Best Elementary Schools in Zip Code 48617

Zip code 48617 is home to just one elementary school, Clare Primary School, which serves grades PK-4 within the Clare Public Schools district, enrolling 557 students in a community where a majority of families (54.76%) qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Because this is the only elementary school in the area, all attention falls on Clare Primary School, which presents a mixed profile of notable strengths and clear challenges. The school’s most impressive asset is student attendance: its chronic absenteeism rate of just 9.8% is dramatically lower than the state average of 27.9%, indicating a strong culture of getting kids to school every day. Academically, the school showed a standout moment in the 2024-2025 school year when its 4th-grade English Language Arts proficiency hit 48.9%, a full 6.5 points above the state average. However, that success did not carry forward—the following year, 4th-grade ELA dropped to 36.4%, below the state norm, and the school’s overall state ranking slipped from the 50th percentile to the 42nd percentile. This volatility suggests that performance is heavily tied to specific cohorts of students rather than consistent school-wide instruction.

Another key takeaway is the significant gap between subjects. In the most recent testing year, 3rd-grade math proficiency (42.9%) matched the state average exactly, while 3rd-grade ELA proficiency lagged far behind at just 24.5%—an 18.4-point disparity that points to early literacy as a critical area needing intervention. Interestingly, the school spends a substantial $14,927 per student, yet this high investment has not translated into consistently above-average test scores, likely reflecting the challenges of serving a predominantly low-income population. With a student-teacher ratio of 16:1 and a solid attendance foundation, Clare Primary School has the building blocks to improve, but parents should expect uneven academic results from year to year and should pay close attention to literacy support for younger grades.