Summary:
Houghton Lake Community Schools is served by a single elementary school, Collins Elementary School, which enrolls 489 students across grades Pre-K through 6 in this rural Michigan community.
For parents considering Collins Elementary School, the most important takeaway is that this is a high-need school (84% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch) with a strong per-student investment of $16,492 and a favorable 15.2:1 student-teacher ratio. Academically, the school shows a striking split: 6th graders actually beat the state average in both English Language Arts (49.4% vs. 37.5%) and math (33.8% vs. 31.9%), suggesting that students who stay through the upper grades may benefit from effective instruction. However, earlier grades struggle significantly. The most urgent concern is 5th grade math, where only 7.5% of students are proficient versus the 32.2% state average—a nearly 25-point gap that demands immediate intervention. Science proficiency in 5th grade (17.9%) also trails the state by more than 20 points.
On a positive note, 5th grade ELA proficiency jumped an impressive 13.6 percentage points in one year (from 22.2% to 35.8%), indicating that literacy interventions may be gaining traction. Chronic absenteeism affects 34.7% of students—better than the district's 46.7% but still above the state's 27.9%, likely tied to the area's high poverty levels. The school's overall state ranking improved from 1,035th to 937th out of 1,492 Michigan elementary schools, though it retains a 2-star rating. Since this is the district's only elementary school, all resources and challenges are concentrated here, with no other school to share strategies or spread risk. Parents should view the strong 6th grade results as proof of potential, while pushing for targeted support in 5th grade math and continued focus on attendance.
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