The top reported proficiency rate is 56% in Science. The lowest is 35% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on North Star Montessori Academy
North Star Montessori Academy is a single-school district in Marquette County, Michigan, serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. It is a small institution by any measure, with a total enrollment under two hundred students spread across all grade levels. The upper grades are particularly thin, with only a handful of students in the high school cohort, which shapes what the school can offer and how its academic results should be read.
The student body is predominantly white, with a small scattering of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not reported, nor were figures for special education or English learner populations, so the economic and special-needs profile of the school is something a parent would need to ask the school about directly. The school does not have a reported locale classification, and no community or housing context was provided in the data we received.
Academically, the school's state assessment results from the most recent year show wide variation from grade to grade, which is typical of a school where each grade has only a dozen or so tested students. In English language arts, proficiency rates ranged from the mid-twenties percentile range in third and seventh grade to well above half the class proficient in fifth and eighth grade. Fifth grade stood out as a strong year across multiple subjects, with more than half the class proficient in ELA, math, and science, and half proficient in social studies. Eighth grade showed a contrasting pattern, with a strong ELA result but no students reaching proficiency in math on the PSAT. Across the tested grades, math tended to be the softer subject, with most grades landing in the quarter-to-third proficient range. Science results were mixed but leaned positive, particularly in fifth grade. Social studies was mid-range in fifth grade and lower in eighth.
Compared with its neighbors among Marquette County's districts, North Star's overall proficiency sits below the midpoint, meaning the average of its tested results falls behind most of the county's districts but ahead of a few. Its chronic absenteeism rate lands in the bottom quartile of the county, which is a concern worth noting. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, since absenteeism at this level can affect both individual progress and the classroom environment. Per-pupil spending is in the lower range among the county's districts, which may reflect the efficiencies and constraints of operating a very small school.
No graduation rate was available for this district. Given the very small number of students in the upper grades, this may reflect reporting thresholds or the nature of the school's high school program rather than a failure to graduate students. The data does not give us a reason, so we note the gap and avoid guessing.
The district brief search turned up no recent parent-relevant changes such as curriculum shifts, bond issues, or program launches. No locale brief was available, so we cannot speak to the surrounding housing market, commute patterns, or community character from the data provided.
What the data does describe is a small, continuous-grade Montessori school where class sizes are intimate and individual attention is structurally built in. The academic picture is uneven, with standout years and weaker years that likely reflect the personality and preparation of each small cohort more than a stable institutional pattern. A family drawn to Montessori pedagogy and a close-knit environment would find the core of what they are looking for here. The absenteeism figure and the lower spending level are worth raising in a conversation with school leadership, as is the school's approach to math instruction in the middle grades, where results were weakest. For a family weighing this against larger county districts with more consistent proficiency outcomes, the tradeoff is clearly one of pedagogy and scale versus breadth and tested performance.
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