Gerald R Ford Academic Center

Federal records list Gerald R Ford Academic Center as an elementary school in GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan. It educates 213 students in pre-K through 8. The school's enrollment is 42% smaller than the 369 average for elementary schools in Michigan.

District-wide, Grand Rapids Public Schools has 50 schools and 13,903 students.

Black students are the majority at Gerald R Ford Academic Center, with 51% of enrollment. Other groups make up 45% Hispanic and 3% multiracial. Kent County as a whole is about 10% Black, so the school's share is higher. Pick two students at random and there is a 54% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.

The ratio of students to teachers is 16.1:1, with 13.2 full-time-equivalent teachers on staff. That is close to the 15.8:1 average for elementary schools in Michigan. Lunch subsidy eligibility at Gerald R Ford Academic Center is 85%. By comparison, the figure for public schools in Kent County is 47%.

Recent Census Bureau figures for Kent County show that the median household income is $82,631, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 41%, and roughly 6% of residents are in poverty. Besides Gerald R Ford Academic Center, Kent County has 238 other public schools.

Covenant High School Grand Rapids is the public school closest to Gerald R Ford Academic Center, about 0.5 miles away. There are at least 8 other public schools within five miles.

NCES assigns Gerald R Ford Academic Center the locale City: Mid-size, meaning inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.

Federal data show a 26% enrollment decrease, from 287 in 2020-21 to 213 in 2024-25.

To ask about science fairs, picture day, and bus routes, start a discussion on this page. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.