Anna Murray-douglass Academy, Rochester NY

Original Research by School Decision on Anna Murray-douglass Academy

Anna Murray-Douglass Academy sits on South Avenue in Rochester, a preK-through-eighth-grade school within the Rochester City School District. The school serves a mid-sized enrollment for its grade band, drawing primarily Black and Hispanic students, with a large majority qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. That demographic profile reflects the neighborhood and the city: Rochester is a working-class urban community along the Genesee River where the poverty rate runs high and the district as a whole serves a historically underresourced population.

State testing results from the New York State Testing Program are available for grades three through six in math, ELA, and science, and they show that proficiency rates are low across all tested grades and subjects. In math, the third-grade result is the strongest of the group, though still well below the state median; results in grades four, five, and six are lower still, sitting in a narrow band near or just above one in five students reaching proficiency. ELA results follow a similar pattern, with no tested grade reaching much above one in four students proficient. Science results at the tested grade are comparable to the lower math results. When the school's overall proficiency index is placed against districts in Monroe County, it falls in the bottom quartile of that comparison set. Parents considering this school who want to understand what the test scores mean in practice should ask the school directly about how it structures academic intervention and what supports are in place for students who are not yet on grade level.

Trend data is not available in the current data set, so it is not possible to say whether results have been moving up or down. Chronic absenteeism and graduation rate data are not applicable here: graduation rate is a high school metric, and this school ends at eighth grade. Chronic absenteeism figures were not reported in the data provided. IEP and English learner rates are also missing from the available data.

The school is part of a district that has been going through significant structural change. Rochester City School District recently completed its most extensive reorganization in many years, closing over a dozen schools and reestablishing a middle-school tier beginning in the 2024-25 school year. Anna Murray-Douglass Academy was part of that reconfiguration and now operates as a preK-8 school under its current name and structure. The district also ended a university partnership at East High School and is contending with a shrinking budget following the end of federal COVID-relief funding, resulting in staff reductions and enrollment-driven resource constraints across the system. These are district-wide pressures, not specific to this school, but they form the backdrop for any family making a placement decision here.

Rochester itself is a city in active, if uneven, reinvestment. Publicly reported coverage describes a downtown that has been filling in a former expressway corridor, converting historic buildings to residences, and drawing state funding for affordable housing development. The Olmsted park system, a neighborhood branch library network, a regional bus system, and the University of Rochester and its medical center anchor the south side of the city where this school is located. The housing market in Monroe County is moving: listing prices have risen meaningfully year over year and homes are selling quickly by most measures, though prices remain well below the statewide median, making the area considerably more accessible than most of New York.

Program information for the school was not available in the data provided. No magnet designation or charter status applies. The school is a regular public school.

For a family whose child is on grade level or above, the test results are something to ask about directly and weigh against other options within the district, particularly given the expanded school choice landscape the 2024-25 reconfiguration created. For a family already in the neighborhood or the district system, understanding what academic support structures exist inside the building is the practical question the data here cannot answer.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 332%

School 32% · District 25% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 17% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 36 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 13% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 18% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 327%

School 27% · District 22% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 19% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 19% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 20% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 14% · ▲ 8 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grade 579%

School 79% · district not reported

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

This schoolROCHESTER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, 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 3Lower-income22%Higher-income75%53 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income16%Higher-income58%43 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income19%Higher-income70%52 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income23%Higher-income56%33 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income13%Higher-income43%30 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income29%Higher-income60%31 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income14%Higher-income67%52 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income16%Higher-income64%48 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income20%Higher-income55%34 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income7%Higher-income33%27 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income0%Higher-income0%0 pp gap