Summary:
Zip code 49614 is home to just one high school, Bear Lake High School, a small rural school in Bear Lake, Michigan, serving grades 7 through 12 with a total enrollment of 133 students within the Bear Lake Schools district.
For parents, the most important takeaway is that Bear Lake shows a dramatic split between strong early academics and concerning later-year performance. In 7th grade, students score nearly double the state average in both English and math, but by 10th grade, proficiency falls well below state levels—just 40.6% in ELA and 18.8% in math. The school’s 2024-2025 SAT results reinforce this pattern: 11th graders scored 72% proficient in reading and writing (16 points above the state), but only 24% proficient in math. The graduation rate is a significant red flag at 69.5%, far below the state’s 84%, while the dropout rate of 13% is nearly double the state average. With 60.9% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, the school serves a predominantly low-income population, yet chronic absenteeism (25.1%) is slightly better than the state average.
Rankings for Bear Lake have swung wildly—from the 23rd percentile in 2023-2024, to the 70th percentile in 2024-2025, then back to the 44th percentile in 2025-2026. With only about 22 students per grade, a single cohort can dramatically shift results, making year-to-year comparisons unreliable. The school spends a notably high $22,327 per student, yet outcomes remain middling, suggesting the costs of running a full high school for so few students don’t translate into competitive academics. The clearest concern is the math decline from strong 7th-grade scores to weak junior-year SAT performance, indicating students lose ground in math progression through high school. Parents should view this school’s data over multiple years rather than any single year, and should pay close attention to whether the school can address its graduation rate and upper-grade academic slide.
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