The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in English language arts. The lowest is 22% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Hinks Elementary
Hinks Elementary sits on US Highway 23 north of Alpena, serving kindergarten through fifth grade as part of Alpena Public Schools. It is a small, regular public school with an enrollment that spreads evenly across its six grade levels, each cohort roughly the same size. The student body is nearly entirely white, with a very small number of children from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the working-class character of the surrounding area. The school does not carry charter or magnet status.
On Michigan's M-STEP assessments, the most recent results paint a mixed academic picture that shifts sharply between the lower and upper elementary grades. Third and fourth graders perform reasonably well in both math and English language arts, with a clear majority of fourth graders reaching proficiency in ELA and math alike. The fourth-grade ELA result is the strongest in the building. By fifth grade, though, proficiency drops considerably across every tested subject. Math proficiency falls to a low level, and social studies is particularly weak, with only a small fraction of students meeting the bar. Science lands in the mid-range, and ELA sits below the midpoint. The small number of students tested in each grade means a few children moving in or out of proficiency can shift the picture meaningfully, so a parent may want to look into the fifth-grade slide with the school directly, especially since the earlier grades suggest the school can produce solid results when conditions align.
No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether the fifth-grade dip is a one-year event or a recurring pattern. Participation rates were also missing from the data. Information on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not reported, so those population sizes are unknown. Because Hinks serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and that gap reflects the grade band rather than anything about the school's performance.
The surrounding community shapes what daily life looks like for families here. Alpena is a small industrial and residential city on the shore of Lake Huron's Thunder Bay, the county seat and the only city in Alpena County. Its economy runs on cement production, concrete machinery manufacturing, drywall fabrication, and regional healthcare, with the medical center as the largest employer. Alpena Community College adds an educational anchor. The city has a walkable downtown along the Thunder Bay River with a theatre, a cinema in a repurposed department store, and the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center, but the broader area is auto-oriented, with no public bus transit identified. Retail has migrated to corridors along M-32 and US-23, especially since the enclosed mall largely closed in 2022. The population has been stable to slightly declining over the long term, and no major new housing developments surfaced in available reporting.
Housing in the school's zip code is affordable compared with both state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit well below the Michigan statewide figure and roughly half the national level, which keeps the estimated monthly mortgage within reach for many local households. The price-to-income ratio is moderate. Recent year-over-year home value growth has been strong relative to the state, suggesting some upward pressure on prices even in an affordable market. Rental data was not available.
Alpena Public Schools is geographically the largest district in Michigan, stretching across a vast area with six elementary schools spread out rather than clustered in town, plus one high school, a junior high, and an alternative/adult high school. Hinks is one of those scattered elementaries, sitting north of the city center along the highway. The district brief did not surface specific recent changes such as bonds, curriculum shifts, or facility plans, so nothing on that front can be reported here.
The county-level comparison set was too small to position Hinks meaningfully against peers; Alpena County has only a couple of districts, and the proficiency index could not be computed for comparison purposes. What the data does show is a school where the early elementary years look solid, the fifth-grade year raises questions, and the community around it is an affordable, industrial, lakeside place with a modest but genuine cultural core. Families drawn to that setting and looking for a small elementary school where their child will be one of a relatively close-knit cohort may find Hinks worth a closer look, with the fifth-grade results being the clearest thing to ask about when they visit.
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