WakefieldMarenisco School

Wakefield-Marenisco School is a small, combined PK-12 public school in Wakefield, MI, serving 236 students from the surrounding rural community as a single-school district within the Wakefield-Marenisco School District.

If you're looking at this school, the most encouraging news is that students here tend to stay in school and graduate. The graduation rate is consistently high—around 91% in the most recent year—and the dropout rate is low compared to the state average. The school also does a remarkable job getting kids to show up: only about 17% of students are chronically absent, which is far better than the state average of 28% and much better than the nearby Luther L. Wright K-12 School in Ironwood, where that rate is nearly 27%. This strong attendance culture likely plays a big role in helping students reach graduation.

Academically, the picture is more mixed. Test scores in many grades fall below state averages, but there are bright spots. For example, 6th graders recently posted a 54% proficiency rate in math—well above the state's 31.5% and more than double the rate at Luther L. Wright. High school 10th graders also scored above the state average in English language arts. Because the school is so small, scores can swing from year to year depending on the particular group of students in each grade. One thing to note: the school spends more per student ($16,639) than Luther L. Wright ($13,539), yet has a slightly higher student-teacher ratio (14.4 vs. 12.9), meaning the extra funding goes toward other resources or operational costs rather than smaller class sizes. Overall, Wakefield-Marenisco's greatest strength is its ability to keep students engaged and on track to graduate, even if standardized test scores don't always reflect that success.