Best Public Schools in Mount Morris, MI

The nine schools in Mount Morris, Michigan, serve roughly 1,950 students across the Mt. Morris Consolidated Schools and Beecher Community School District, and they face significant socioeconomic challenges, with free and reduced lunch rates between 70% and 98%.

For parents, the most important takeaway is that no school in this area performs at the state average academically, but there are notable differences between them. Mt Morris Education and Community Center is the highest-ranked school in the area (28th percentile) and shows strong year-over-year improvement, even outperforming the traditional EA Johnson Memorial High School in 11th-grade science. However, EA Johnson Memorial High School has the best graduation rate at 85.1%, nearly matching the state average, and is the strongest traditional high school. Among elementary schools, Moore Elementary School posts the best 3rd-grade ELA scores (17.2%), while Montague Elementary School has the lowest chronic absenteeism rate (37.8%) in the area. The most dramatic concern is the math achievement cliff: Moore Elementary School third graders hit 18.2% math proficiency, but by 6th grade at Mt Morris Middle School, that number plummets to just 3.9%.

Spending does not predict success here. Beecher High School spends a staggering $35,510 per student—more than double Moore Elementary School’s $12,929—yet ranks in only the 14th percentile, likely because 96% of its students live in poverty and 60% are chronically absent. Chronic absenteeism is a systemic crisis, with every school exceeding the state rate of 27.9%; Beecher Alternative Education reports a shocking 77.7% rate. Interestingly, alternative schools show promise: Beecher Alternative Education achieves an 84.2% graduation rate, beating its district’s traditional high school, and Mt Morris Education and Community Center outperforms EA Johnson Memorial High School in several subjects. Across all schools, students consistently score far better in reading and writing than in math, suggesting a district-wide need for targeted math intervention.