Highlands Elementary School

Highlands Elementary School is an elementary school of small scale in Huntsville, Alabama, overseen by Huntsville City, caters to 370 students in grades pre-K through 6. Enrollment runs roughly 23% below the state mean of about 480.

Within Huntsville City, which oversees 44 schools and 24,222 students, Highlands Elementary School is one campus in the system.

On demographics, Highlands Elementary School records that 71% of the student body identifies as Black. Other groups include 18% Hispanic, 5% multiracial, 4% White. By comparison, Madison County as a whole is about 24% Black, so the school skews meaningfully more Black than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Highlands Elementary School reports 22 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 17.1:1. The state averages about 17.0:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 72% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Madison County runs at roughly 41%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Highlands Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 31.6%, the actual is 25.9%, a residual of -5.6 points.

Around the school, the surrounding county (Madison County) logs that median household income runs about $86,499, roughly 46% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Across Madison County's 89 public schools (combined enrollment of about 55,800 students), Highlands Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is Academy For Academics Arts Elementary School, roughly 0.3 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Highlands Elementary School comes 9th of 9 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 40.2%.

Highlands Elementary School operates from an inner-city location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked down 20%: 462 students in 2018 compared to 370 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 7% to 18% across the same window. Class-load math has loosened: from 16.0:1 in 2018 to 17.1:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, recent activity here tends to focus on pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.