Hillside Middle School

1941 Alamo Avenue

School District

Kalamazoo Public Schools
Grade

6-8
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:20
Type

public

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by other on February 26, 2025

I went here from 2020-2023, I’m now a highschool student at Kalamazoo central. From my experience this school was the worst school I have ever attended. Seems like they would pick up the first teachers they could find and did the bare minimum. I remember being told by the principal to stop telling our parents there wasn’t enough food for all of us when there wasn’t. This school was more like juvenile detention than a school. I dreaded going every single day and the students did not help, fights in the halls, teachers cussing at students, and racism and sexism. I cannot blame it all on the students or staff because this school was set up for failure. Now that my younger siblings go there I know that nothing has changed. They are still told to stop telling their parents what’s going on at their school, being treated unfairly and scream at by their teachers AND having students parents threaten to shoot up the school!! I believe that this school is not safe at all and I would highly suggest choosing another better and safer option.
Submitted by student on December 19, 2023

Most of the teachers are great but a few like the choir teacher make students' days harder.I learn a lot but there are a lot of fights.
Submitted by student on October 27, 2023

teachers send students out and don't send the other ones out that is really talking and their parents get mad at them when it is the teacher i see how they be doing caribrya and it is not cool not cool Hillside
Submitted by other on October 10, 2022

This school was alright. A very below average middle school, but it's not a surprise for the area. I'm an alum of this school, I graduated in the height of the pandemic: 2020. Reflecting back on my experience, I've found that a lot of the teachers there are way better off working at another school, they don't deserve to work at the school they're currently working at. The material they're given is low quality, and it seems like they have a hard time coming up with engaging ways to get their students to learn. With all of the teachers I've talked to, they seem to really care about their job and their students. It just seems like the cards they've been dealt is unfair.The school, while not on purpose, is very segregated. Advanced classes are usually filled with white kids, while most minorities are stuck behind in the struggling/normal classes. They're painted as unwilling to learn and aren't given the hope that they /are/ smart and /can/ do so many incredible things. Opportunities are taken away from them because of this, and its seems like they aren't given the chance to really see what they're capable of. On the other hand, in advanced classes, all the hope of the school is pinned on them. They're pressured into getting all A's, pushing themselves to their limit, and giving their all because they have "so much potential." As an ex-gifted kid in this system, I've seen just how many of these gifted students hate themselves and constantly tell themselves that each achievement isn't good enough, and they need to push themselves even further despite already having that 4.0. This entire system seems broken.All in all, its not the best school. It gets violent in the halls sometimes, its not the best environment, and theres a lot of pressure to do better. Keep this in mind.
Submitted by student on March 08, 2022

This school is not good there is no food for the kids.
Submitted by parent on January 31, 2022

YUH YUH people say its bad. They are cappin its not bad at all, yes theirs fights here and there. But lets be real its a school with kids its fun and teacher are amazing.
Submitted by student on January 04, 2022

When I got to this school, I thought it would be great. That was a very dumb thought for a 6th grader t have. A lot of people think they are better because of their skin color. The teachers say they are not allowed to intervene in fights. Kids get suspended all the time for no reason. Some kids are nice, but most are not. We get NO homework (not that I don't like that), but the school is responsible for that. Please don't send your kids to this school, for their sake.
Submitted by student on October 26, 2021

I go to this school and I hate it a lot of people are racist and or sexist, teachers and security don’t care about anything, and the gym teacher is sexist to!
Submitted by parent on September 09, 2019

There seems to be outsized emphasis on rule enforcement and expectations. After the first week, my daughter has yet to receive any actual instruction or homework beyond that. We are new to the area, yet there was absolutely NO effort made by staff to help her integrate into her new school. None of her teachers seem to have even been made aware she had transferred into the system. A few kind students noticed and helped her, but aside from that, no help at all.According to my child, student cell-phones go off in class all the time. There seems to be no enforcement of the no-phones rules at Hillside. There is a lot of fooling around and there are multiple disruptions to the classroom. This is no way to learn.
Submitted by parent on January 18, 2017

When my step daughter started at this school she had very low test scores, no desire to do well educationally and had many behaviour problems. After my husband and I gained custody and worked with the teachers and principal she, now an 8th grader, is maintaining A's and B's. The staff has worked very hard to help her reach her potential. We had considered pulling her from the school but are now very thankful we persisted, and very thankful to the staff. It did take work on our part as well, but to hear her talk about college and to see her smile as she heads off to school in the morning makes it worth it.
Submitted by other on December 18, 2014

Teachers/staff have been consistently harassing my nephew and pulling him out of classes so he can't get the education my family is sending him there for. We're done. Administration is, outside of his counselor whose hands are horrifically tied, absolutely incompetent and we're looking into switching his schools to... basically anywhere other than this.