The following is an analysis of the Birmingham City School System’s performance 2025 ACAP in comparison to previous years, in comparison to the state average results, and in comparison with some identified comparative systems.
I will proceed through various ways of looking at the data, with the particular filters set to present specific comparisons. The visualization tool also offers the option of change menu choices in order to explore the data in different ways. To the extent you change the look, take care to align all the filters to your choices. Communicate with PARCA if you see the need for customization. Beyond using it as a tool internally, a shared platform for understanding should be developed with the board of education.
The first visualization compares the Birmingham system with the state across all ACAP-tested subjects, grades, and years. (This display does not include the 11th-grade ACT Results since that is a different test.) The ACAP measures the percentage of students achieving grade-level proficiency in particular subjects, so this mish-mash approach has some flaws in its underlying logic, however, it is a quick way to assess how system is doing in comparison with the state. This compares all students, of all socioeconomic levels, and all races, ethnicities, and gender. Because there are wide and persistent test score differences between students based on economic background, comparisons between the “all student” state average and “all student” Birmingham should take into account the contrast in economic composition: 55% of students statewide directly qualify for a free school lunch. In the Birmingham system, 80% of students qualify. Birmingham improved more than the state, but remains significantly behind, when “all students” are considered. Birmingham’s overall performance improved about 4% points compared to the state’s improvement of 3% points. When the predominant student groups in Birmingham are compared to the same student groups statewide, Birmingham is close to or, in some cases, exceeds the state average.
Here is another way of looking at it, which gives a better sense: Birmingham started at a lower baseline in 2021 and made a leap in 2022. Since the pandemic, Birmingham has improved at a pace that slightly exceeds the improvement pace of the state as a whole.
A closer look reveals that Birmingham is producing greater gains than the state in elementary grades in both reading and math, but is not progressing at the same pace as the state in the middle school grades.
That pattern is true in English Language Arts. In both the 3rd and 4th grades, Birmingham significantly outperformed the state in terms of proficiency rate growth. But in 7th and 8th grade, the state grew faster than Birmingham.
In Math, the pattern is similar. Birmingham improved more than the state in the early grades. But in 6th and 8th grade, the state grew faster than Birmingham.
ACAP tests Science proficiency in two grades: 4th and 8th. Birmingham outperformed the state in grade 4, but the state improved more than Birmingham in 8th-grade science.
The visualization below shows Birmingham’s proficiency rate by subject by year for all students and all grades. The state average for the measure is represented by the reference line in the graph. Unadjusted for demographics, Birmingham’s results trail the state’s results.
Comparing Similar Student Groups
When the results are adjusted to compare students from similar backgrounds, the gap with the state is much narrower. In the visualization below, Birmingham is compared as a system with others, all subpopulation, all grades and all subjects. Birmingham performs below other large systems in the state. However, if one uses the on the right, and compare Black students in Birmigham to black students statewide, and further refine the comparison in terms of economic subgroups, Birmingham’s comparison improves in compartison to other systems and in some comparisons, exceeds the state average..
Birmingham’s student population is 80% economically disadvantaged, and 83% of students are Black, the largest black and the largest economically disadavantaged proporition among large systems. Comparing Black Economically Disadvantaged students to Black Economically Disadvantaged students statewide. Birmingham students are close to and in a couple of cases equal to the state average.
Changing the comparison group to Black students who are not economically disadvantaged, Birmingham students exceed the state average in 18 of the 14 compared grade and subject combinations. In both math and ELA, proficiency averages are higher than the state average from 5th to 8th grade. However, Birmingham Black non-economically disadvantaged students perform under the state average in Science in both tested grades.
Birmingham’s Hispanic Students, both economically disadvantaged and non-economically disadvantaged, trail the state average for their peers statewide.
While Birmingham saw an increase in proficiency of 3.7 percentage points across grades and subjects, Hispanic Students and Students with Limited English Proficiency made larger percentage point gains. On the other hand, students with disabilities only saw a one-point increase in proficiency compared to the previous year. That’s the same pace of increase seen at the state level.
In recent years, the number of Hispanic students in Birmingham and the percentage of the student population they represent have grown substantially. Continued attention to improving instruction for Spanish-speaking students is needed. Both Birmingham and the state at large are not effectively increasing proficiency among students with disabilities. Strategies currently employed by Birmingham and suggested by the State should be re-examined.
The scatterplot chart compares proficiency rates and poverty rates among systems. The systems to the left of the graph, nearer the axis, have high rates of economic disadvantage. The systems that are higher up on the chart have higher proficiency rates. Because there is a correlation between the level of poverty in a school and the level of economic disadvantage, the trend line that cuts at an upwardly sloping slant through the chart serves as a line of prediction, an indicator of where a system would be predicted to fall based on its poverty percentage. In 2021, immediately after the pandemic, Birmingham was underperforming, positioned well below the line of prediction. In 2025, the system is approaching the line of prediction.
Using that same pattern is evident in the Elementary schools of the Birmingham system, as depicted below. The distribution pattern reflects the disparity in performance between Birmingham’s magnet schools. Not surprisingly, those schools, where placement is sought after and whose student bodies have a greater share of middle to higher-income students, produce higher proficiency rates. It is also important to note, though, that schools with similar levels of concentrated poverty produce substantially different rates of proficiency. That more effective instructional approaches and school leadership produce improved results.
The middle schools also exhibit the same pattern.
The tool below allows to comparison of elementary school grade performance among Birmingham schools. Menus allow you to refine the comparison by looking at subjects or subgroups.
The same approach is available for comparing middle school grades, with options for subpopulation comparisons as well.
The tool below allows for trend comparison on profociency levels among Birmingham Schools by year. To make appropiate comparisons select elementary or middle school grade bands (Some schools have middle school grades and some do not. Proficiency levels are generally lower in middle grades).
