Albany Middle School

1259 Brighton Avenue

School District

Albany City Unified
Grade

6-8
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:17
Type

public

School Map for Albany City Unified School District

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on March 29, 2023

If your kid makes school authorities upset by their mischievous behavior or some sort of trouble which their childishness! Teachers bring your kid’s grades down and marked as absent nor tardy while they in class entire time. This makes me sick. Im on my tolerance mode so far Hope my kid finishes middle school without any issues.
Submitted by parent on February 04, 2023

My 6th grader is thriving here!! She loves all her teachers here. She had some difficulties with reading comprehension and she didn’t like reading AT ALL and was put in a reading support class. Recently she moved back up into a regular reading class along with her peers. Her teachers supported her a lot and now she reads chapter books for fun.
Submitted by other on June 07, 2021

Hard to believe the level of education my stepson received before and now during the pandemic. Longterm subs, Administration - Principal, etc, not responding to emails? Unclear return to school options. I feel my 8th grader is ill-prepared for high school life. If you look at their plan for return to school, basically, my son gets 2 hours of each class per week. All of his core classes were remote even with AMS getting the 'government $' to get kids back to school. I've heard 'great things' about the Albany school district. I think this is mainly getting done on the backs of parents that prioritize education, and not the school itself.
Submitted by parent on May 09, 2019

It was painful. 3 years of constant battling, begging the school to communicate effectively with me as the parent. Begging for options to support my son academically, they have extremely low follow through, horrible communication protocol, they ignore emails, are slow, their administrators are not kind, they are not team players with the parents. Specifically VP David Haupert has a bully approach to his job, is a scary and mean man, with no patience or compassion, or agenda for student success. Humans like this don’t belong in public education. Sadly, my experience was painful, stressful, frustrating, and has ended very poorly and very tragically.
Submitted by parent on March 31, 2018

Overall this school is a wonderful middle school. My kid is in 6th grade, she loves all her classes and also music program too. She is really strong on Math and Science, and always complained about her class was so boring to her when she was in elementary school, but she likes and satisfies her Math and Science classes now in AMS. This year is 2018 and I don’t know how this school operated in the past(I surprised for low ratings below), but AMS is the only two middle schools in CA which awarded from Blue Ribbon program (and the only public middle school in CA), and all staffs and teachers are wonderful.
Submitted by parent on January 15, 2016

The school has introduced CPM as Math curriculum this year. The level of material covered is ridiculous, for first few months this year 7th grade students had to prove 2+2=4, writing essays about it. Although classwork and homework are very easy, boring, and repetitive, the tests are much harder and very often the questions in tests aren't covered by homework/classwork. Students are expected to write essays explaining even most trivial solutions. Very minimal direct teacher instruction in Math. Students are expected to drive to solutions themselves in preassigned groups of 4. 100% of the time it's group work, which means student success is tightly coupled with ability of his/her peers in a group, and their interest in learning Math/cooperating with peers. I strongly encourage to research about CPM curriculum before choosing this school. It works for some but not the others. CPM curriculum has been adopted by AHS as well this year. Sadly except for Math curriculum all the other aspects of school are great. I wish they held Math instruction to their own high standards too.
Submitted by parent on August 04, 2015

As a first AMS parent, I expected greatness from the school based on high API scores, community school support, and high rating, but instead became disappointed. The campus is clean and nice but for 6th grade in my experience there was a great lack of projects and homework. My child did more homework in elementary school. My child was finished in literally 15 minutes. In history, 90% of the time movies were shown for the whole period, the science teacher had a rolling cart of textbooks and no science classroom, so the students basically had no hands on science, and there was a drug overdose incident with several students on campus where kids had to go to the hospital. I still feel greatly disappointed in AMS. There also is a fair amount of teasing and bullying. I'm not sure what the hype is about this school. I'm not impressed. I'm hoping for a better year for my child this year.
Submitted by other on December 17, 2013

My school is a very friendly environment and there is never a shortage of fun people to be around. However, the schools cafeteria food is disturbing and I would suggest bringing a home lunch as often as possible. Not to scare anybody, but the school does have an annual fire lit in one of the boy's bathrooms by morons. This school offers great classes and even better teachers. P.S. - If you are just coming to 6th grade cross your fingers and hope you get Ms. Peairs.
Submitted by parent on September 26, 2013

AMS is an amazing educational community. The teachers have a profound understanding of the complexity of the middle school mind and spirit and teach in a way that celebrates that. My daughter is an eighth grader. She is given assignments that she finds challenging and engaging. Mr. Lew (math) is excellent. My daughter had some difficult on a test early in the year. She was discouraged, but set up an appointment to ask him for advice. He made time to speak with her and gave her a VERY simple suggestion for something she could do everyday to help her do better. She followed his advice and aced the next test and felt very proud of that. Almost every day she is bursting to tell me about the latest science experiment . Her English & History teacher (Ms. Uyeda) has them thinking about how history is related to their lives and has them looking at assumptions about ethnicity in a way that is humorous but powerful. Ms. Stocker (choir) is inspirational and the sports program is top notch. Other teachers we adore are Mr. Peters, Mr. Ritchie, Ms. Anderson. We moved, literally 10,000 miles to be in the Albany schools (seriously), and I cannot imagine a better school for my daughter.
Submitted by parent on September 26, 2013

My child is returning to AMS after being away for one year, the re-entry was without a hitch and despite the fact that she had 80 new friends names to memorize, she is happy as a clam. This school has lots of choices for extra curricular activities. The music program is great, the athletics are rich with choices. Indeed so many choices it is really hard for our child.... but this is all good. The neighborhood is very save, most of the children seem to walk home, an indication of how great the Albany neighborhood is. We are do pleased to come back and be a part of this community again.
Submitted by other on November 19, 2012

I would have put zero stars if i was allowed to. I am a student currently attending this middle school, and I must say, I was very disappointed. I found that the teachers provided an overall uneducational program, and the students seemed equally lazy to contribute. The basic rules every school has were not enforced at this particular school, such as dress code and language. I was often bored during class and spent my time doodling during class, despite my eager wish to expand my knowledge. I wouldn't recommend this school to any friends or family, unless they wish to practise doodling.
Submitted by other on May 10, 2011

THIS SCHOOL ROCKS!! 1. KIDS ARE POLITE. 2. NUTRIOUS LUNCHS 3. BATHROOMS ARE SUPER CLEAN 4. THE TEACHERS ARE NICE. 5. THE PRICIPAL CARES. 6. VERY SMART KIDS
Submitted by parent on May 07, 2011

Albany Middle School failed my expectations and was a disappointment, as a result, my child will not be continuing in the Albany School District. Unfortunately, some of the negative things I'd heard about Albany Middle School from parents whose children attended Albany schools since elementary school, and from an interim administer, were true. There is a lot of drama, not related to academics going on within the school, which is a determent to learning. The administrators seem to be at a loss as to how to handle various situations. The grading scale is tough. A child can miss a day of school, and their grade for the class will be reflected as a "F" because of the missing classwork for that day. If anyone I knew said they were considering enrolling their child in Albany Middle School, I'd advise them against it, and to look elsewhere. Albany Middle School does not live up to its reputation. Very disappointed with this school.
Submitted by parent on September 01, 2010

Albany Middle School feels safe, organized, and well run. Thanks to a dedicated community, many of the extras (sports, music, clubs, etc...) are available, despite the economic crisis.