North Star Montessori Academy, Marquette MI

Original Research by School Decision on North Star Montessori Academy

North Star Montessori Academy is a public charter school in Marquette, Michigan, serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade on Wright Street. It is a small school by any measure, with a total enrollment under two hundred spread across the full grade span, which means each grade-level cohort is quite intimate. That smallness is a defining characteristic rather than a incidental detail. It shapes everything from the test results to the peer environment to how a family experiences the school.

The school follows a Montessori approach, which is a pedagogical choice a family may already have a strong feeling about one way or the other. Multi-age classrooms, self-directed work, and hands-on materials are the hallmarks of this model. North Star offers the full span from early childhood through high school under one roof, which is unusual for a Montessori program in this region. A parent drawn to continuity of philosophy across grade levels would find that here. The high school grades have very few students, so the upper-level experience is likely quite individualized but also limited in peer breadth.

State testing results from the most recent year show a mixed and sometimes inconsistent picture across grades. In the elementary grades, proficiency in math and English language arts tends to sit below what one might hope for in several cohorts, though one middle elementary grade stands out with comparatively strong results in both subjects. Science and social studies results follow a similar pattern, with a couple of grades performing reasonably well and others trailing. Eighth-grade math proficiency was reported in a suppressed range that appears quite low, while eighth-grade ELA was comparatively strong. These results place the school's overall proficiency below the midpoint among districts in Marquette County. The very small number of students tested in each grade means a single student's performance shifts the percentage considerably, so year-to-year swings should be read with that in mind. A parent may want to look into how the school interprets these results and what interventions or instructional supports are in place.

The student body is predominantly white, with small representations from several other racial and ethnic groups. About half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on special education and English learner populations was not reported, so we cannot characterize those dimensions. The school does not report a graduation rate, and given the very small high school enrollment, that metric may not be meaningful in a conventional sense.

Marquette itself is the largest city in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the county seat. It sits on Lake Superior and remains a working iron ore shipping port. Northern Michigan University is integrated into the city rather than set apart, and the town functions as a regional hub for healthcare, government, and culture. Presque Isle Park, a wooded peninsula shaped in part by Frederick Law Olmsted's input, is the signature public space, with trails and a marina. The city has a compact downtown core with breweries, museums, and shops near the waterfront. It also receives very heavy lake-effect snow, which is a fact of life that shapes everything from commuting to school schedules.

The housing market in the school's zip code runs above the state benchmark but below the national one, with values having risen appreciably over the past year. Rents are moderate relative to the national picture. For a family considering the area, housing costs are a real factor but not as steep as many larger metro markets would present.

We looked for recent district-level changes that might affect families and found little of lasting impact. No property tax shifts, curriculum overhauls, or referendums surfaced in the search, so there is nothing new on the governance side to flag.

North Star fits a family drawn to Montessori education who wants a small, continuous pathway from early childhood through high school in a university-town setting on Lake Superior. The academic results are uneven, and the small cohorts make the data noisy. A family considering this school would benefit from visiting, asking about how the school supports students performing below grade level, and understanding what the high school experience looks like with so few students in the upper grades.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=50%Cohort of 10 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

1,027 schools plotted. 80 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 324%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 431%

School 31% · District 31%

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Grade 627%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 733%

School 33% · District 33%

▲ 5 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 567%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 647%

School 47% · District 47%

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 727%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 864%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 1 pts above state median

Science

Grade 567%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 46%

▲ 8 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 827%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 16 pts below state median

This schoolNorth Star Montessori Academy, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.