Morley Stanwood Community Schools

Morley Stanwood Community Schools is a small, rural Michigan district serving about 958 students across three schools: Morley Stanwood Elementary School (PK-5), Morley Stanwood Middle School (6-8), and Morley Stanwood High School (9-12). The district serves a predominantly low-income population, with free/reduced lunch rates between 53% and 66%.

The high school is the district’s clear standout. It jumped 115 spots in the state ranking to the 46th percentile, boasts a 93.2% graduation rate (well above the state’s 84%), and has a dropout rate of just 2.7%. Its 10th graders even matched or exceeded state averages in PSAT ELA and math. In contrast, the middle school is the weakest link, especially in math, where only 12.9–14.7% of students are proficient—less than half the state average. The elementary school shows mixed results, with 5th grade ELA (45.2%) being the only grade/subject in the district to beat the state average. Chronic absenteeism rises with grade level, from 27.4% at the elementary to 33.3% at the high school, which is nearly 20% above the state average.

There is a clear academic decline as students move from elementary to middle school, particularly in math, suggesting a critical intervention point. However, the high school’s strong graduation rate indicates that students who persist do finish. The elementary school spends about $1,562 more per student than the middle school, raising questions about resource allocation. Year-over-year scores are volatile, likely due to small class sizes, making it hard to separate true trends from cohort effects. For parents, the high school offers a supportive path to graduation, but the middle school years—especially in math—are where extra attention is most needed.