Summary:
Bentley Middle School is the sole middle school in the Bentley Community School District, serving grades 6 through 8 in Burton, Michigan, with a very small enrollment of 145 students.
This school faces significant challenges. Nearly 70% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and chronic absenteeism sits at 36.8%—well above the state average of 27.9%. Academically, proficiency rates lag far behind state averages across nearly every subject and grade. For example, only 8.89% of 7th graders are proficient in ELA (a 29.5-point gap), and just 8.51% of 6th graders are proficient in math (a 23.4-point gap). The most alarming trend is a dramatic decline in 8th-grade performance: science proficiency plummeted from 39.1% to 10.9%, and social studies fell from 37.0% to 13.0% in just one year. This volatility is likely due to the very small cohort size—roughly 48 students per grade—meaning a handful of students can swing results by 20 points or more. The school’s state ranking reflects this instability, dropping from the 33rd percentile in 2024-25 to the 11th percentile in 2025-26, earning a 1-star rating.
There is one notable bright spot: 6th-grade ELA proficiency doubled from 11.6% to 23.4%, suggesting recent interventions may be helping younger students. However, math proficiency remains a crisis, and the school’s per-student spending of $13,190 with a 17.6:1 student-teacher ratio has not translated into competitive outcomes. For parents, the key takeaway is that while the school invests reasonable resources, the compounding effects of high poverty, chronic absenteeism, and small cohort volatility create an unstable learning environment. The 8th-grade PSAT ELA proficiency (42.2%) is higher than M-Step scores, indicating students may perform better on different test formats, but overall, families should expect wide year-to-year swings and should closely monitor attendance and grade-level progress.
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