Ridge Park Charter Academy, Grand Rapids MI

Original Research by School Decision on Ridge Park Charter Academy

Ridge Park Charter Academy is a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade charter school on the southeast side of Grand Rapids, in Kent County. It operates as its own single-school charter district rather than sitting inside Grand Rapids Public Schools. The enrollment is moderate for a K-8 building, with fairly even distribution across grade levels. The student body is predominantly Black, with a sizable Hispanic share and smaller white, multiracial, Asian, and American Indian populations. A very large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school firmly in the category of serving a high-poverty community. Data on English learners and special-education enrollment was not reported, so those shares cannot be characterized here.

Grand Rapids is Michigan's second-largest city and the economic anchor of West Michigan, with a heritage in furniture manufacturing that has evolved into a diversified economy built around healthcare, retail, and education. The school sits in a zip code where home values run well above both the state and national benchmarks, and rents are similarly elevated. This means the surrounding neighborhood is relatively affluent, while the school itself serves a predominantly low-income population that draws from across the city through charter enrollment rather than from the immediate residential blocks. Parents considering this school should understand that the peer environment inside the building may look quite different from the demographics of the streets around it.

On Michigan's M-STEP assessments, Ridge Park shows a mixed but generally middling profile. English language arts is the stronger subject. The standout is eighth-grade ELA on the PSAT, where proficiency is strikingly high, and fifth-grade ELA also performs well above typical state levels. Middle-grade ELA results in sixth and seventh are more modest but still respectable. Math results are more uneven. Fourth-grade math is the clearest weak spot, with only a small fraction of students reaching proficiency. Third, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade math results hover in a moderate range, with seventh grade the strongest. Science proficiency is moderate at both tested grades, and social studies follows a similar pattern, with eighth-grade social studies the brighter result. The overall proficiency index, which averages results across tested subjects and grades, sits just above the median for districts in Kent County. That places Ridge Park above the midpoint among its county peers, though well short of the top-performing districts in the set.

Because this school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism data was not available, and no participation rates were reported for any tested grade. Discipline data, course access, staffing levels, and attendance figures were all absent from the available record. A parent may want to ask the school directly about chronic absenteeism, special-education services, and English-learner support, since none of that appears in the state-reported data provided here. Program offerings were not reported either, so whether the school offers art, music, physical education, foreign language, or extracurriculars cannot be confirmed from the available material. The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes such as curriculum overhauls, referendums, or leadership transitions.

What the data does show is a charter school serving a high-poverty, predominantly Black and Hispanic student population within a relatively expensive Grand Rapids zip code. Its academic results are strongest in English language arts, particularly in the upper grades, and more uneven in mathematics. It performs slightly above the middle of the pack among Kent County districts on overall proficiency. Families drawn to a smaller K-8 charter setting with a community of peers from across the city, and who prioritize ELA development, may find this worth a closer look. Families concerned about math outcomes, or who want clarity on special populations and program offerings, should bring those questions directly to the school.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 334%

School 34% · District 34%

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 417%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 37%

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 632%

School 32% · District 32%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 740%

School 40% · District 40%

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 33%

▲ 5 pts above state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 433%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 559%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 643%

School 43% · District 43%

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 736%

School 36% · District 36%

▲ 2 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 875%

School 75% · District 75%

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Science

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 47%

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 32%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

This schoolRidge Park Charter Academy, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.