Summary:
Freedom Prep Academy is the only school in this dataset, serving just 41 students in grades K-1 in Birmingham, Alabama, and it operates as its own district, meaning the Freedom Prep Academy district metrics are identical to the school's.
This is a very small elementary school with a high concentration of poverty—68.29% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch—yet it reports a remarkable 0.0% chronic absenteeism rate, far better than the state average of 12.0%. That perfect attendance record is a strong sign of family engagement and a solid foundation to build on. However, academic performance is a major concern. The school ranks 665th out of 686 schools statewide, placing it in the bottom 3% of Alabama schools. Proficiency rates are well below state averages in every subject and grade tested. For example, 3rd-grade math proficiency is just 9.09% compared to the state's 44.89%, and 3rd-grade English is 22.73% versus the state's 64.75%. The gaps range from 22 to 42 percentage points, with the largest deficit in 3rd-grade English.
There are some encouraging signs. English scores are relatively stronger than math, and there is a consistent improvement from 3rd to 4th grade—math rises from 9.09% to 12.5%, and English jumps from 22.73% to 37.5%. This suggests students may be making progress while at the school, even though they still lag significantly behind state peers. One quirk in the data: the school only serves K-1, yet test scores are reported for 3rd and 4th grades, which likely means the tested students attended the school in earlier grades before moving on. With only 41 students, small sample sizes make proficiency percentages volatile—one student represents about 2.4% of the tested population—so these numbers should be interpreted with caution. Overall, Freedom Prep Academy has a strong attendance culture but faces urgent academic challenges, particularly in math.
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