Summary:
Durand Area Schools is home to a single middle school, Durand Middle School, which serves grades 6 through 8 with an enrollment of 304 students in a district that reflects a mix of rural and small-town Michigan communities. For parents, the most important takeaway is that this school shows a complex picture: it has clear strengths in preparing students for college entrance exams and improving attendance, but it also faces significant challenges in meeting state standards on the M-Step, particularly in science and math.
Looking at the data, Durand Middle School has seen its statewide ranking slip from the 51st percentile (3 stars) in 2023-2024 to the 38th percentile (2 stars) in the most recent year, indicating a relative decline. However, this ranking doesn't tell the whole story. The school's 8th-grade PSAT scores are a genuine bright spot, with ELA proficiency at 62.5% and math at 31.3% in 2025-2026, both nearly matching or exceeding state averages. This suggests that while students may struggle with the M-Step's specific standards, they are performing on par with their peers statewide on a key college readiness assessment. Additionally, the chronic absenteeism rate of 23.5% is notably better than the state average of 27.9%, showing that students are attending school more consistently.
There are also some dramatic year-over-year changes worth noting. The school saw impressive gains in M-Step ELA proficiency from 2024-2025 to 2025-2026, with 6th grade jumping from 16.5% to 28.1% and 7th grade from 18.4% to 25.2%. Math also improved significantly in 7th grade, rising from 12.6% to 20.7%. However, these gains are tempered by a sharp decline in 8th-grade science, which dropped from 42.3% to 27.5%, falling well below the state average. With about half of the students eligible for free/reduced lunch and per-student spending at $13,092, the school faces the challenge of supporting a diverse economic population while working to close the persistent gaps to state averages in core subjects.
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