Summary:
Zip code 48740 in Harrisville, Michigan, is served by two schools within the Alcona Community Schools district, together educating roughly 687 students from kindergarten through 12th grade in a rural, high-poverty community.
For parents, the most important takeaway is that Alcona Community High School is the stronger of the two schools, showing genuine bright spots despite overall scores below state averages. The high school exceeds state proficiency in science (8th and 11th grades) and 11th-grade social studies, and it boasts an 87% graduation rate with a dropout rate of just 3.7%—half the state average. Its SAT reading and writing scores jumped 20 points in one year, and it has maintained a 3-star rating for three straight years. In contrast, Alcona Elementary School is struggling significantly, falling to a 0-star rating and the 10th percentile statewide. Elementary proficiency rates trail the state by 20-27 points in reading and math, with only about 1 in 10 fifth graders proficient in math. The elementary school also saw a sharp one-year decline from the 27th to the 10th percentile, suggesting challenges are concentrated in early grades.
Both schools face notable hurdles. Chronic absenteeism is a crisis at the high school, where 40.8% of students are chronically absent—well above the state's 27.9%—while the elementary rate is healthier at 20.9%. The district spends generously ($15,868-$17,179 per student) and maintains favorable student-teacher ratios near 13:1, yet results remain mixed. Test scores swing dramatically year to year, making it hard to gauge true progress. A striking anomaly: 8th graders score above state average in PSAT English but only 11.1% in PSAT math—a 55-point gap. For parents, the high school offers a supportive path to graduation with strong science instruction, but the elementary school needs urgent attention in foundational math and reading skills.
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