Summary
Forest Park School in Crystal Falls, MI, is a small, rural public school within the Forest Park School District, serving 481 students in grades PK through 12. Nearly 59% of its students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, making its strong student outcomes particularly noteworthy.
The most striking strength of Forest Park is its ability to keep students engaged through graduation. The school boasts a 96.8% graduation rate—far exceeding the state average of 84.0%—and has maintained a 0.0% dropout rate for two consecutive years. Chronic absenteeism is also impressively low at 14.3%, roughly half the state's rate of 27.9%. Academically, the school shines in English Language Arts and Science, with 5th-grade ELA proficiency at 69% and 11th-grade SAT Reading scores at 69%, both well above state averages. However, math proficiency is a persistent challenge, with some grade levels, such as 6th grade, showing proficiency rates as low as 10.5%—significantly below the state's 31.9%. Performance also varies widely by grade level, which may reflect the impact of small class sizes where a handful of students can dramatically shift percentages.
Compared to nearby North Dickinson School, Forest Park serves a much higher proportion of economically disadvantaged students (58.84% vs. 26%) and has a larger student-teacher ratio (19.7 vs. 15.6). Despite these differences, Forest Park's graduation rate is nearly on par with North Dickinson's 100%, and it outperforms its neighbor in several ELA and Science benchmarks, such as 5th-grade Science (58.6% vs. 52.2%). The school's graduation rate has also climbed steadily over five years, from 86.9% to 96.8%, suggesting recent efforts are successfully fostering student persistence. With per-student spending at $14,545, the district appears to be investing in resources and support programs rather than reducing class sizes—a strategy that seems to be paying off in student retention and success.
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