Summary:
Kenowa Hills Middle School is the sole middle school serving grades 6-8 within Kenowa Hills Public Schools, located in Grand Rapids, MI, with 634 students and a moderate level of economic diversity (39.6% free/reduced lunch eligibility).
For parents considering this school, the most important takeaway is that academic performance is a mixed bag with notable bright spots and clear challenges. The school’s strongest area is 7th-grade math, where 41.9% of students are proficient—well above the state average of 33.3%—and this represents a significant improvement from the prior year. However, most other subjects lag behind state averages, particularly 8th-grade social studies (39.5% vs. 50.3% statewide) and 8th-grade science (33% vs. 39.2%). English language arts is also below average in 6th and 7th grades, though 7th-grade ELA showed a dramatic 10.2 percentage point jump in one year, suggesting possible positive intervention effects. On the PSAT, 8th graders match the state average in ELA (65.3% vs. 64.8%) but fall short in math (29.6% vs. 33.2%).
The most critical concern is chronic absenteeism, which sits at 34.5%—far higher than the district average of 24.1% and the state average of 27.9%. This likely contributes to the inconsistent year-to-year performance swings seen across grade levels. The school’s overall ranking is stable, placing in the 52nd percentile of Michigan middle schools (428th out of 896). While the 7th-grade math program appears to be a model worth replicating, addressing absenteeism and stabilizing ELA instruction across grades should be top priorities for improvement. Parents should weigh the school’s clear strength in math against its struggles in other core subjects and the high absenteeism rate when evaluating this option.
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