Summary:
Gwinn Area Community Schools is served by a single high school, Gwinn MiddleHigh School, which enrolls students in grades 6 through 12 and has a total population of 477 students in a rural Michigan setting.
Gwinn MiddleHigh School shows a mixed but improving picture. The school outperforms the state on key graduation metrics, with an 86.4% graduation rate (2.4 points above the state average) and a 5.0% dropout rate (2.1 points below the state average). However, chronic absenteeism is a concern, affecting 32.8% of students compared to 27.9% statewide. Academically, the school generally trails state averages in most subjects, with the largest gaps appearing in math—7th grade math proficiency is just 11.4% versus 33.3% statewide, and PSAT math scores in grades 8-10 run 13 to 19 points behind. ELA performance improves with age, starting 14-19 points below state averages in 6th and 7th grade but narrowing to just 2.1 points below on the 11th grade SAT EBRW. Social studies shows the smallest gaps, ranging from 4.1 to 10 points below state averages.
The most striking anomaly is SAT Math performance: 11th graders scored 37% proficient versus 26.5% statewide—a 10.5-point advantage that contradicts the school's struggles in earlier math assessments. This may reflect a strong cohort or targeted interventions. Encouragingly, the school showed broad year-over-year improvements across nearly all subjects between 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, including a 20.1-point jump in 11th grade social studies and a 13.1-point gain in 8th grade PSAT math. With per-student spending of $16,467 and a favorable 14.9:1 student-teacher ratio, the school has solid resources. Nearly half of students (47.8%) qualify for free/reduced lunch, yet the school still maintains above-average graduation rates. State ranking has been volatile, swinging from the 21st percentile in 2024-2025 to the 45th percentile in 2025-2026, suggesting recent positive momentum worth watching.
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