Summary:
Zip code 35824 in Huntsville, AL is served by a single elementary school, Williams Elementary School, which enrolls 484 students in grades PK through 5 within the Huntsville City district.
For parents considering this area, Williams Elementary School presents a mixed picture. The school is ranked 485th out of 686 Alabama elementary schools, placing it in the 29th percentile with a 1-star rating, and this ranking has slipped each year from the 38th percentile in 2023-2024. The most alarming data point is 5th-grade math proficiency, which sits at just 6.38% for the 2025-2026 school year—a catastrophic drop from 21.62% the prior year and far below the district average of 33.85% and state average of 39.06%. This "5th-grade cliff" suggests a serious issue with math instruction or curriculum at that level. In contrast, the school shows a clear strength in English/Language Arts, with 5th-grade proficiency at 62.11%, which is much closer to the state average of 69.53%. Across all grades, English scores (51%, 51.28%, 62.11%) consistently outpace math scores (37.37%, 28.57%, 6.38%), indicating a systemic literacy strength and numeracy weakness.
Contextual factors are important to understand. The school has a chronic absenteeism rate of 10.8%, which is better than the state average of 12.0% but worse than the district's 8.2%. The student-teacher ratio is relatively high at 17.9:1, and 46.07% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, indicating moderate economic disadvantage. Per-student spending is $9,909 (2018-2019 data). On a positive note, 4th-grade science improved from 37.88% to 42.11% proficiency, and 5th-grade English improved slightly. However, the overall downward trajectory, combined with the severe math deficiency and high student-teacher ratio, suggests that Williams Elementary School needs targeted intervention in mathematics and support for its 5th-grade cohort to reverse its declining performance.
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