Summary:
Zip code 36618 in Mobile, Alabama is home to just one middle school, CL Scarborough Model Middle School, which serves grades 6 through 8 with an enrollment of 641 students in the Mobile County school district.
For parents considering this school, the most important takeaway is that CL Scarborough Model Middle School faces significant academic challenges, with proficiency rates well below both district and state averages across all subjects and grades. The school serves a predominantly low-income population, with 86% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, and it has maintained a consistently low ranking (around 358th out of roughly 440 schools statewide) for three straight years. However, there are some encouraging signs. The school has shown dramatic year-over-year improvement in 7th and 8th grade math (gains of 6.1 and 6.0 percentage points) and a remarkable 15.4-point jump in 8th grade science proficiency. Additionally, chronic absenteeism at 11.4% is actually better than both the district (12.8%) and state (12.0%) averages, suggesting students are consistently showing up to school.
The most concerning trend is in 6th grade English, where proficiency dropped sharply from 36% to 23.8%—a 12.2-point decline that may indicate incoming students are less prepared in literacy. There's also a wide gap in English performance between grades, with 7th graders (41.7% proficient) outperforming 6th graders (23.8%) by nearly 18 points. The weakest area remains 7th grade math, where only 9.6% of students are proficient, though this is a significant improvement from the previous year's 3.4%. With per-student spending of $11,174, the school appears reasonably funded, yet outcomes lag significantly behind state averages, raising questions about how resources are being allocated to address the achievement gaps in this high-poverty school.
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