Summary:
Zip code 49849, serving the Michigan Upper Peninsula communities of Ishpeming and Negaunee, is home to six public schools across two districts: the NICE Community School District and the Ishpeming Public School District No. 1, offering education from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
The NICE Community School District is the clear academic leader in the area. Aspen Ridge Elementary School stands out as the top performer, ranking in the 76th percentile statewide and serving 721 students in grades PK-8. Its students dramatically outperform their peers at Birchview School in the Ishpeming district—for example, 3rd-grade ELA proficiency is 60% at Aspen Ridge versus just 24.3% at Birchview. Westwood High School also excels with a 90.1% graduation rate and strong reading scores, though its SAT math proficiency (21.7%) lags the state average. In contrast, the Ishpeming Public School District No. 1 ranks in the 29th percentile overall, dragged down by struggling elementary and middle schools. However, Ishpeming High School performs better than its district suggests, with a solid 84.4% graduation rate and a low 2.2% dropout rate.
A critical concern across all schools is a systemic weakness in mathematics. Both Aspen Ridge and Ishpeming Middle School show 8th-grade PSAT math proficiency far below the state average (17.1% and 10.9% vs. 33.2%), which carries into low SAT math scores at both high schools. Additionally, IshpemingNegauneeNICE Community Educational Division, an alternative school with only 22 students, reports a 20% graduation rate and 50% dropout rate, significantly skewing the Ishpeming district's overall statistics. Finally, despite its strong ranking, Westwood High School faces a hidden challenge with a 36.9% chronic absenteeism rate, well above the state average of 27.9%.
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