Ridge Park Charter Academy

Set in GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan, Ridge Park Charter Academy is a moderately sized elementary school, operated by Ridge Park Charter Academy. It works with 507 students across grades K through 8. Enrollment runs roughly 37% larger than the state mean of about 369.

Ridge Park Charter Academy is a school of Ridge Park Charter Academy, the district that handles curriculum, staffing, and budget for the campus.

In terms of who attends, Ridge Park Charter Academy logs that 66% of the student body identifies as Black. Beyond that, the school reports 15% Hispanic, 9% White, 8% multiracial. That is meaningfully more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 10%.

Looking at school resources, The school employs 32 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 15.8:1. That tracks the state average closely. About 91% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Kent County runs at roughly 47%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, Ridge Park Charter Academy sits in the top 10% of Michigan schools after the BeatsExpectations adjustment. Predicted proficiency for the school's FRL share is roughly 25.8%; actual is 41.2%, +15.4 points clear of the demographic baseline.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for Kent County indicate median household earnings sit near $82,631, 41% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. Across Kent County's 239 public schools (combined enrollment of about 97,253 students), Ridge Park Charter Academy is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Meadow Brook Elementary School, around 1.3 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Ridge Park Charter Academy comes 5th of 5 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 72.7%.

Ridge Park Charter Academy operates from an urban location. As a public charter, Ridge Park Charter Academy runs on public funding but with greater curricular and operational autonomy than a typical district school.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Ridge Park Charter Academy has ticked down 14%, going from 587 students in 2018 to 507 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 15% to 9% across the same window.

On the community side, members of the Ridge Park Charter Academy community share and discuss sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.