Summary:
Hemlock Public School District is home to just one middle school, Hemlock Middle School, which serves grades 5 through 8 and enrolls 350 students in the Hemlock, Michigan area. This single-school district offers a clear, focused picture of middle-level education in this community, and the school has established itself as a consistently strong performer.
Hemlock Middle School has earned a 4-star rating for three straight years and currently ranks 153rd out of roughly 890 Michigan middle schools, placing it in the top 17% statewide. The school’s greatest academic strengths are clearly in the upper grades. In 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, students outperform state averages in every subject, often by double digits. For example, 6th grade math proficiency sits at 50.7% versus the state’s 31.9%, and 8th grade PSAT English Language Arts proficiency is 71.6% compared to 64.8% statewide. The 8th grade also shines in social studies (62.7% vs. 50.3%) and science (51% vs. 39.2%). This consistent upper-grade success suggests a strong, vertically aligned curriculum, particularly in math.
The most pressing concern is a dramatic drop in 5th grade scores between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years. Proficiency fell by roughly 22 to 32 percentage points across all subjects—for instance, math plunged from 57.9% to 26.3%, and social studies from 51.3% to 19.3%. This likely reflects a cohort effect, as the previous year’s strong 5th graders moved to 6th grade, where scores remained stable. Still, current 5th graders now trail state averages in every subject, a stark contrast to their older peers. Additionally, chronic absenteeism (18.4%) runs higher than the district average (14.9%), though well below the state’s 27.9%. With relatively low poverty (24.86% free/reduced lunch) and efficient spending ($11,989 per student), the school delivers strong results, but the 5th grade decline warrants close monitoring to determine if it’s a one-year anomaly or a developing issue.
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