Bankhead Middle School, Cordova AL

Original Research by School Decision on Bankhead Middle School

Bankhead Middle School serves students in grades five through eight in Cordova, a small city in Walker County about a thirty-five-minute drive from Birmingham. The school is part of the Walker County district, which recently closed several elementary schools, including Cordova Elementary, reassigning students for the 2024-25 school year as part of a consolidation plan that projects substantial annual savings. The district has also expanded career technical education pathways at its center of technology, which may offer opportunities for Bankhead students as they move toward high school.

The student body is small for a middle school serving four grades, and the overwhelming majority of students are white. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Information on special education and English learner populations was not available in the data provided, so a parent should look into those supports directly with the school if they are relevant.

State testing results from the Alabama ACAP for the 2024-25 school year give a mixed picture that shifts by subject and grade level. In English language arts, the school shows notable strength. A strong majority of fifth graders, a similar share of sixth graders, and a clear majority of seventh graders met the proficiency bar. The eighth-grade ELA proficiency rate was lower, landing at just above half of students. The pattern across math is more concerning. Fifth-grade math proficiency was above the midpoint, but by sixth grade it dropped, and by seventh and eighth grade the share of students meeting proficiency was under three in ten. Science, tested only in grade eight, showed a proficiency rate under four in ten. The overall proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint when compared to other districts in Walker County, but with the county having only two districts, that comparison is a narrow one.

The community context is important for understanding what life looks like for families here. Cordova was originally a textile mill town, and that mill's closure around the late twentieth century eliminated a major source of jobs and triggered population decline. An EF4 tornado in 2011 destroyed most of the historic downtown, including city hall, the police station, and the fire station, and the city has been in a long recovery process since. Recent projects include a rebuilt grocery store, a new city hall and police station, a new sewer treatment plant, and an ongoing demolition of the remaining downtown structures to clear the way for rebuilding, with much of the funding from FEMA. A portion of families in the city live in poverty. Housing values are modest and have been declining slightly. The district's enrollment has been dropping, which drove the consolidation decisions.

For a parent or resident, the central question about Bankhead Middle School is the gap between its English language arts performance, which is generally solid, and its math performance, which becomes a clear weakness by the upper grades. A family with a child who already shows math difficulty may want to ask the school what interventions and support are available in the middle grades before that gap widens further. The school's size, its overwhelmingly white demographic composition, and its location in a small, recovering town are characteristics that a family will weigh according to their own preferences. The district's recent consolidation means that some students who would have attended a different elementary school are now in the feeder pattern for Bankhead, which may affect bus routes and school community dynamics.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 32% · ▲ 21 pts above district

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

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 28% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median

Grade 729%

School 29% · District 19% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 827%

School 27% · District 18% · ▲ 10 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 575%

School 75% · District 68% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 671%

School 71% · District 57% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 768%

School 68% · District 61% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 47% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Science

Grade 839%

School 39% · District 35% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

This schoolWalker 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 5Lower-income64%Higher-income85%22 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income53%Higher-income90%36 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income43%Higher-income63%19 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income71%37 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income37%Higher-income55%19 pp gap