Here’s The Best School District In Michigan: Report

East Grand Rapids Public School District in western Michigan has been ranked as the best school system in Michigan in a new report. The online financial news site 24/7 Wall St. analyzed graduation rates, amount of money spent per student and other data to determine the best school district in each state.

East Grand Rapids schools have 2,950 students and spends $10,900 per student, the analysis found. The high school graduation rate is 96.6 percent and 78.9 percent of adults have a bachelor’s degree.

The company evaluated the districts by creating an index based on data in the following categories:

• child poverty
• spending per student
• graduation rate
• teachers per student
• percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree
• preschool enrollment
• Advanced Placement enrollment

Several school districts in the U.S. spend more than $50,000 per student on education each year, 24/7 Wall St. said, but others spend less than $2,000 per student.

“That difference in spending contributes to major disparities in student outcomes throughout the country,” the authors wrote. “The majority of a school’s budget is spent on staff and teacher salaries. A school that is able to attract the best teachers can give their students a major advantage.”

Indeed, wealthier areas often reap those rewards.

Local sources, including property taxes, account for about 44 percent of all school funding in the United States. This means most of the best school districts are located in affluent counties where the majority of households earn more than double that of a typical American household.

That, however, is not the case in Michigan.

In Kent County, which includes the East Grand Rapids school system, the median household income from 2012-2016 was $54,673 — just below the national average of $55,322. The poverty rate in Kent county was 12.1 percent compared to the national average of 12.7 percent.

The 24/7 Wall St. rankings report, published on Monday, follows a January report from the same site that found Michigan ranked 33 in the country for best schools.

Here’s a breakdown of schools in YOUR PATCH STATE, according to 24/7 Wall St.:

• High school graduation rate: 79.7 percent (11th lowest nationwide)
• Public school spending: $12,765 (21st highest)
• 8th grade NAEP proficiency: 28.5 percent (math) 31.8% percent (reading)
• Adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 28.3 percent (16th lowest)
• Adults 25-64 with incomes at or above national median: 49.6 percent (23rd lowest)

"Few state school systems report worse achievement metrics than Michigan," noted The 24/7 Wall St. authors noted in the January report. Fourth-grade reading proficiency fell by 2.5 percent between 2003 and 2015, as nationwide the share of fourth graders who are proficient in reading increased by 4.9 percent.

"Today, only 28.6% of fourth graders in the state are proficient in reading, well below the 34.8% share nationwide," the 24/& Wall St. authors wrote.

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report

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