The top reported proficiency rate is 62% in Science. The lowest is 46% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Three Lakes Academy
Three Lakes Academy is a small public charter school sitting along Main Street in Curtis, a tiny unincorporated community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The school serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, which means there is no graduation rate to report and no high school course offerings like AP or dual credit to weigh. That grade band simply does not include those measures.
Curtis itself sits on a narrow strip of land between Manistique Lake and South Manistique Lake. It is a place shaped by lakes, lumber history, and seasonal tourism. The permanent population is very small, and the surrounding area is thick with cottages, resorts, and public boat launches maintained by the state. Civic life clusters along Main Street and Davis Street, where the post office, township offices, and the Erickson Center for the Arts anchor the community. Publicly reported sources note no library or public transit in Curtis, and no major employers beyond tourism-related businesses and a few civic and nonprofit institutions. The Erickson Center doubles as a cultural hub and houses a hospital wellness center. Growth and development information is thin; the community's trajectory is tied to its lakes and vacation appeal rather than any identified subdivision or commercial expansion.
The school's enrollment is small, which is consistent with the setting. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful American Indian or Alaska Native presence and a small Hispanic contingent. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not available, so those population sizes remain unknown. No staffing figures, course access details, or discipline data were provided.
On Michigan's M-STEP assessments for the most recent school year, the school shows a mixed but in places quite strong profile. In the lower elementary grades, proficiency rates in both math and English language arts sit below the midpoint, suggesting some early-grade room to grow. The picture shifts in fifth grade, where math, ELA, and science results all climb to levels that stand out as solid, and social studies results are also respectable. Sixth grade lands in a middle range across both tested subjects. A social studies cut-score change is flagged for this year, which limits trend comparability, and no multi-year trend data was available for this school. Participation rates were missing from the data set. With small grade-level cohorts, year-to-year results can swing noticeably, so a parent may want to look into how the school supports consistency across grade transitions.
Against the comparison set of districts in Mackinac County, the school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it in the top quartile. That is a genuinely favorable standing for a small charter in a remote community, driven largely by the strength of the upper-grade cohorts.
Housing in the school's zip code sits well below the state benchmark in typical home value, and the recent year-over-year appreciation rate has been steep, reflecting the kind of price movement that can accompany limited inventory in a vacation-area market. Rent data was not available. For a family considering buying, the area offers relatively low purchase prices compared with much of Michigan, though the rapid appreciation and seasonal character of the housing stock are worth understanding before committing.
No program offerings, extracurricular lists, or strategic priorities were available in the data, and the district brief turned up no parent-relevant changes in recent years. Families would want to ask the school directly about specialist instruction, after-school options, transportation given the rural setting, and how the charter articulates with the larger area districts for middle and high school, since Three Lakes Academy ends at sixth grade. The locale brief notes that the broader Curtis community falls within the Tahquamenon Area Schools district based in Newberry, which means families likely face decisions about where students go next after this school.
What the data describes is a small, rural charter elementary with real academic strength in its upper grades, a student population reflecting the Upper Peninsula's demographics, and a setting defined by lakes and seasonal life rather than commerce or growth. The gaps are in the kind of detail a parent needs for planning: staffing, programs, transportation, special populations, and the transition path beyond sixth grade. Those are the questions to bring to the school.
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