Leeds Middle School, Leeds AL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Leeds Middle School

Leeds Middle School serves roughly the same enrollment across sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, making it a mid-sized middle school for its grade band. It is the sole public middle school for the Leeds City School District, and it draws from a community that markets itself as a Birmingham suburb with small-town appeal and convenient interstate access.

Academically, the school’s performance on the Alabama ACAP assessment shows a clear pattern. English language arts proficiency rises as students move through the grades, with the strongest results coming in eighth grade, where a solid majority of students meet the state’s benchmark. Science results, tested only in eighth grade, land around the midpoint, with just under half of students scoring proficient. Math is the weakest subject at every grade level. Proficiency rates in math are thin across all three grades, with the seventh-grade cohort performing the lowest. The school’s overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint among districts in Jefferson County, meaning that when you average performance across tested subjects and grades, Leeds Middle places ahead of many of its county neighbors. But that average is pulled significantly upward by the relative strength in ELA and science, and the math results are a genuine soft spot that a parent may want to explore further with the school.

The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Black population and a notable Hispanic enrollment. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in a context where economic disadvantage affects a majority of families. Data on special education and English learner populations was not reported in the available information, so a family with a child receiving services would want to ask the school directly about how those programs are structured.

Leeds itself is a car-dependent suburb that straddles three counties but sits squarely in Jefferson County for school purposes. The city recently announced a downtown revitalization project focused on sidewalks and lighting, suggesting that the pedestrian environment is a work in progress. Home values in the area are in a range similar to the statewide average, and rents are moderate relative to national benchmarks, giving the community a broadly middle-market housing profile. The district did not have any recent notable changes reported in publicly available material, so the academic and operational picture at Leeds Middle appears to be on a steady footing without major disruption.

What Leeds Middle offers is a school where a family with a student who is strong in reading and writing, or who is headed toward science, will find the curriculum a reasonable fit. A student who struggles in math, or a parent who prioritizes math instruction, will find that the school has not yet produced results that provide much assurance. The community is compact and suburban, with most everyday errands requiring a car, and the school is situated within a district that serves the city alone rather than a sprawling county system. A parent considering this school should gauge the math pathway closely, because the gap between ELA and math performance is wide enough to shape the whole academic experience.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 623%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 715%

School 15% · District 15%

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 829%

School 29% · District 29%

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 643%

School 43% · District 43%

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 752%

School 52% · District 52%

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 869%

School 69% · District 69%

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Science

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

This schoolLeeds City, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 6Lower-income29%Higher-income59%29 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income38%Higher-income72%34 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income55%Higher-income90%35 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income11%Higher-income39%28 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income4%Higher-income29%25 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income16%Higher-income48%31 pp gap