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What's one thing Palmer Middle School gets right about preparing students for what comes next?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
803
Middle
DISTRICT 921 · STATE 763
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·COBB COUNTY·NCES 130129002476
Palmer Middle School
690 N Booth Rd NW, Kennesaw, GA 30144 · (770) 591-5020 · Cobb County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL803 STUDENTS
C+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 40% of Georgia public middle schools
- BTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- CBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- FThree-year trend Change in reading and math proficiency over the last three test years.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Georgia public middle schools
Student : Teacher
16.1:1
50 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.1:1 · STATE 14.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
53%
426 students
DISTRICT 56% · STATE 74%
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 | 297 | 37% |
| Grade 7 | 245 | 31% |
| Grade 8 | 261 | 33% |
Student demographics
73%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 73% · STATE 71% · 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
Students here typically continue to
Palmer Middle School→Kell High School
Based on published attendance-zone data from Cobb County. Zones change; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
Georgia Milestones 2024-25 . % Proficient or DistinguishedEnglish Language Arts
43.4%
GA avg 40.1% . -8.8pp since 2021
Math
38.6%
GA avg 44.6% . -9.9pp since 2021
What this means: On the Georgia Milestones, Georgia's statewide test, about 43 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 39 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Georgia schools, those numbers are about 40 and 45. Reading and writing scores are down about 9 points since 2021, while math scores are down about 10 points.
Georgia Milestones results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 43.4% | 38.6% |
| 2023-24 | 47.0% | 50.0% |
| 2022-23 | 49.2% | 41.7% |
| 2021-22 | 52.1% | 48.4% |
% Proficient or Distinguished, all students and all tested grades.
Source: Georgia Milestones. 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
43.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
49.9%
based on GA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-6.4pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 44% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 50% typical for Georgia 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 Georgia'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 Palmer Middle School
Palmer Middle School's state test result (43.5% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palmer Middle School this school | 803 | 53.1% | 43.5% |
| Barber Middle School Acworth | 790 | 57.8% | 39.2% |
| Bear Creek Middle School Statham | 752 | 57.7% | 35.4% |
| Awtrey Middle School Kennesaw | 593 | 48.1% | 43.0% |
| Griffin Middle School Smyrna | 991 | 55.0% | 44.9% |
| Cartersville Middle School Cartersville | 1,081 | 54.8% | 47.0% |
Matched among Georgia 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 Palmer Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Georgia | In Cobb County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 43.5% | #168 of 470 | #16 of 28 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 38.6% | #242 of 474 ▼ 112 | #20 of 28 ▼ 8 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 43.4% | #151 of 474 ▼ 20 | #18 of 28 ▼ 4 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -9.3pp | #1 of 465 | #1 of 28 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 803 | #197 of 487 | #21 of 28 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.1:1 | #389 of 471 | #20 of 28 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 73.2% | #13 of 471 | #2 of 28 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 53.1% | #366 of 479 | #17 of 28 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -13.0% | #125 of 305 | #10 of 22 |
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
803
-72 (-8%) vs 2020
-23% since 2010-11, when it was 1,044
Student : Teacher
16.1:1
was 15.9:1
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 | 803 | 50 | 16.1:1 | 53% (426) |
| 2023-24 | 776 | 53.7 | 14.4:1 | 57% (444) |
| 2022-23 | 828 | 53.2 | 15.6:1 | 46% (380) |
| 2020-21 | 875 | 55 | 15.9:1 | 39% (345) |
| 2017-18 | 923 | 55.5 | 16.6:1 | 38% (355) |
| 2015-16 | 1,019 | 60 | 17.0:1 | 44% (449) |
| 2010-11 | 1,044 | 63 | 16.6:1 | 38% (400) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Palmer Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 13% (923 to 803); teachers down 10% (55.5 to 50).
About Palmer Middle School
Palmer Middle School is a medium-sized middle school in Cobb County, located in Kennesaw, Georgia. It educates 803 students in grades 6 through 8.
Cobb County has 105,738 students in 110 schools, and Palmer Middle School is one of those schools.
The most common group at Palmer Middle School is White students, at 36%. After that, the student body is 27% Black, 24% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, and 4% Asian. Among all residents of Cobb County, the White share is about 49%. The school's diversity index is 73%, meaning two students picked at random have a 73% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
Palmer Middle School's 50 full-time-equivalent teachers put its ratio at 16.1:1. That is higher than the 14.1:1 average for middle schools in Georgia. Eligibility for subsidized school meals is 53%. That tracks the 53% average for public schools in Cobb County.
allk12 grades Palmer Middle School a C+. The grade compares the school only with Georgia public middle schools, because each state gives its own test.
Based on student poverty, the model expects 49.9% at Palmer Middle School; the school's average proficiency rate on state tests is 43.5%.
Palmer Middle School is located in Cobb County, where the median household income is $102,738, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 51%, and about 6% of people live in poverty. Besides Palmer Middle School, Cobb County has 128 other public schools.
The school nearest to Palmer Middle School is Chalker Elementary School, at a distance of about 0.6 miles. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. On state test proficiency, Palmer Middle School ranks 5th in a group of 9 nearby schools.
The NCES locale for Palmer Middle School is Suburb: Large, which covers schools in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Federal data show an 8% enrollment decrease, from 875 in 2020-21 to 803 in 2024-25.
If you have questions about enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news at Palmer Middle School, you can post them here. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
Cobb County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
775,208
Census ACS
Median income
$102,738
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
51%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
129
116,609 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Cobb County
- Campbell High SchoolHigh · 3,085 students
- Osborne High SchoolHigh · 2,790 students
- Walton High SchoolHigh · 2,705 students
- Pebblebrook High SchoolHigh · 2,574 students
- North Cobb High SchoolHigh · 2,463 students
- Wheeler High SchoolHigh · 2,401 students
Other schools in Kennesaw
- North Cobb High SchoolHigh · 2,463 students
- Harrison High SchoolHigh · 2,224 students
- Kennesaw Mountain High SchoolHigh · 1,695 students
- McClure Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,030 students
- Lost Mountain Middle SchoolMiddle · 979 students
- Hayes Elementary SchoolElementary · 802 students
Other Palmer Middle schools
2 other US public schools in 3 states are named Palmer Middle. Palmer Middle School is the largest of the 3.
- Palmer Middle SchoolPalmer, AK · 563 students
- Palmer Middle SchoolPALMER, TX · 423 students
Nearby schools
- Chalker Elementary School0.6 mi · 679
- Pitner Elementary School1.6 mi · 802
- Big Shanty Elementary School2.3 mi · 511
- Blackwell Elementary School2.7 mi · 580
- Bells Ferry Elementary School2.8 mi · 704
- Daniell Middle School3.0 mi · 884
Frequently asked questions
About Palmer Middle SchoolHow large is Palmer Middle School?
Palmer Middle School enrolls approximately 803 students in grades 06-08.
Is Palmer Middle School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Palmer Middle School is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
How many teachers does Palmer Middle School have?
Palmer Middle School employs 50 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 16.1:1.
What is the student diversity at Palmer Middle School?
Student demographics at Palmer Middle School are roughly 36% White, 24% Hispanic, 27% Black, 4% Asian, 9% Two or more.
What district is Palmer Middle School in?
Palmer Middle School is part of Cobb County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.