Summary:
Zip code 49935 is home to a single high school, West Iron County Middle High School, which serves grades 6 through 12 within the West Iron County Public Schools district, a rural area with a total enrollment of 407 students.
For parents, the most encouraging news is that West Iron County Middle High School posts a stellar graduation rate of 94.6% and a 0.0% dropout rate, both far better than state averages (84.0% and 7.1%, respectively). The school is also on an upward trajectory in its state ranking, moving from the 60th percentile in 2023-24 to a projected 73rd percentile for 2025-26. Academically, the school shines in upper-level subjects: 11th-grade science proficiency (44.6%) and social studies proficiency (51.8%) both outpace state averages by roughly 9 and 8 points, and 10th-grade PSAT math (33.9%) also beats the state mark. However, performance is uneven in core subjects, especially in middle school grades—6th-grade ELA proficiency (26.4%) lags well behind the state average (37.5%), and 7th-grade ELA dropped sharply from 36.2% to 22.2% in one year. These swings suggest small class sizes and inconsistent results across grade levels.
One notable paradox is that despite the high graduation rate, chronic absenteeism sits at 29.3%, slightly above the state’s 27.9%, meaning many students are missing significant school days yet still managing to finish. The school also spends a healthy $15,003 per student with a 15.9 student-teacher ratio, indicating solid resources, but those funds don’t translate into uniformly top-tier test scores. About 55.8% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, reflecting a moderate level of economic need. Overall, this is a school with strong retention and graduation outcomes, clear strengths in high school science and social studies, but notable variability in ELA and math that parents may want to monitor by grade level.
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