Summary:
Merrill, Michigan is served by a single high school, Merrill High School, part of the Merrill Community Schools district, which enrolls 165 students in grades 9 through 12 in this small, rural community.
For parents, the most striking story here is momentum. Merrill High School has climbed from a 1-star rating (bottom 16% of Michigan schools) in 2023–2024 to a 3-star rating (57th percentile) in 2025–2026—a jump of 280 positions in just two years. The most recent test scores show genuine strengths: 11th-grade science proficiency (39.5%) now beats the state average (35.2%), and 10th-grade students outperform the state in both ELA (61% vs. 58%) and math (34.1% vs. 31.5%). The school also keeps students engaged, with a dropout rate of just 4.6% compared to the state’s 7.1%, and chronic absenteeism (25.3%) slightly below the state norm (27.9%). Graduation rates are essentially on par with Michigan’s average (83.7% vs. 84.0%).
However, there are clear areas of concern. The most glaring is 9th-grade math, where only 17.9% of students are proficient—a staggering 15.6 points below the state average (33.5%). This foundational weakness could undermine future gains. SAT reading/writing scores for 11th graders (44.7%) also trail the state (52.1%), and social studies proficiency (39.5%) lags behind the state’s 43.2%. With a student-teacher ratio of 17.3:1 and over half the students qualifying for free/reduced lunch, the school may struggle to provide the individualized attention needed to close these gaps. The dramatic year-over-year improvements (e.g., social studies jumped 19.5 points) are encouraging, but parents should watch whether the school can sustain this trajectory and specifically address its 9th-grade math deficiency in the coming years.
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