Summary:
Zip code 49304 is home to just one middle school, Baldwin Junior High School, which serves grades 6 through 8 within the Baldwin Community Schools district, a small, rural area with a student body of 112.
For parents, the most important takeaway is that this school faces extreme economic challenges that heavily impact its learning environment. Nearly all students (99.11%) qualify for free or reduced lunch, and over a third (37.6%) are chronically absent, which is significantly higher than the state average of 27.9%. On a positive note, the school maintains a favorable student-teacher ratio of 14.3, which could allow for more personalized attention. However, academic performance is a serious concern. Proficiency rates are drastically below state averages across all subjects and grades—for example, only 7.32% of 7th graders are proficient in math compared to the state’s 33.3%, and just 9.68% of 6th graders are proficient in ELA versus the state’s 37.5%. The school’s state ranking has also declined sharply, falling from the 15th percentile in 2023-2024 to the 6th percentile in 2025-2026.
Perhaps the most striking finding is the disconnect between spending and results. Baldwin Junior High School spends an exceptionally high $25,498 per student, yet test scores remain very low and are trending downward. This suggests that financial resources alone are not overcoming the barriers created by concentrated poverty and high absenteeism. There is also notable inconsistency between grade levels and years—for instance, the 2024-2025 8th grade class scored 42.9% proficient on the PSAT ELA, while the 2025-2026 8th grade class scored only 17.24%, indicating that results can vary significantly from one cohort to the next. Overall, this is a school with substantial funding and small class sizes, but it is struggling to translate those advantages into academic success due to the overwhelming socioeconomic needs of its students.
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