Arcadia Elementary School

Arcadia Elementary School in Kalamazoo, MI, serves 355 students in Pre-K through 5th grade and is part of the Kalamazoo Public Schools district, which ranks in the 35th percentile statewide.

Arcadia faces significant challenges related to poverty and attendance. Nearly 80% of its students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and over a third (36.4%) are chronically absent. These factors help explain why the school's overall academic performance ranks in the 31st percentile statewide, well below several nearby schools in the same district. For example, Winchell Elementary (77th percentile), KingWestwood Elementary (80th percentile), and Northglade Montessori School (88th percentile) all perform in the top quarter of the state, while serving far fewer economically disadvantaged students (roughly 40-46%). Even with higher per-pupil spending ($17,837) than these higher-performing peers, Arcadia's M-Step proficiency rates in both English Language Arts and Math consistently fall below district and state averages across all grade levels.

Despite these overall struggles, there are some notable bright spots. Arcadia is relatively more effective for its African American students, who ranked in the 54th percentile statewide in the most recent year—a significant improvement from the prior year. Additionally, male students (36th percentile) are outperforming female students (17th percentile), a gap worth exploring. One concerning pattern is the "4th grade slump": while 3rd-grade ELA proficiency was 30.6% and rose to 41.9% in 4th grade, it dropped sharply to 27.3% in 5th grade. Math proficiency similarly falls from 26% in 3rd grade to just 12.7% in 5th grade, suggesting the school struggles to maintain academic growth as the curriculum becomes more complex. For parents, this means Arcadia offers a supportive environment for younger students, but upper-grade students may need additional academic support at home.