Summary:
In zip code 48195, there is exactly one middle school, Davidson Middle School, which serves grades 6 through 8 and is part of the Southgate Community School District.
Davidson Middle School is facing significant academic and operational challenges. The school spends a notably high amount of $19,812 per student, yet its state ranking places it in the bottom third of Michigan schools, at the 28th percentile for the 2025-2026 school year—a decline from the 35th percentile the previous year. Academic proficiency rates are well below state averages across nearly all subjects. In math, the deficits are especially severe: only 18.9% of 6th graders and 13.9% of 7th graders are proficient on the M-Step, compared to state averages of 31.9% and 33.3%, respectively. Eighth-grade PSAT math proficiency is just 14.3%, less than half the state's 33.2%. English language arts scores are also low, with 6th grade at 27% and 7th grade at 21.6% proficiency, though 8th-grade PSAT ELA (56.3%) is the school's strongest relative performance, only 8.5 points behind the state average. Science (17.9%) and social studies (38.4%) proficiency rates also lag significantly behind state averages.
A major concern is the chronic absenteeism rate of 42.7%, which is nearly identical to the district's rate (42.4%) but 15 percentage points higher than the state average of 27.9%. This suggests a systemic attendance problem across the Southgate community. Additionally, 61.99% of students are eligible for free/reduced lunch, indicating a predominantly low-income student population. The student-teacher ratio is 20.3 to 1. The combination of high per-student spending, low academic outcomes, and severe absenteeism points to deep-rooted challenges that likely require comprehensive, community-wide interventions rather than just additional funding. Parents considering this school should be aware of these significant hurdles, particularly in mathematics, and the school's declining state ranking.
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