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Parents: what's one thing you'd want the Bessemer City Middle School administration to hear?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
616
Middle
DISTRICT 430 · STATE 508
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·BESSEMER CITY·NCES 010033000086
Bessemer City Middle School
100 High School Drive, Bessemer, AL 35020 · (205) 432-3601 · Jefferson County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL616 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 6% of Alabama public middle schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C-Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Alabama public middle schools
Student : Teacher
20.5:1
30 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 19.2:1 · STATE 17.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
84%
520 students
DISTRICT 78% · STATE 58%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 195 | 32% |
| Grade 7 | 234 | 38% |
| Grade 8 | 187 | 30% |
Student demographics
41%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 40% · STATE 63% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within Bessemer City. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
ACAP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
24.9%
AL avg 52.7%
Math
6.6%
AL avg 31.8%
What this means: On the ACAP, Alabama's statewide test, about 25 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 7 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Alabama schools, those numbers are about 53 and 32.
Source: ACAP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
13.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
22.7%
based on AL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-8.7pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 14% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 23% typical for Alabama schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Alabama's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Bessemer City Middle School
Bessemer City Middle School's state test result (13.9% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bessemer City Middle School this school | 616 | 84.4% | 13.9% |
| Southlawn Middle School Montgomery | 494 | 86.0% | 10.0% |
| Bellingrath Middle School Montgomery | 583 | 87.5% | 8.0% |
| Brewbaker Middle School Montgomery | 806 | 79.8% | 15.4% |
| Jones Valley Middle School Birmingham | 465 | 85.8% | 11.6% |
| Wilkerson Middle School Birmingham | 424 | 88.0% | 11.8% |
Matched among Alabama middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Bessemer City Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Alabama | In Jefferson County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 13.9% | #247 of 260 | #25 of 30 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 6.6% | #226 of 260 | #17 of 30 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 24.9% | #246 of 260 | #25 of 30 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 616 | #75 of 265 | #13 of 32 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 20.5:1 | #216 of 244 | #21 of 30 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 40.7% | #151 of 246 | #11 of 31 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 84.4% | #35 of 264 | #10 of 32 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -19.7% | #41 of 151 | #4 of 17 |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
616
-164 (-21%) vs 2020
-27% since 1990-91, when it was 846
Student : Teacher
20.5:1
was 20.5:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 616 | 30 | 20.5:1 | 84% (520) |
| 2023-24 | 648 | 31 | 20.9:1 | 88% (572) |
| 2022-23 | 674 | 27 | 25.0:1 | 88% (594) |
| 2020-21 | 780 | 38 | 20.5:1 | 88% (688) |
| 2017-18 | 767 | 40 | 19.2:1 | 88% (677) |
| 2015-16 | 818 | 40 | 20.4:1 | 71% (581) |
| 2010-11 | 661 | 35 | 18.9:1 | 92% (606) |
| 2000-01 | 673 | 38 | 17.7:1 | 65% (436) |
| 1990-91 | 846 | 43 | 19.7:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Bessemer City Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 20% (767 to 616); teachers down 25% (40 to 30).
About Bessemer City Middle School
Bessemer City Middle School is a middle school in Bessemer, Alabama, and it is part of Bessemer City. The school runs grades 6 through 8 and enrolls 616 students. Middle schools in Alabama average about 508 students, which makes this school 21% larger than average.
In Bessemer City, 7 schools enroll a combined 3,012 students.
More than half of enrollment at Bessemer City Middle School is Black: 74%. Other groups include 22% Hispanic and 3% multiracial. The county population is about 42% Black. The diversity index for Bessemer City Middle School is 41%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
For every teacher at Bessemer City Middle School, there are about 20.5 students; the school has 30 full-time-equivalent teachers. Compared with the 17.9:1 average for middle schools in Alabama, this school's ratio is higher. The eligibility rate for free or reduced-price meals is 84%. Among public schools in Jefferson County, the average eligibility rate is 52%.
Bessemer City Middle School earns a D on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 6% of Alabama public middle schools.
On BeatsExpectations, Bessemer City Middle School is 8.7 points below its prediction, a result in the middle 80% of Alabama schools.
Jefferson County is the school's county. There, the median household earns about $66,388 a year, about 36% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 11% of residents are in poverty. There are 181 public schools in the county, enrolling about 97,401, Bessemer City Middle School among them.
Bessemer City Middle School is about 0.8 miles from Westhills Elementary School, its nearest public school. Around the school, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. Its average proficiency rate of 13.9% is below the 19.8% average for nearby schools.
The school is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more, according to its NCES locale (Suburb: Large).
Federal enrollment counts fell from 780 (2020-21) to 616 (2024-25).
The discussion board for Bessemer City Middle School is open to topics like pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. Teachers and staff are welcome to share updates too.
Jefferson County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
667,755
Census ACS
Median income
$66,388
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
36%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
11%
Below federal line
Schools in county
181
97,401 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Bessemer City
- Bessemer City High SchoolHigh · 760 students
- Jonesboro Elementary SchoolElementary · 474 students
- Charles F Hard Elementary SchoolElementary · 364 students
- Greenwood Elementary SchoolElementary · 290 students
- Westhills Elementary SchoolElementary · 277 students
- Abrams Elementary SchoolElementary · 231 students
Other schools in Bessemer
- Oak Grove High SchoolHigh · 777 students
- Bessemer City High SchoolHigh · 760 students
- McCalla Elementary SchoolElementary · 752 students
- Oak Grove Elementary SchoolElementary · 576 students
- Jonesboro Elementary SchoolElementary · 474 students
- Concord Elementary SchoolElementary · 400 students
Other Bessemer City Middle schools
One other US public school is named Bessemer City Middle. Bessemer City Middle School is the largest of the 2.
- Bessemer City MiddleBessemer City, NC · 497 students
Nearby schools
- Westhills Elementary School0.8 mi · 277
- Bessemer City High School0.8 mi · 760
- Empower Community School Upper Campus0.9 mi · 211
- Jonesboro Elementary School1.7 mi · 474
- Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High School2.6 mi · 161
- McAdory High School2.8 mi · 1,259
Frequently asked questions
About Bessemer City Middle SchoolHow large is Bessemer City Middle School?
Bessemer City Middle School enrolls approximately 616 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Bessemer City Middle School serve?
Bessemer City Middle School serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
How many teachers does Bessemer City Middle School have?
Bessemer City Middle School employs 30 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 20.5:1.
What is the student diversity at Bessemer City Middle School?
Student demographics at Bessemer City Middle School are roughly 1% White, 22% Hispanic, 74% Black, 0% Asian, 3% Two or more.
Who oversees Bessemer City Middle School?
Bessemer City Middle School is overseen by Bessemer City in Jefferson County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.