Ross Middle

Ross Middle in San Antonio, TX, is a public school serving 828 students in grades 6-8 within the Northside Independent School District (Isd), where over 84% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. The school has faced significant academic challenges, ranking in the bottom 20% of Texas middle schools for six consecutive years, with test scores in core subjects like Reading and Mathematics falling well below both district and state averages.

The most striking feature of Ross Middle is its exceptional performance in Algebra I, where students consistently outperform the district and state by a wide margin—71.43% proficiency compared to the state average of 54.03%. This creates a stark contrast with general math scores, such as a mere 2.19% proficiency in 7th-grade math. While the school excels at accelerating a select group of students into advanced math, the vast majority struggle profoundly. Nearby schools like Jordan Middle (55th percentile) and Jones Middle (37th percentile) achieve significantly better overall outcomes, despite Ross Middle spending more per student ($9,296 vs. $8,337 at Jordan).

Despite its low test scores, Ross Middle maintains a very low dropout rate (0.9%), on par with higher-performing district peers and lower than nearby schools like Gus Garcia Middle (2.3%). However, the school shows concerning inconsistency in serving specific student groups, with performance for Special Education and African American students fluctuating wildly from year to year. Recent data shows a broad, systemic decline across all demographics, suggesting the school's overall instructional capacity may be weakening. While Ross Middle is outperformed by its Northside ISD neighbors, it often outperforms schools in neighboring districts like Edgewood Independent School District (Isd) and San Antonio Independent School District (Isd), indicating it is not the lowest-performing school in the broader San Antonio area.