Summary:
Vandercook Lake High School is the sole high school in the Vandercook Lake Public Schools district, serving grades 6 through 12 in Jackson, Michigan, with 258 students and a 73% free/reduced lunch rate.
This school presents a striking paradox: it reports a perfect 100% graduation rate and a 0% dropout rate for 2024-2025, far exceeding district averages (74.5% graduation, 19.6% dropout). However, 39.2% of students are chronically absent—well above state averages—and academic proficiency lags significantly behind Michigan across nearly every subject and grade. For example, 6th-grade ELA proficiency is just 8.7% versus the state’s 37.5%, and 7th-grade math sits at 10.7% versus 33.3%. The strongest relative performance is in 11th-grade science (29.3% vs. 35.2% statewide), while the widest gaps appear in early middle school ELA and math. The school’s state ranking has been stable in the bottom quartile (19th–26th percentile) over three years, though the most recent year shows improvement in 7 of 8 comparable metrics, including a 5-point gain in SAT reading/writing.
For parents, the key takeaway is that this school excels at keeping students on track to graduate, even with high economic disadvantage and a favorable 13.5:1 student-teacher ratio with $19,218 per-student spending. Yet, the high absenteeism and persistent proficiency gaps suggest that while students stay enrolled, many may not be mastering core skills, especially in early middle school. Year-to-year swings (e.g., 8th-grade science dropping from 28.2% to 14.3%) reflect small class sizes of roughly 37 students per grade, so single-year changes should be viewed cautiously. The recent upward trend in several subjects offers cautious optimism, but foundational ELA and math support remains the most critical need for this community’s students.
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