Elementary Schools in Gadsden City

The Gadsden City school district in Alabama is home to 8 elementary schools serving grades Pre-K or Kindergarten through 5th grade, with enrollments ranging from 218 to 433 students, and the district itself ranks in the 35th percentile statewide with a 2-star rating.

There is a dramatic performance gap between schools in this district. Eura Brown Elementary School is the clear standout, ranking 27th in the state (96th percentile) with a 5-star rating, and its students achieve 74.7% math and 92.7% English proficiency—rates 5 to 7 times higher than the lowest-performing schools. Mitchell Elementary School is a consistent 4-star performer (72nd percentile), while Donehoo Elementary School showed the most improvement, jumping 112 spots in state rankings to the 65th percentile. At the other end, Adams Elementary School, Thompson Elementary School, and Floyd Elementary School all rank in the bottom 10% statewide with 0-star ratings and math proficiency below 16%.

Socioeconomic factors and attendance appear strongly tied to outcomes. The three lowest-performing schools all have free/reduced lunch rates above 80%, while Eura Brown has the lowest rate at 32.65%. Chronic absenteeism is also a concern, especially at Thompson Elementary where 27.8% of students are chronically absent—more than double the district average and 8 times higher than Eura Brown's 3.3% rate. Interestingly, higher per-student spending does not correlate with success: Thompson spends the most ($11,365 per student) yet ranks near the bottom, while Eura Brown spends just $8,337 and achieves top-tier results. W E Striplin Elementary School shows an unusual pattern with strong early-grade math but a collapse in 5th-grade math (15.5% proficiency), and Walnut Park Elementary School saw 3rd-grade math plummet from 51.5% to 11.6% in one year, suggesting volatility in smaller cohorts. Science is a universal weakness across all schools, even at Eura Brown where it lags behind math and English.