is located in a rural, affordable corner of Tuscaloosa County. The academic data covers only a single year and a limited set of grades, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about growth or about how instruction supports students who are not yet proficient, particularly in math and science. The absence of information on extracurricular programs, class sizes, and staffing means those are questions to raise with the school.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 322%

School 22% · District 33% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 38% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 32% · ▲ 20 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 360%

School 60% · District 59% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 458%

School 58% · District 58%

even with state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 573%

School 73% · District 64% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Science

Grade 445%

School 45% · District 38% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

This schoolTuscaloosa 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 5Lower-income67%Higher-income84%17 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income37%Higher-income54%17 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income46%Higher-income65%19 pp gap