Mobile County Training Middle School, Mobile AL

Original Research by School Decision on Mobile County Training Middle School

Mobile County Training Middle School serves sixth through eighth grade as a regular public school in the Mobile County system. Located on Whitley Street in the city of Mobile, it sits within a mid-size port city that functions as a regional economic hub for the Gulf Coast, with major industries in port operations, aerospace manufacturing, shipbuilding, and healthcare. The school is part of a large county-wide district that serves all of Mobile County, with schools distributed across the jurisdiction rather than concentrated in the historic downtown core.

The student body is small for a middle school. Nearly all students are Black, with a very small Hispanic population and a trace of two or more races. Almost every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. The data did not include counts of students with disabilities or English learners, so those dimensions are not possible to assess here.

State testing results from the most recent year show a stark pattern. In English language arts, about a third of students across all tested grades scored proficient. That figure varied by grade, with the highest performance in sixth grade, where a share above the middle-school average met the bar, and the lowest in eighth grade, where the share reaching proficiency dropped well below that. In math, the results are very low across every grade. Fewer than one in ten students scored proficient in sixth grade, a tiny share in seventh, and no students at all in eighth. In eighth-grade science, about one in nine students scored proficient. These are among the weakest proficiency rates in the county. The comparison data places the school in the bottom quartile for overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades relative to the seven other Mobile County districts that had sufficient data for comparison. Parents should be aware that the school is contending with significant academic challenges, particularly in mathematics, and may want to discuss the school's instructional plans and intervention strategies directly with the administration.

Because this school serves only middle grades, there is no graduation rate to report. Data on chronic absenteeism, course access, staffing, and discipline were not available in the records used here, so those areas cannot be described. The parent district brief turned up little of lasting impact in terms of recent district-wide changes, so no major reorganization or program shifts are evident from the research conducted.

The housing market in the immediate area shows a modest home value, well below the state and national benchmarks, and the local market experienced a decline in the most recent year. Rents are a meaningful share of income, but significantly cheaper than a mortgage payment, which may be relevant for families weighing whether to buy or rent in the neighborhood.

For a family considering Mobile County Training Middle School, the picture is straightforward. This is a small, nearly homogeneous school by race and economic background, serving a high-poverty population. The academic results, particularly in math and science, are very weak by state and county standards. English language arts shows somewhat stronger performance, especially at the sixth-grade level, but still lags typical county proficiency. The school operates as a regular public school with no charter or magnet status, and no program offerings were listed in the available data. A parent would want to investigate what academic supports, tutoring, or curriculum improvements are in place, and how the school is addressing the large gaps evident in the testing data.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 610%

School 10% · District 25% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 72%

School 2% · District 19% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 18% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 643%

School 43% · District 49% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 735%

School 35% · District 53% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 52% · ▼ 31 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Science

Grade 812%

School 12% · District 40% · ▼ 28 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below 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 7Lower-income32%Higher-income100%68 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income11%Higher-income0%10 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income2%Higher-income0%1 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income0%Higher-income0%0 pp gap