Original Research by School Decision on Mary Moss at Adams Academy
Mary Moss at Adams Academy is an alternative school in Annapolis that serves students from sixth through ninth grade. It operates within the Anne Arundel County Public Schools system, the same district that runs all traditional public schools in the county. The school is not a charter or magnet school.
Because this is an alternative school, the typical academic performance measures that parents might look for work differently here. State assessment results for math, English language arts, science, and social studies for the most recent school year are all suppressed, which is common when the tested group is small. A single year of data that was reported for all grades combined shows that a modest share of students met or exceeded state proficiency benchmarks in English language arts, and a smaller share did so in math. For any family considering this placement, these numbers reflect the population the school serves rather than a standard academic ranking, and it would be worth asking the school directly about the specific academic progress measures and benchmarks they use with their students.
The enrollment is quite small and concentrated heavily in ninth grade, with a handful of students in the seventh and eighth grades and very few in sixth. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly Black, with white and Hispanic students representing smaller shares. The school does not have reported counts for students with disabilities or English learners in the data available.
The absence of a graduation rate is expected for this grade band—the school goes only through ninth grade, so it does not produce graduates. The district itself, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, recently opened a new comprehensive high school in the Severn area, which reflects ongoing growth and boundary adjustments in the western part of the county, but that is a broader district development rather than something specific to this school.
Annapolis, where the school sits, is the state capital and county seat, a compact city that functions as a blend of government center, college town, and waterfront destination. Downtown is walkable and dense, with the Maryland State House, city and county offices, St. John's College, and the U.S. Naval Academy anchoring civic life. The 2020 census showed modest population growth, though the city is land-constrained, adding pressure from its location between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Housing in the immediate area is expensive—the local market is well above the statewide average in home values, and rents are similarly high—so families should weigh the cost of living against the specialized setting this school provides.
Mary Moss at Adams Academy is not a school for families looking for a comprehensive middle or high school experience with a broad range of extracurriculars, AP courses, or career pathways. It is a smaller, targeted alternative program for students in a transitional grade band. A parent considering this school will want to have a direct conversation with the school about its specific curriculum, support services, and what the academic and behavioral expectations are, as the state testing data does not give a picture of how students are doing in the ways that matter for this kind of setting.
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