Summary:
Paw Paw Public School District is home to a single middle school, Paw Paw Middle School, which serves grades 6-8 and enrolls 498 students in the village of Paw Paw, Michigan.
Paw Paw Middle School has shown strong upward momentum, climbing from the 43rd percentile in the 2024-2025 school year to the 58th percentile in 2025-2026—its best ranking in three years. The school’s standout achievement is in 8th grade English Language Arts, where 72.5% of students are proficient on the PSAT, well above the state average of 64.8%. Sixth graders also outperform state averages in ELA (44% vs. 37.5%) and are essentially at par in math. However, the school faces a significant grade-level disparity: 7th graders lag dramatically behind, with only 25.5% proficient in ELA and 21.7% in math—both roughly 12 points below state averages. This pattern suggests a particularly strong 6th grade cohort and a struggling 7th grade cohort, rather than consistent school-wide performance.
Year-over-year data reveals extreme volatility, with 6th grade ELA jumping 16.4 points and math rising 14.3 points, while 7th grade scores dropped by 8-11 points in the same subjects. This fluctuation likely reflects changing student cohorts rather than systematic improvement. Chronic absenteeism affects 26.2% of students—higher than the district’s 23.2% but slightly better than the state’s 27.9%—and may be suppressing achievement. With 37.55% of students receiving free/reduced lunch, the school serves a moderately economically diverse population yet still achieves above-state results in several areas, indicating effective strategies that could be replicated. The student-teacher ratio of 17.9:1 and per-student spending of $13,697 suggest moderate resource allocation. For parents, the key takeaway is that Paw Paw Middle School excels in 8th grade reading and 6th grade academics, but 7th grade math and ELA need targeted attention, and the school’s ranking is on an upward trajectory worth watching.
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