Summary:
Zip code 48453 is home to just one high school, Marlette JrSr High School, which serves grades 6 through 12 within the Marlette Community Schools district, enrolling 371 students in a rural Michigan area.
For parents, the most encouraging news is that Marlette JrSr High School does a solid job keeping students on track to graduate. The graduation rate stands at 88.6%, well above the state average of 84.0%, and the dropout rate of 4.5% is significantly lower than Michigan’s 7.1%. Chronic absenteeism, while still affecting nearly a quarter of students (24.0%), is also better than the statewide figure of 27.9%. However, the school’s overall state ranking has slipped in recent years, moving from the 50th percentile (3 stars) in 2023-2024 down to the 35th percentile (2 stars) in 2024-2025, before recovering slightly to the 41st percentile (2 stars) in 2025-2026. This suggests a school that is supportive and retains its students, but one that faces real academic hurdles.
The biggest concern is mathematics. Proficiency on the 11th-grade SAT Math exam is just 11.1%, less than half the state average of 26.5%, and PSAT Math scores for 9th and 10th graders are also well below state norms. Science and social studies proficiency for 11th graders are similarly weak, with gaps of 15.2 and 18.8 percentage points respectively compared to the state. Interestingly, younger students perform much closer to state averages in ELA and math, but scores decline sharply as students move through the grades. With 56.6% of students eligible for free/reduced lunch, the school serves a high-needs population, and while per-student spending is a robust $13,692, the student-to-teacher ratio of 18.6 is on the higher side, which may limit the individualized attention needed to reverse these academic trends.
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