Summary:
ZIP code 48429 is served by the four schools of the Durand Area Schools district in Durand, Michigan, which together educate about 1,208 students from early childhood through 12th grade. The district holds a 2-star rating, but this single ranking masks a wide range of performance, with the high school clearly leading the pack while the middle school struggles significantly.
Durand Area High School is the standout, earning 3 stars and showing dramatic year-over-year improvement. Its 94.2% graduation rate and 0.0% dropout rate far exceed state averages, and 11th graders now score above the state in science, social studies, and SAT reading/writing. In contrast, Durand Middle School is the district's weak point, with 6th and 7th graders falling 9 to 13 points behind state proficiency averages in ELA and math. This represents a sharp "middle school slide" from Robert Kerr School, where elementary students perform closer to state norms, though 4th grade math lags by 13.4 points. Bertha Neal School serves only PK-1 students and has no test scores, but it offers the district's lowest student-teacher ratio at 10.5:1, albeit with the highest per-student spending at $16,965.
Math is a systemic weakness across all grade levels, with the widest gaps to the state occurring in 4th and 7th grades. However, the district has notable strengths: chronic absenteeism is below the state average at every school, and the high school's science proficiency (42.9%) is 7.7 points above the state, an unusual inversion of the typical pattern where older students outperform younger ones. The middle school spends the least per student ($13,092) and has the highest student-teacher ratio (18.5:1), suggesting that increased investment there could help address its academic struggles. For parents, this data reveals a district with a strong high school and early elementary foundation, but a clear need for targeted support in the middle grades and mathematics instruction district-wide.
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