Summary:
Tuscola CUSD 301 has three schools serving preschool through grade 12, with 904 students: 334 at North Ward Elementary School (PK–4), 271 at East Prairie Middle School (5–8), and 299 at Tuscola High School (9–12). The clearest difference is in elementary and middle school English: East Prairie’s 2025–2026 all-grades IAR proficiency was 70%, compared with 46% at North Ward, a 24-point gap.
East Prairie Middle School stands out in ELA, scoring 14 points above the state, while North Ward Elementary School was 10 points below. In math, North Ward led East Prairie, 42% to 36%; North Ward was 3 points above the state, while East Prairie was 4 points below. Tuscola High School had stronger ELA results than the state in all three tested grades—by 16 points in grade 11, 3 in grade 10, and 13 in grade 9. Its math results were weaker in grades 11 and 10, trailing the state by 12 and 22 points, respectively; grade 9 math was a bright spot, 7 points above the state.
Recent changes show different patterns by school: North Ward math rose 13 points, from 29% to 42%, while East Prairie math slipped 2 points, from 37% to 36%; East Prairie ELA remained about 70%, and North Ward stayed at 46%. SchoolDigger rank percentiles from 2023–2024 to 2025–2026 fell from 57 to 35 at North Ward and 72 to 62 at East Prairie, while Tuscola High rose from 60 to 63. All three schools were below the 24% state chronic absenteeism rate in 2025–2026, and Tuscola High’s graduation rate was 99%, versus 90% statewide. Each school reported free/reduced lunch eligible in 2024–2025: 44% at North Ward, 43% at East Prairie, and 38% at Tuscola High. Because the elementary and middle schools serve different grade spans, their all-grades IAR results are broad school snapshots rather than same-grade comparisons.
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