The top reported proficiency rate is 54% in English language arts. The lowest is 35% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on East Jordan Middlehigh School
East Jordan MiddleHigh School sits in a small, rural city at the mouth of the Jordan River where it meets the south arm of Lake Charlevoix. The town's identity is tied to its manufacturing heritage, anchored by EJ, formerly East Jordan Iron Works, which remains headquartered there and is the dominant employer. Four industrial corporations still operate within the town, alongside a modest tourism and recreation sector built around the waterfront, a farmers market, glassworks, pottery studios, and outfitters. The community has seen a modest population decline over recent decades and appears to be stabilizing rather than growing, with no major new housing developments on the horizon. For a family considering this school, that context matters: this is a quiet, rooted place where the ironworks legacy and the lake define daily life more than expansion or churn.
The school itself serves grades seven through twelve and is part of East Jordan Public Schools, a regular public district centered in the city and drawing students from several surrounding townships. The campus is integrated into the community rather than set apart on a distant site, consistent with the compact footprint of the town. Enrollment is modest for a combined middle-high school, with roughly even distribution across the six grade levels. Just over half the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the working-class character of the area. The student population is predominantly white, with small numbers of Hispanic, multiracial, and Native American students and a handful of others. IEP and English-learner counts were not reported in the data, so those figures are unavailable here.
Academically, the most recent state assessment results paint a mixed picture. In seventh-grade math, the proficiency rate was in the low thirties, and in seventh-grade ELA it was in the mid-thirties. Eighth-grade math landed in the upper thirties. Eighth-grade ELA was the clear standout, with a strong majority of tested students reaching proficiency. Science proficiency among eighth graders was in the mid-forties, and social studies was in the mid-thirties. Averaged across tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint among the five Charlevoix County districts for which data was available. The strongest area by far is eighth-grade English language arts; math results are the softest, and a parent may want to look into how the school supports math progression from seventh into eighth grade and beyond.
Multi-year trend data was not available, so there is no way to tell from this data whether these results are improving, declining, or holding steady. Participation rates for the assessments were also missing. No graduation rate was reported for this school in the comparison set, and no chronic absenteeism figure was available. The absence of a graduation rate in the county comparison is noted as a missing entity value rather than an indication that the school does not graduate students, since it does serve twelfth grade. Civil-rights data, course-access information, staffing levels, and discipline data were not provided.
The housing picture in the school's zip code is relatively approachable compared with state and national benchmarks. The typical home value sits above the Michigan state benchmark but below the national one, and the year-over-year change was essentially flat, consistent with the community's broader stabilization pattern. With mortgage rates in the mid-sixes, the estimated monthly cost of ownership is moderate for the region. Rental data was not available. Publicly reported sources describe the community as auto-oriented with limited street life, a compact downtown, and civic anchors that include the municipal harbor, a nature preserve, and a city airport on an exclave to the southeast.
For a family weighing this school, the fit depends on what they are looking for. East Jordan MiddleHigh School offers a small, community-embedded setting where students are known and the town's identity is tightly woven into the school's. The strongest academic signal is in eighth-grade literacy. Math is the area that most warrants a closer conversation with the school. The surrounding community is quiet, affordable by northern Michigan standards, and defined by its industrial and waterfront character rather than by growth or amenity density.
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