Armistead Gardens Elementary/middle, Baltimore MD

Original Research by School Decision on Armistead Gardens Elementary/middle

Armistead Gardens Elementary/Middle is a regular public school in Baltimore City Public Schools, serving prekindergarten through eighth grade. The school is located on a single campus in Baltimore, a city that, as publicly reported, has shifted from a heavy industry base to a service-oriented economy, with Johns Hopkins Hospital and University as top employers. The school itself is not a charter or magnet school.

The student body is diverse, with the largest shares of students identifying as Hispanic and a smaller but still substantial share identifying as white. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high level of economic need. The school serves a full range of elementary and middle grades, with enrollment spread across them.

On the Maryland state assessments, the school’s results vary notably by subject and grade. In English language arts, performance in the lower elementary grades was stronger, with a meaningful share of students scoring at the proficient level or above. In the middle grades, the picture was more mixed: sixth grade also showed a solid portion of students meeting the bar, while eighth grade saw a smaller share. For one middle-grade ELA result, the data shows a proficiency range rather than a single figure, which happens when a state suppresses exact numbers for a small tested group.

In math, the pattern was starker. The early elementary grades showed a moderate share of students at proficiency, but from grade five onward, the rate of students meeting the benchmark dropped substantially, and by eighth grade it was quite low. Science results for fifth and eighth grades also reflected low proficiency. For social studies in eighth grade, the state reports a proficiency range similar to the ELA range, with about half of students meeting the standard.

Overall, the school’s proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades placed it in the top quartile relative to other districts within Baltimore city, according to the comparison data available. This is a meaningful metric because the comparison set is the city’s school districts, and the school sits at the higher end of that group, but it is important to note that the data covers a single year, so no trend can be drawn from prior performance.

No graduation rate is reported for Armistead Gardens, which is expected because the school does not serve upper high school grades. The school does not have a high school program, so metrics like four-year graduation and chronic absenteeism rates for high school purposes do not apply. For other metrics, such as disciplinary data or staffing ratios, the available data was not complete, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about class size, support services, and school climate.

The neighborhood context is urban Baltimore. Housing values in the school’s zip code are considerably lower than the state and national benchmarks, and rents have been rising, according to the available data. The city has numerous historic districts and a walkable fabric in some areas, with major employers anchored downtown and around Johns Hopkins. The city’s overall population has seen a modest decline in recent years, as publicly reported, and a major infrastructure project to replace the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge is underway.

For a family considering Armistead Gardens, the key takeaway is a school that serves a high-need population, where early elementary reading shows relative strength, but where math proficiency drops off sharply as students move into the middle grades. A parent would want to understand what math intervention and support programs are in place for those older students, and how the school addresses the transition from elementary to middle school academics within a single building. The school sits within a large urban district, so families looking into Baltimore City Public Schools may also want to consider how this school fits with their plans for the high school years, since Armistead Gardens sends students to a separate high school.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 351%

School 51% · district not reported

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 34 pts above county median

Grade 439%

School 39% · district not reported

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 59%

School 9% · district not reported

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 611%

School 11% · district not reported

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 715%

School 15% · district not reported

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 84%

School 4% · district not reported

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

English language arts

Grade 349%

School 49% · district not reported

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 446%

School 46% · district not reported

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 522%

School 22% · district not reported

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 645%

School 45% · district not reported

even with state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 837%

School 37% · district not reported

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

Science

Grade 510%

School 10% · district not reported

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 822%

School 22% · district not reported

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

This schoolBaltimore City 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 4Lower-income9%Higher-income6%2 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income25%Higher-income32%7 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income19%Higher-income9%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income18%Higher-income14%4 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income14%Higher-income9%5 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income13%Higher-income8%5 pp gap