Gwinn Area Community Schools

Gwinn Area Community Schools is a small, three-school district in Michigan's Upper Peninsula serving roughly 892 students in grades PK-12, and it currently holds a 2-star rating, ranking in the bottom third of Michigan districts despite spending well above the state average per pupil.

For parents, the standout school is KI Sawyer Elementary School, which serves grades PK-5 and is the district's hidden gem. It has the lowest student-teacher ratio (11.8:1), the highest per-student spending ($20,332), and the best chronic absenteeism rate (28.1%) in the district—even though it serves the highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students (72% free/reduced lunch). Its state ranking has also improved steadily over the past few years. In contrast, George D Gilbert Elementary School (grades 3-5) is a declining performer, having dropped from the 55th to the 32nd percentile in state rankings over two years, while posting the district's worst chronic absenteeism rate at 36.1%. Gwinn MiddleHigh School (grades 6-12) is the academic anchor, improving its ranking to the 45th percentile, with a graduation rate (86.4%) above the state average and a dropout rate (5.0%) better than the state's 7.1%.

Academically, the district struggles in ELA and math compared to state averages, but there are notable bright spots. Gwinn MiddleHigh outperforms the state in SAT Mathematics by 10.5 percentage points (37% vs. 26.5%), though it underperforms in PSAT math at lower grade levels—suggesting a possible test-prep effect or a strong 11th-grade cohort. The school also shows relative strength in social studies, coming within 4-10 points of state averages. However, year-over-year test scores swing dramatically (e.g., 11th-grade SAT math jumped 25.4 points in one year), reflecting small class sizes where individual students heavily influence results. A district-wide challenge is chronic absenteeism, with all three schools exceeding the state rate of 27.9%. Interestingly, KI Sawyer has the highest poverty but the lowest absenteeism, indicating economic disadvantage alone doesn't drive attendance. Finally, despite spending $16,467-$20,332 per student—well above Michigan's average—the district ranks in the bottom third, raising questions about resource allocation and the lack of test data from KI Sawyer, which spends the most but has no measurable scores in this dataset.