The top reported proficiency rate is 13% in Math. The lowest is 9% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Buchanan Elementary
Buchanan Elementary is a regular public school in the Grand Rapids Public Schools district, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade on the city's southwest side. The school sits in the 49507 zip code, a residential part of Grand Rapids where home values and rents run below both state and national benchmarks, making it one of the more affordable corners of the metro area. The broader city is Michigan's second-largest, a mid-sized urban center whose economy leans on healthcare, manufacturing, and education, with a walkable downtown core that gives way to car-dependent outer neighborhoods. Buchanan itself is a neighborhood school embedded in one of those residential stretches, not a downtown-embedded institution.
The student body is small for its grade band, with nearly all students coming from economically disadvantaged households. The enrollment is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with a small Black population and a very small white enrollment. English-learner and special-education counts were not reported in the data we received, so we cannot characterize those populations here. A parent considering Buchanan should know that this is a community where economic need is pervasive and where the school likely functions as a front-line support institution as much as an academic one.
On state testing, the most recent results place Buchanan in the bottom quartile of Kent County districts for overall proficiency. The numbers are consistently low across every grade and subject we have. In math, third grade posted the strongest result with roughly a quarter of tested students reaching proficiency, but fourth and fifth grade math proficiency dropped to single digits. English language arts showed a different pattern, with proficiency rising from single digits in third grade to a somewhat higher but still low rate in fifth grade. Science and social studies, both tested only in fifth grade, landed near the bottom as well. These are reported results from the most recent M-STEP administration, and the school does not show a single tested grade where most students reach proficiency. A parent may want to look into how the school supports students reading below grade level and what intervention or tutoring structures are in place, because the data we have does not describe those programs.
We looked for chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing, and course-access data and found none reported for this school. The same is true for any program offerings. Grand Rapids Public Schools does have a publicly reported 2022-2027 Strategic Plan built from community input, with goals around graduation rates, attendance, and test scores, so a parent could ask school leadership how that plan is being implemented at Buchanan specifically.
Because Buchanan is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report. Pre-kindergarten enrollment shows as zero in the data despite the school listing PK in its served grades, which may reflect a reporting detail or a program that is not currently operating. The school has no magnet or charter designation.
The housing context matters here. The immediate zip code is one of the more affordable areas in Kent County, with typical home values well below the state midpoint and rents that are modest for the metro. Kent County as a whole has a moderately active housing market with steady listing volume and homes moving at a reasonable pace. For a family already in or drawn to this part of Grand Rapids, affordability is a real factor, and the school is part of that equation rather than something to evaluate in isolation.
What Buchanan appears to be is a small, high-poverty neighborhood elementary school serving a predominantly Hispanic community, with state test results that indicate serious academic challenges across all tested grades. The district has a strategic plan aimed at improvement, but the school-level data shows a long road ahead. For families whose priority is a close-to-home school with cultural and linguistic familiarity, this may be a reasonable fit if paired with strong engagement. For families whose primary lens is academic proficiency as measured by state tests, the current results are a clear signal to ask hard questions before enrolling.
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