The top reported proficiency rate is 48% in Science. The lowest is 39% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Clk Elementary School
CLK Elementary School sits in Calumet, a former copper mining boomtown in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that has oriented itself around heritage tourism and historic preservation since the closure of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company. The village is part of the Keweenaw National Historical Park and carries a National Historic Landmark District designation. Its downtown grid holds the Calumet Theatre, the Keweenaw National Historical Park Visitor Center, the Calumet and Hecla Library, and the Copper Country Firefighters Museum. Street life is event-driven, with Pasty Fest bringing a parade and street fair each summer, and the Calumet Colosseum, the oldest continuously operating ice rink in North America, serving as a recreational anchor. The village is extremely compact, and US 41 passes just outside its limits.
The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade and is part of the Public Schools of Calumet, Laurium and Keweenaw, a district spanning multiple communities in the area. Enrollment is moderate for an Upper Peninsula elementary school. The student body is nearly entirely white, with only a handful of students identifying as Hispanic, Black, or multiracial. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on English learners and special education populations was not available, so those figures cannot be characterized here. The district brief turned up no parent-relevant changes beyond a gymnasium addition, so there is little recent shift to report at the district level.
On state assessments, the most recent M-STEP results show a clear pattern. Third-grade proficiency is the strongest point, with well over half of tested students proficient in math and a similar share in English language arts. By fourth grade, proficiency drops meaningfully in both subjects, and by fifth grade it falls further, with roughly a quarter of students proficient in math and roughly a third in English. Fifth-grade science lands near the middle, and social studies sits below that. The overall proficiency index places CLK Elementary in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Houghton County. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly to understand what happens to instruction and support between third and fifth grade, since the decline is consistent across both core subjects.
No graduation rate applies here, because the school does not serve high school grades. Chronic absenteeism data was not reported. Participation rates for the state assessments were missing as well, though the tested counts themselves were reported for each grade.
The housing market around Calumet is inexpensive by state and national standards. Home values sit well below the Michigan benchmark and far below the national one, and they have been declining modestly over the past year. The price-to-income ratio is favorable, meaning a household earning a typical income faces a relatively light mortgage burden compared with much of the country. Rental data was not available. The broader economy has shifted from mining to seasonal heritage tourism, and tourism growth has not outstripped declines in construction and manufacturing. The village's year-round population continues to decline, and no major new housing developments or growth projects were identified.
What this means for a family considering CLK Elementary is a small, homogeneous school in a historic, affordable community with strong local cultural institutions but a contracting local economy. The school's youngest tested learners perform well, and the gap in later elementary grades is the clearest thing to ask about. The area's cost of living is low, its civic and recreational anchors are genuine, and its long-term trajectory is one of gradual decline rather than growth.
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