Summary:
Coloma Community Schools is home to a single middle school, Coloma Junior High School, which serves grades 6 through 8 with an enrollment of 228 students in a district ranked in the bottom quarter of Michigan districts (1-star rating).
For parents considering this school, the most pressing concern is the combination of high poverty and chronic absenteeism. With 76.75% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch and a chronic absenteeism rate of 32.3% (higher than the state’s 27.9%), nearly one in three students is missing enough school to significantly impact learning. Academically, proficiency rates are well below state averages in most subjects. In 2025-2026, only 24.4% of 6th graders and 23.5% of 7th graders were proficient in ELA, while math proficiency was critically low at just 12% (6th) and 12.2% (7th)—a nearly 20-point gap from the state. Eighth-grade science (23.4%) and social studies (42.2%) also trail the state, though social studies is the school’s strongest M-Step subject. On the PSAT 8/9, 8th graders scored close to the state average in ELA (60.9% vs. 64.8%) but far behind in math (18.8% vs. 33.2%).
There are notable bright spots and red flags. Seventh-grade ELA proficiency jumped from 23.5% in 2024-2025 to 35.6% in 2025-2026, showing improvement is possible. However, 8th-grade math on the PSAT plummeted from 32.5% (above the state average) to 18.8% in just one year—a dramatic decline that warrants investigation. The school also shows a “PSAT paradox”: students perform much closer to state averages on the PSAT ELA than on the M-Step, suggesting curriculum alignment may vary by assessment. With per-student spending of $16,100 and a 17:1 student-teacher ratio, the district invests heavily, yet outcomes remain low. This suggests the core challenges are not funding but chronic absenteeism and foundational skill gaps in a high-poverty environment. Parents should ask how the school plans to address attendance and the math decline specifically.
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