West Central Michigan News

There was an increase in the number of Big Rapids Public Schools students considered ready for math classes in college in the 2023-24 school year, according to the MI School Data. Based on their performance on the math portion of the SAT, 27.5% of the students were set for college during the school year.

Similarly, college-level math readiness in Big Rapids Public Schools the year before was 25.1%.

Big Rapids Public Schools ranked first in college readiness for math this year, compared to other districts in Mecosta County. In the previous year, it was ranked the same.

Academic performance in Michigan remains below pre-pandemic levels. According to the 2024 NAEP results, the share of students reaching the basic benchmark in core subjects is about 10 percentage points lower than in 2019—except for fourth-grade math, which saw a decline of just 2 points.

Achievement gaps between ethnic groups also persist. On average, Hispanic students scored 15 points below white students. The gap was even wider for Black students, who scored about 30 points lower than their white peers.

Due to the suspension of state assessments, SAT data for the 2019-20 academic year are not available.

Rank	District	Math average score overall
1	Crossroads Charter Academy	474.4
2	Big Rapids Public Schools	467.4
3	Morley Stanwood Community Schools	445.1
4	Chippewa Hills School District	433.2