Summary:
Zip code 48419 in Carsonville, Michigan, is served by three schools within the Carsonville-Port Sanilac School District, which together educate roughly 405 students across grades PK-12 in a small, rural community with high poverty rates.
The clear standout is Carsonville-Port Sanilac High School, which earns a 4-star rating and ranks in the top quartile of Michigan high schools. It boasts a perfect 100% graduation rate, zero dropouts, and strong proficiency in science and social studies—outperforming state averages by 15-22 points in several grades. In contrast, Carsonville-Port Sanilac Elementary School struggles significantly, with proficiency rates running 10-19 points below state averages in core subjects like 3rd and 5th grade math and ELA. The Carsonville-Port Sanilac Learning Center, an alternative school, shows crisis-level metrics: a 50% graduation rate, 20% dropout rate, and 81.9% chronic absenteeism, with a student-teacher ratio of 112.7:1 that suggests a mostly online model.
Parents should note the district's dramatic internal disparities. The high school outperforms despite 58.8% free/reduced lunch eligibility, while the elementary school spends the most per student ($17,942) yet performs worst. A notable "middle school cliff" appears between 6th and 7th grade, with ELA proficiency dropping from 60% to 21.2%—though small cohorts of roughly 27 students per grade make year-to-year scores highly volatile. Chronic absenteeism is a district-wide concern at 37.2%, driven largely by the high school (32.8%) and Learning Center. The district's overall 3-star rating masks these extremes, so school-level analysis is essential for families choosing between the high-performing traditional path and the struggling alternative options.
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