Best Public Schools in Onaway, MI

The city of Onaway, Michigan, is served by four schools—Onaway Elementary School, Onaway Middle School, Onaway Senior High School, and Presque Isle Academy—serving roughly 528 students from elementary through high school in a community where economic challenges are significant, with free/reduced lunch rates ranging from 48% to 82%.

Within the Onaway Area Community School District, the high school is the clear standout. It ranks in the 46th percentile statewide, graduates 85% of its students (slightly above the state average), and posts strong results in English: 63.2% of 10th graders are proficient in PSAT ELA, beating the state average of 58%, and 9th graders nearly match the state. The elementary and middle schools, however, are struggling. The elementary school has fallen from the 48th to the 25th percentile in two years, with only 10.8% of 4th graders proficient in ELA—a staggering 30 points below the state average. The middle school has suffered an even sharper collapse, dropping from the 49th to the 18th percentile in the same period; 6th grade ELA proficiency fell from 24.2% to 9.5% in just one year. Presque Isle Academy, a separate alternative high school with only 17 students, is in crisis: it has a 0% graduation rate, a 50% dropout rate, and chronic absenteeism at 61.5%—more than double the state average—despite spending the most per student at $18,400.

For parents, the key takeaway is that Onaway’s schools are highly uneven. The high school offers genuine hope, especially in reading and writing, and its low chronic absenteeism (24.7% vs. the 27.9% state average) suggests students are showing up. But the elementary and middle schools reveal a troubling pattern: 4th grade appears to be a cliff where students fall far behind, and the middle school’s recent, across-the-board test score declines point to a systemic problem that emerged suddenly. Notably, attendance is not the main issue—all three traditional schools have absenteeism rates below the state average. The district spends between $14,800 and $16,400 per student, in line with state norms, yet results are in the bottom quartile, indicating that instructional quality, not funding or attendance, is the primary lever for improvement.