Peter F Alba Middle School, Bayou La Batre AL

Original Research by School Decision on Peter F Alba Middle School

PeterF Alba Middle School sits in Bayou La Batre, a small fishing village and seafood-processing harbor on Alabama’s Gulf Coast. The town’s working waterfront is lined with shrimp boats, shipyards, and seafood plants; the local chamber calls it the “Seafood Capital of Alabama.” A sizable population of Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian immigrants works in the fishing industry, and that diversity shows in the school’s student body. The school is a regular public middle school serving grades six through eight and is part of the Mobile County Public School System. No recent district-level changes were publicly reported that would materially affect families, so the school’s programs and staffing appear to be on a steady footing.

The student enrollment is moderate for a middle school. A substantial share of students—around three out of every four—qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a sign that many families work in the area’s blue-collar maritime economy. The student body is majority white, with a notable Asian population, smaller groups of Black and Hispanic students, and a share of students who identify as two or more races. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the source material; a parent may want to ask the school directly about those support services. Housing in the Bayou La Batre area is affordable compared to state and national benchmarks, with home values well below the Alabama median and rental costs that are modest relative to incomes. For a family working in the seafood or shipbuilding trades, living close to the school is financially realistic.

Academically, Alba Middle School shows a split picture. On state assessments in English language arts, across grades six through eight, a little more than half of students met proficiency standards. Math results are considerably lower: the share of students reaching proficiency declines across the grades, and overall math proficiency is low. In eighth-grade science, about three out of ten students were proficient. Because this is a single year of assessment data, there is no trend to examine yet. When compared with other districts in Mobile County, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits below the midpoint. That comparison includes seven of the county’s eight districts. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report, and chronic absenteeism data was also absent from the available records.

The community setting matters for a family considering Alba. Bayou La Batre is a low-density coastal town oriented around its bayou and the main highway corridor rather than a walkable downtown. Its economy centers on shipyards—family-owned yards like Gazzier, Metal Shark, and Steiner—and seafood processing. Civic anchors include the bayou itself, a loop of the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail, and annual events such as the Blessing of the Fleet in May and the Taste of the Bayou seafood festival in September. The town’s population has declined over the past decade, and recovery from Hurricane Katrina remains a part of its recent history. No major new housing developments were identified in available records.

For a parent or resident, Alba Middle School is a neighborhood school in a tight-knit, working waterfront community. The academic profile suggests that a family may want to look into math support and enrichment, particularly given the gap between ELA and math proficiency. The school’s high share of low-income students means it likely qualifies for federal Title I funding, though that status was not confirmed in the data. The absence of information on special education staffing, discipline rates, and course access leaves gaps; a family exploring options should ask the school about those details directly. The school fits a family seeking a local middle school in a small, industrially rooted town with a distinct cultural character and relatively low housing costs.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 627%

School 27% · District 25% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 714%

School 14% · District 19% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 18% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 658%

School 58% · District 49% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 745%

School 45% · District 53% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 857%

School 57% · District 52% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Science

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 40% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · even with county median

This schoolMobile County, 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-income58%Higher-income59%1 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income39%Higher-income61%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income49%Higher-income77%28 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income25%Higher-income32%8 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income13%Higher-income17%4 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income9%Higher-income15%6 pp gap