Galesburgaugusta Middle School, Augusta MI

Original Research by School Decision on Galesburgaugusta Middle School

Galesburg-Augusta Middle School sits in the small village of Augusta, a compact community in Kalamazoo County where a city park, a library, and a well-preserved railroad depot form the civic core. The village is on Augusta Creek near where it meets the Kalamazoo River, and its downtown cluster of stores sits across from the park. Augusta has preserved a small-town, rural Michigan character rather than undergoing rapid growth, and publicly reported sources describe a gradually declining population with no major new housing or commercial development on the horizon. The Barn Theatre, Michigan's oldest professional equity summer stock theatre, is a cultural anchor near downtown. Fort Custer Recreation Area lies just south of the village, and the W.K. Kellogg Bird Sanctuary and Gull Lake View Golf Club and Resort are among the nearby destinations that bring visitors through the area.

The school serves grades five through eight as a regular public school within the Galesburg-Augusta Community Schools district. The district was formed as a joint district with neighboring Galesburg, and today the primary school and high school are in Galesburg while the middle school is in Augusta, a short distance northeast along the M-96 corridor. The district benefited from a bond issue passed in 2021 that funded classroom additions at the Primary School and new athletic fields and a multipurpose room at the high school, a lasting facilities upgrade that also affects property taxes for district residents.

Enrollment at the middle school is modest for its grade band, with roughly equal distribution across the four grades. The student body is predominantly white, with a small Hispanic presence and a smaller share of students identifying as two or more races. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those population details are not included here.

State assessment results from the most recent year show a mixed academic picture. In English language arts, proficiency varies considerably by grade. The strongest result is in eighth grade, where the PSAT-based ELA proficiency rate stands well above the school's other grade-level results, suggesting a cohort that is performing comparatively well as it prepares to transition to high school. Fifth-grade ELA is also the stronger end among the M-STEP grades. Sixth and seventh grade ELA proficiency rates are lower, sitting closer to the school's math results.

Math proficiency is the school's softer area. Across all four grades, math proficiency rates are modest, with the sixth grade posting the lowest result and fifth grade the highest. Seventh grade falls in between, and eighth grade math, measured through the PSAT, is also on the lower side. Science results show a similar pattern, with fifth grade outperforming eighth grade. In social studies, eighth grade shows a stronger proficiency rate than fifth grade.

When measured against other districts in Kalamazoo County, the school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits below the midpoint. This positions it in the lower half of the county's districts on the proficiency index, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly in mathematics where results are most consistent in their modesty.

Because the school serves only middle school grades, it has no graduation rate, and that metric does not apply here. Chronic absenteeism data was not available. No information on course access, staffing ratios, discipline, or specialized programs was provided, so those aspects are left out rather than guessed. The school is not a charter or magnet school.

The housing market in the school's zip code shows typical home values above the state benchmark but somewhat below national levels, and recent appreciation has been steady. The price-to-income ratio sits at a moderate level relative to national norms, and estimated monthly ownership costs exceed typical rent costs in the area, though no local rent data was available for direct comparison. For families considering the area, the housing market is accessible by Michigan standards, and the village's small-scale, walkable core around the park and depot gives it a distinct sense of place.

This is a small, community-rooted middle school in a quiet village setting. Its academic results are uneven, with a standout eighth-grade ELA performance but broader challenges in math. Families looking for a close-knit environment in a rural Michigan community with reasonable housing costs and outdoor recreation nearby will find that here, and those concerned about math outcomes would do well to ask the school directly about its approach to instruction and support in that subject.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 531%

School 31% · District 31%

even with state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 18%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 729%

School 29% · District 29%

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 42%

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

Grade 627%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 723%

School 23% · District 24% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 864%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Science

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 39%

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

Grade 827%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 25%

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

This schoolGalesburg-Augusta Community Schools, 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income26%Higher-income39%13 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income36%Higher-income46%10 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income16%Higher-income37%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income15%Higher-income28%13 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income56%Higher-income70%15 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income23%Higher-income52%29 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income19%Higher-income42%22 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income15%Higher-income38%23 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income11%Higher-income27%16 pp gap