St. Joe-Benton Harbor News

There was a decrease in the number of Paw Paw Public School District 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, 22.6% of the students were set for college during the school year.

Similarly, college-level math readiness in Paw Paw Public School District the year before was 25.5%.

Paw Paw Public School District ranked second in college readiness for math this year, compared to other districts in Van Buren County. In the previous year, it was ranked third.

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	Mattawan Consolidated School	520.6
2	Paw Paw Public School District	460.1
3	Gobles Public School District	443
4	Lawton Community School District	442.9
5	Hartford Public Schools	429.1
6	South Haven Public Schools	414.7
7	Bloomingdale Public School District	407.7