Summary:
Zip code 48809 is home to just one middle school, Belding Middle School, which serves grades 6-8 within the Belding Area School District and enrolls 363 students in a predominantly rural area.
For parents considering this school, the most important takeaway is that Belding Middle School shows a clear pattern of strengths and weaknesses. The school’s biggest challenge is mathematics, where proficiency rates trail the state by 9 to 13 percentage points across all grade levels—for example, only 20.1% of 8th graders passed the PSAT math test compared to 33.2% statewide. Reading and English scores are closer to average, with 8th grade PSAT ELA at 60.4% versus 64.8% statewide, though 6th and 7th grade M-Step ELA scores lag by 2-4 points. On a positive note, 8th grade Social Studies proficiency jumped dramatically from 38.5% to 48.9% in one year, nearly matching the state average of 50.3%. Science scores also improved by 5.3 points, though they remain 6.4 points below the state benchmark.
The school serves a largely low-income population, with 61% of students receiving free or reduced lunch, and chronic absenteeism sits at 27.7%—right at the state average but notably higher than the district’s 23.9% rate. Per-student spending is $14,385, and the student-teacher ratio is 16.7:1. Overall, the school’s state ranking improved from 518th to 489th in the latest year, though it remains below its 2023-2024 peak of 404th. For parents, the key concern should be math support, while the encouraging Social Studies gains suggest that targeted instructional changes can yield quick results. The school’s mixed year-over-year performance in ELA and its high poverty rate are important context, but the clear priority for improvement is closing the persistent math achievement gap.
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