Summary:
Zip code 49847 (Hermansville, MI) is served by a single school, North Central Elementary School, a small rural PK-5 school within the North Central Area Schools district, enrolling just 123 students.
For parents, the most important takeaway is that this school offers a supportive, stable environment with notable strengths in early-grade math, but faces clear challenges in upper-elementary subjects, especially science. The school has held a consistent 2-star rating (41st percentile statewide) for three straight years. Its strongest academic performance is in 4th grade math, where 44.4% of students are proficient—above the state average of 39.4%—and in 3rd grade math, which showed a 12.9-point lead over the state in the prior year. However, 5th grade is a significant weak point: only 31% are proficient in ELA (state: 43.8%), 27.6% in math (state: 32.2%), and just 24.1% in science (state: 40%). Science is the school's largest gap, trailing the state by nearly 16 points. Social studies is the lone bright spot in 5th grade, matching the state average at 27.6%.
On the positive side, chronic absenteeism is remarkably low at 11.7%—less than half the state rate of 27.9%—despite 50.4% of students qualifying for free/reduced lunch. The student-teacher ratio is a favorable 12.4:1, and per-student spending is high at $17,246. This combination of strong attendance, small classes, and above-average funding suggests a caring school climate, yet academic results remain below average. The dramatic year-over-year improvement in 5th grade (ELA nearly doubled from 15.8% to 31%) hints at possible interventions working, but with only ~29 students per grade, small cohort changes can swing results significantly. Parents should weigh the school's excellent attendance and early-grade math success against the persistent 5th-grade and science struggles when considering this school.
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