St. Joe-Benton Harbor News

There was a decrease in the number of Buchanan Community 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, 20.2% of the students were set for college during the school year.

In contrast, college-level math readiness in Buchanan Community Schools the year before was 26.4%.

Buchanan Community Schools ranked fifth in college readiness for math this year, compared to other districts in Berrien 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	Bridgman Public Schools	548.7
2	St. Joseph Public Schools	534.3
3	New Buffalo Area Schools	527
4	Lakeshore School District (Berrien)	514.8
5	Buchanan Community Schools	460.8
6	Watervliet School District	452.7
7	Niles Community Schools	448.9
8	Brandywine Community Schools	448.3
9	Coloma Community Schools	439.4
10	Berrien Springs Public Schools	394.3