Perry Public Schools

Perry Public Schools is a mid-sized rural district in Shiawassee County, Michigan, serving approximately 976 students across three campuses: an Early Learning Center (PK-2), an Upper Elementary (grades 3-6), and a combined Secondary Campus (grades 7-12). The district holds a 3-star rating, ranking 282nd out of 625 Michigan districts.

The Perry Secondary Campus is the district's largest school with 476 students and shows strong overall outcomes despite ranking volatility—it swung from the 72nd percentile (4 stars) in 2023-24 to the 43rd percentile (2 stars) in 2024-25, before recovering to the 61st percentile (3 stars) in 2025-26. This campus excels in ELA (9th grade proficiency at 70.1%, nearly 10 points above the state) and science (11th grade at 43.8%, 8.6 points above state), but struggles significantly in math, with only 18.8% of 11th graders proficient on the SAT math section. Its graduation rate of 86.4% exceeds the state average, and chronic absenteeism is just 17.2%—far better than the state's 27.9%. In contrast, the Perry Upper Elementary (307 students) shows a dramatic "5th grade cliff": while 6th graders outperform state averages by 13-17 points in ELA and math, 5th graders collapse to just 20.3% ELA and 10.1% math proficiency—22-23 points below state averages. This is especially puzzling because the previous year's 5th graders scored above state averages, suggesting either a weak cohort or a specific instructional issue. The Perry Elementary Early Learning Center (193 students) serves the youngest students with no test data but has shown steady ranking improvement and maintains the district's lowest student-teacher ratio at 12.8:1.

District-wide, attendance is a clear strength—all three schools keep chronic absenteeism between 14-17%, dramatically below the state's 27.9%. However, math proficiency lags across virtually every grade level, creating a consistent ELA-strength/math-weakness pattern. The district also shows significant year-over-year volatility, likely amplified by small cohort sizes. While the Early Learning Center spends $18,836 per student (37% more than the Secondary Campus's $13,748), the lower ratio partially explains this. For parents, the key takeaway is that Perry offers strong attendance, solid graduation rates, and excellent ELA instruction, but families should be aware of the math challenges and the concerning 5th-grade performance dip that warrants attention.