Robert A. Cross Middle Magnet, Albany GA

Original Research by School Decision on Robert A. Cross Middle Magnet

Robert A. Cross Middle Magnet is a middle school serving grades six through eight in Albany, Georgia. It is a regular public school, part of the Dougherty County School System.

The school sits in Albany, a mid-sized regional hub in southwest Georgia that has experienced gradual population decline but is now seeing selective growth in housing and manufacturing. Albany functions as the county seat and economic center for the surrounding region, with downtown anchors like the Flint RiverQuarium and cultural institutions clustered near the riverfront, while residential and commercial development spreads across major corridors. Health care, education, and the Marine Corps Logistics Base anchor employment; manufacturing includes operations by Procter & Gamble, Mars Wrigley, Molson Coors, and others. The community is car-dependent outside downtown, with retail and services spread along major routes. Housing costs are below state and national benchmarks, making the area relatively affordable for homebuyers and renters.

The Dougherty County School System has pursued a sustained, multi-year reduction in school property tax rates, with six rollbacks over the past span of years and no rate increase in nearly two decades. The district also established the first registered Teacher Apprenticeship Program in Georgia recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor, creating a homegrown pipeline into teaching to address workforce shortages.

Cross Middle's student body is predominantly African American, with a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrollment is modest for its grade band, distributed roughly evenly across the three grades.

On state assessments, the school shows solid proficiency in math and English language arts. In math, proficiency dips slightly as students progress through grades six and seven to grade eight. In English language arts, the pattern is similar: strong proficiency in grade six, then slight decline by grade eight. Science proficiency in grade eight sits near the math level for that grade. Social studies in grade eight shows lower proficiency than other subjects tested at that grade.

Only one year of data is available for this school, so trends cannot be assessed. Comparison against other districts in Dougherty County is not possible because the county's comparison set contains only this school. State testing data is reported only for grade eight in science and social studies, and for all three grades in math and English language arts, reflecting Georgia's assessment schedule for middle grades.

The school carries the magnet designation in its name, though magnet status information was not available in the data provided, so the specific nature of any magnet program or enrollment pathway is not clear from the materials on hand.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 681%

School 81% · District 23% · ▲ 58 pts above district

▲ 50 pts above state median

Grade 785%

School 85% · District 22% · ▲ 63 pts above district

▲ 51 pts above state median

Grade 878%

School 78% · District 34% · ▲ 44 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 683%

School 83% · District 25% · ▲ 58 pts above district

▲ 48 pts above state median

Grade 785%

School 85% · District 24% · ▲ 61 pts above district

▲ 49 pts above state median

Grade 876%

School 76% · District 25% · ▲ 51 pts above district

▲ 41 pts above state median

Science

Grade 878%

School 78% · District 29% · ▲ 48 pts above district

▲ 51 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 870%

School 70% · District 26% · ▲ 44 pts above district

▲ 39 pts above state median

This schoolDougherty 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.