Summary:
Zip code 49045 is served by a single high school, Decatur Junior Senior High School, part of the Decatur Public Schools district, which enrolls 399 students across grades 6 through 12 in a rural southwest Michigan community.
For parents, the most important takeaway is that this school excels at getting students to graduation, even though its test scores lag the state. The 2024-2025 graduation rate was an impressive 92.3% compared to the state average of 84.0%, and the dropout rate was 0.0% versus 7.1% statewide. However, academic proficiency on standardized tests is consistently below Michigan averages, with the largest gaps in mathematics—for example, only 13.1% of 8th graders were proficient in math on the PSAT versus 33.2% statewide. The school’s overall state ranking has been volatile, moving from the 41st percentile in 2023-2024, up to the 53rd percentile in 2024-2025, then dropping back to the 43rd percentile in 2025-2026 (ranked 459th out of 800). This fluctuation is likely due to small grade cohorts of roughly 57 students, where one class can skew results year to year.
There are notable bright spots. In the 2024-2025 school year, 11th graders beat the state average in science proficiency (39.5% vs. 34.9%) and social studies (51.2% vs. 42.1%), suggesting stronger performance in upper-level courses. Chronic absenteeism affects 24.5% of students, which is better than the state’s 27.9%, but still means nearly a quarter miss significant school time. The school spends a high $17,322 per student, yet maintains a relatively large student-teacher ratio of 19.5, indicating that spending may go toward fixed costs of running a small combined junior/senior high rather than smaller classes. With 58.4% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, the school serves a predominantly low-income population while still achieving strong graduation outcomes—a sign that student support systems may be effective even if standardized test performance does not fully reflect it.
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