Summary:
Zip code 48173 is home to just one middle school, Shumate Middle School, which serves grades 6-8 within the Gibraltar School District and enrolls 839 students.
For parents considering this area, Shumate Middle School presents a mixed but generally improving profile. The school ranks in the 58th percentile statewide (375th out of 896 Michigan middle schools), earning a 3-out-of-5-star rating. Its clear academic strengths lie in 8th grade, where PSAT English Language Arts proficiency reaches 73.4% (8.6 points above the state average) and PSAT math hits 41% (compared to 33.2% statewide). However, the school struggles most notably in 7th-grade math on the M-Step, where only 25.2% of students are proficient—a gap of 8.1 points below the state average. Eighth-grade science (34.7% vs. 39.2% state) and social studies (42.9% vs. 50.3% state) also trail the state. Encouragingly, the school outperforms its own district average in nearly every subject and grade level, positioning it as the leading middle school in the Gibraltar district.
The most important takeaway for parents is that Shumate Middle School is on an upward trajectory. From the 2024-2025 to 2025-2026 school year, its state ranking jumped 10 percentile points, with notable gains in 6th-grade math (+6.2 points), 8th-grade social studies (+6.2 points), and 8th-grade PSAT math (+8 points). The only area of decline was 7th-grade math, which remains the school's biggest academic hurdle. One concern is chronic absenteeism, which sits at 29.4%—higher than both the district (22.8%) and state (27.9%) averages—despite the district spending a substantial $14,596 per student. The student-to-teacher ratio of 21.2 is also relatively high. With roughly 31% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, the school serves a diverse socioeconomic population, and the overall positive trends suggest recent academic initiatives may be gaining traction.
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