Summary:
The two elementary schools serving grades K-5 in Shepherd Public Schools—Shepherd Elementary School (544 students) and Winn Elementary School (224 students)—offer distinctly different academic profiles despite similar per-student spending and class sizes, making school choice within this central Michigan district a meaningful consideration for parents.
Winn Elementary School is the smaller, higher-performing school, with a state ranking in the 75th percentile (4 stars) in 2024-2025. Its advantages are clear: a lower poverty rate (38.8% free/reduced lunch vs. 57.4% at Shepherd) and a chronic absenteeism rate of just 9.0%—less than half the district average of 22.9%. Winn posted standout results in 5th grade math (75% proficiency vs. 32.9% statewide) and 4th grade ELA (65.8% vs. 41.3% statewide) in recent years. However, Winn's 5th grade scores dropped sharply in 2025-2026, particularly in social studies (57.1% to 10.6%), suggesting a possible cohort effect or curriculum shift. In contrast, Shepherd Elementary School serves a larger, more economically diverse population and has shown steady improvement, rising from the 48th to 55th percentile. Its 3rd graders made remarkable year-over-year gains in ELA (31.2% to 49.5%) and math (33.8% to 44.4%), outpacing district and state trends.
The most striking gap between the two schools appears in 4th grade, where Winn outperformed Shepherd by roughly 30 percentage points in both ELA (65.8% vs. 35.1%) and math (60.5% vs. 33.8%) in 2025-2026—a reversal from the prior year when Shepherd actually led in 4th grade math. Both schools struggle with 5th grade social studies, falling below the state average of 27.5%. Chronic absenteeism appears to be a key differentiator: Shepherd's rate (19.2%) is more than double Winn's, correlating with its more variable performance. For parents, Winn offers a smaller, higher-achieving environment with fewer attendance barriers, while Shepherd provides a larger school with improving early-grade outcomes and more resources per student ($16,533 vs. $15,209).
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