John Ruhrah Elementary/middle, Baltimore MD

Original Research by School Decision on John Ruhrah Elementary/middle

John Ruhrah Elementary/Middle is a regular public school in Baltimore serving students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It operates within Baltimore City Public Schools, the district that covers the entire independent city. The school sits on Rappolla Street in East Baltimore, a neighborhood context that shapes what daily life looks like for its students.

The student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with nearly nine in ten students identifying as such. White students make up a modest share, Black students a small one, and Asian or multiracial students are present in very small numbers. About three in five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school does not report data for students with IEPs or English learners, so a parent would want to ask the school directly how it supports these groups.

Academically, the state testing results from the 2024-25 school year show proficiency rates that fall well below state averages and place the school in the bottom quartile among the small number of districts in Baltimore city when measured across all tested subjects. In English language arts, the share of students scoring proficient or above ranged from roughly one in seven in third grade to about one in five in seventh grade, with most grades landing around one in six or lower. Math proficiency was considerably lower: from third through eighth grade, the rate never climbed much above one in ten students, and in sixth and seventh grades it dropped to a very small share. Science proficiency in both fifth and eighth grades was also low, with the vast majority of students not meeting the bar. In eighth-grade social studies, about one in seven students scored proficient. These are consistent patterns across every grade and subject tested, and a parent considering the school should understand that the academic challenge facing most students is substantial.

The school has no graduation rate to report, as it does not serve high school grades. Data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, course access, and staffing are not available in the record, leaving gaps that a family would need to fill by visiting or speaking with the school directly.

Multi-year trend data covers only a single year, so there is no basis for seeing improvement or decline over time. The school appears to be a stable, non-charter, non-magnet school within a large urban district.

Baltimore itself is a city with a mix of historic neighborhoods, a service-oriented economy anchored by Johns Hopkins Hospital and University, and major civic attractions around the Inner Harbor. The city's population has declined modestly in recent years, and a large infrastructure project is underway to replace the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. The school is part of a district where the available research did not identify specific recent changes that would directly affect families in the near term.

For a family considering John Ruhrah Elementary/Middle, the profile is clear. This is a school where the student body is predominantly Hispanic and comes from families with significant economic need. The academic results, across every tested grade and subject, are well below typical benchmarks. A parent choosing this school would want to understand what academic support and intervention programs are in place, how the school works with students who are not yet meeting grade-level standards, and what the school offers beyond core instruction. The setting is an urban neighborhood within a large district, and the school serves as a single pathway from pre-kindergarten through the end of middle school before students would move on to high school elsewhere.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 312%

School 12% · district not reported

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 412%

School 12% · district not reported

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

Grade 56%

School 6% · district not reported

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 64%

School 4% · district not reported

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

Grade 72%

School 2% · district not reported

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 86%

School 6% · district not reported

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

English language arts

Grade 314%

School 14% · district not reported

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 49%

School 9% · district not reported

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 515%

School 15% · district not reported

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 619%

School 19% · district not reported

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 722%

School 22% · district not reported

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 817%

School 17% · district not reported

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Science

Grade 54%

School 4% · district not reported

▼ 16 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 87%

School 7% · district not reported

▼ 20 pts below state median · even with county median

Social studies

Grade 815%

School 15% · District 17% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▲ 2 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 6Lower-income18%Higher-income21%3 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income10%Higher-income6%4 pp gap