Braddock Middle, Cumberland MD - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Braddock Middle

Braddock Middle sits in Cumberland, the county seat of Allegany County, a city that was once a major manufacturing center in Western Maryland and has since seen its population decline by roughly half from its mid-20th-century peak. The city anchors a metropolitan area that is one of the poorest in the United States by per capita income. In 2025, Cumberland launched a relocation grant program to attract new residents, and the district itself is actively studying its elementary school facilities, a process that can precede boundary or consolidation changes. The school serves grades six through eight and operates as a regular public school.

On state assessments, Braddock Middle’s results show a clear split by subject. In English language arts, students across all three grades posted proficiency rates that fell comfortably above the midpoint, meaning a majority of students in each grade met the state’s standard. Math tells a different story. Across all grades combined, fewer than four in ten students were proficient. The drop is especially sharp in eighth grade, where only a very small share of test-takers reached the proficient level, a figure that is far below what most parents would hope to see and that warrants a direct conversation with the school about math instruction and support. In science and social studies, both tested in eighth grade, the proficiency rates were in the same modest range, with just over a third of students meeting the bar. The school also reports results for algebra I and geometry, where proficiency was substantially higher, though these scores reflect a select group of students taking advanced coursework, not the general eighth-grade population.

The student body is predominantly white, with a sizable share identifying as two or more races and smaller shares identifying as Black or Hispanic. Just over six in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a level that places the school in a higher-poverty context. Enrollment is distributed fairly evenly across sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, with the eighth grade being the largest cohort.

This is a school where a parent will want to pay close attention to math outcomes and the support structures in place for students who are not meeting grade-level benchmarks. The English results are a relative strength and suggest that foundational literacy instruction is working for most students. The surrounding community offers a historic downtown, a network of rail-trails connecting to the C&O Canal and Great Allegheny Passage, and a modest cost of living relative to the state as a whole: housing values fall well below the Maryland median, and rents are lower as well, making the area more accessible for homebuyers on a tighter budget. The district is small and centrally administered from Cumberland, and its Chinese Partial Immersion Program is a distinctive curricular option that may appeal to some families.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 635%

School 35% · district not reported

▲ 21 pts above state median

Grade 739%

School 39% · district not reported

▲ 27 pts above state median

Grade 89%

School 9% · district not reported

▲ 3 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 660%

School 60% · district not reported

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 763%

School 63% · district not reported

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 861%

School 61% · district not reported

▲ 17 pts above state median

Science

Grade 837%

School 37% · district not reported

▲ 11 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 837%

School 37% · District 34% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median

This schoolAllegany County Public Schools, 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-income60%32 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income14%Higher-income34%20 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income21%Higher-income32%11 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income5%Higher-income28%23 pp gap