Empower Community School Upper Campus

Empower Community School Upper Campus is a middle school in Bessemer, AL, serving 211 students in grades 4 through 8, where about 76% of families qualify for free or reduced lunch. The school is part of the Empower Schools of Alabama district and currently ranks in the bottom 10% of Alabama middle schools.

The most urgent concern for parents to know is mathematics. Proficiency rates are extremely low across every grade level—5th grade had 0% of students meeting state standards, and even the strongest grade (8th) only reached 6% proficiency. This is 30 to 40 percentage points below state averages. By contrast, English Language Arts scores, while still below average, show more traction, with 5th grade reaching 43% proficiency. Science scores are also comparatively stronger, suggesting that hands-on learning approaches may be working better than traditional math instruction. For context, nearby Robert F Bumpus Middle School in Hoover City achieves 48-60% math proficiency, while Bessemer City Middle School, just under a mile away, shows similarly low math scores (1-14%), highlighting the stark educational divide in the Birmingham area.

There are some encouraging signs. Chronic absenteeism at 12.1% is right at the state average and dramatically better than nearby Bessemer City Middle School's 29.5% rate, showing that attendance has become a priority. Additionally, African American students at Empower perform better relative to their statewide peers than the school's overall ranking suggests, indicating some effective practices for this population. However, students from low-income backgrounds rank in the bottom 6% statewide, showing that poverty remains a significant barrier. The school appears to be in transition, and while the math crisis demands urgent attention, the combination of improving attendance, relatively stronger English and science scores, and a stable instructional foundation in literacy provides building blocks for future improvement.