Gerald Dawkins Academy

As a close-knit K-5 school in GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan, Gerald Dawkins Academy teaches 152 students from grades K through 5, one of the schools within Gerald Dawkins Academy. That puts it 59% smaller than the typical public school in Michigan, which averages around 369 students.

Gerald Dawkins Academy is the operating authority for Gerald Dawkins Academy, handling staffing, calendars, and reporting to the state department of education.

In terms of who attends, Gerald Dawkins Academy shows that 89% of students identify as Black, making the school strongly Black-majority. Other groups include 7% Hispanic, 4% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 10% Black, putting the school's mix meaningfully more Black than the area baseline.

On the resource side, Gerald Dawkins Academy lists 13 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 11.7:1. The state averages around 15.8:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 97% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Kent County (around 47%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for Kent County indicate the typical household earns roughly $82,631 per year, about 41% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. In all, Kent County runs 239 public schools (combined enrollment of about 97,253 students), of which Gerald Dawkins Academy is one.

River City Scholars Charter Academy is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.5 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Gerald Dawkins Academy.

The campus sits in an urban setting. Gerald Dawkins Academy operates as a public charter school, meaning it is publicly funded but governed independently of the surrounding district's traditional schools.

On this page, members of the Gerald Dawkins Academy community share and discuss pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.