Summary:
Union City, Michigan (ZIP code 49094) is served by a single district, Union City Community Schools, which operates three public schools—Union City Elementary School (PK-4), Union City Middle School (5-8), and Union City High School (9-12)—together enrolling roughly 909 students in a community where over half of families qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
For parents, the standout is Union City Middle School, which consistently earns a 3-star rating and outperforms the state in 8th grade PSAT English (76.6% vs. 64.8%) and math (44.7% vs. 33.2%), while also posting the district’s lowest chronic absenteeism at 17.1%. Union City High School has made a dramatic turnaround, jumping from a 1-star to a 3-star rating in one year; it now exceeds state averages in science (41.3% vs. 35.2%) and social studies (50.7% vs. 43.2%), and boasts a 93.7% graduation rate. However, Union City Elementary School is a serious concern, having fallen to a 1-star rating with proficiency rates far below state averages—for example, only 15.7% of 3rd graders are proficient in math versus 42.9% statewide—and its performance has declined sharply over the past two years.
Math is the district’s biggest weakness across grades 3-7, with proficiency gaps of 17 to 27 points below the state, though 8th graders suddenly surge above average. The high school’s improvement is impressive, but its 34% chronic absenteeism rate is well above the state’s 27.9%, creating a paradox of strong test scores alongside widespread disengagement. Meanwhile, the elementary school spends the least per student ($15,035) and has the largest class sizes, while the high school spends the most ($17,439) with the smallest ratios—a resource gap that mirrors the performance divide. Year-to-year swings in scores (like 7th grade math dropping from 46.8% to 18.9%) suggest small cohorts make results volatile, so parents should look at multi-year trends rather than any single year when evaluating these schools.
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