Summary:
Norway JRSR High School is the sole high school serving grades 7-12 within the Norway-Vulcan Area Schools district in rural Michigan, enrolling 183 students and earning a 3-star rating with a district ranking in the top 12% statewide.
This small school shows a striking split in performance by grade level. In grades 7-9, students consistently beat state averages, often by wide margins—7th grade math proficiency hits 64.6% versus the state’s 33.3%, and 9th grade ELA reaches 83.7% compared to 60.2% statewide. However, by 11th grade, that advantage disappears: science proficiency falls to 26.8% (state: 35.2%), social studies drops to 28.6% (state: 43.2%), and SAT math sits at 23.2% (state: 26.5%). The school’s state ranking has been volatile, swinging from 230th in 2023-2024 to 514th in 2024-2025, then rebounding to 245th in 2025-2026—likely reflecting small cohort sizes where a few students shift percentages dramatically. The 11th grade science score of 8.89% in 2024-2025 is a particular outlier, though it improved to 26.8% the following year.
For parents, the key takeaways are mixed. The middle school years are a clear strength, especially math, and chronic absenteeism is excellent at 16.4% versus the state’s 27.9%, meaning students who attend do so regularly. However, the dropout rate is higher than average (10.0% vs. 7.1%), and graduation lags slightly at 82.5% versus 84.0%. Per-student spending is $15,430, with a student-to-teacher ratio of 20.7:1—high for a school this size. SAT reading/writing proficiency is above average (57.1% vs. 52.1%), but math lags, suggesting targeted intervention in upper-level math and science, plus dropout prevention, would help maintain the strong early gains through graduation.
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