Harbor Springs Middle School, Harbor Springs MI

Original Research by School Decision on Harbor Springs Middle School

Harbor Springs Middle School serves grades three through eight as part of the Harbor Springs School District, a regular public school on a single campus just east of downtown Harbor Springs. The campus also includes the newly rebuilt Shay Elementary and the high school. The district recently restructured its early grades, demolishing and rebuilding Shay Elementary and reopening it in fall 2024 for kindergarten through fourth, while repurposing the former Blackbird Elementary as a dedicated preschool and child care center. Those changes sit upstream of the middle school and may shape the readiness of incoming third and fourth graders in coming years.

The school is small for its grade band, with a modest number of students per grade. The student body is predominantly white, with a small American Indian and Alaska Native presence and a small share of students identifying as two or more races. Just under a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a modest figure for a Michigan public school. The data does not include individualized education program rates or English learner rates, so a parent wanting to understand special education or language support would need to ask the school directly.

State assessment results from the most recent year tell a story of strong literacy and uneven mathematics. In English language arts, proficiency is solid across the upper elementary grades and reaches its highest point in eighth grade on the PSAT. A clear majority of fifth graders and sixth graders meet or exceed proficiency in ELA, and the eighth grade result is among the school's strongest measures overall. Seventh grade ELA dips into a middling range but recovers sharply by eighth grade. Mathematics is the softer subject. Fifth grade math is the strongest, with just over half of students proficient, but proficiency declines through sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, with the eighth grade math result being the lowest in the building. Science is strong in fifth grade and moderate by eighth grade. Social studies results are steady across both tested grades, with a majority of students proficient at each level. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it in the top quartile among the districts in Emmet County, a grouping of six districts.

The school does not produce a graduation rate, which is expected for a building that ends at eighth grade. Chronic absenteeism data was not available. Participation rates were not reported for any tested grade or subject. No multi-year trend data was available, so the results describe a single point in time rather than a trajectory. A parent may want to ask the school how eighth grade math support works and why proficiency falls off in that subject relative to ELA.

Housing in the Harbor Springs zip code is expensive relative to both state and national benchmarks, reflecting the character of the community. Harbor Springs is a small waterfront resort city on the north shore of Little Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan, with a compact downtown along Bay Street and Main Street hosting boutiques, galleries, restaurants, and services. The city is walkable by virtue of its small footprint, with the harbor, waterfront parks, and municipal marina close to the commercial core. The population swells in summer with seasonal visitors and second-home owners, and civic life includes festivals, gallery exhibitions, and concerts during those months. Major employers in the area include McLaren Northern Michigan in healthcare, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians in tribal government and gaming, the school district itself, and tourism and hospitality businesses tied to destinations like Bay Harbor. The broader Petoskey area adds regional employment options. Public transit through Straits Regional Ride connects Harbor Springs to Petoskey and other Emmet County communities.

The housing market here sits well above the state benchmark, and the price-to-income ratio is elevated. A family considering this school should weigh the academic profile, where reading and writing are a clear strength and math lags, against a community that is seasonal, affluent, and compact, with a campus that has recently seen real investment in its elementary facilities.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 22 pts above state median

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 38%

▲ 10 pts above state median

Grade 744%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 834%

School 34% · District 34%

▲ 6 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 563%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 20 pts above state median

Grade 660%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 26 pts above state median

Grade 744%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 10 pts above state median

Grade 876%

School 76% · District 76%

▲ 13 pts above state median

Science

Grade 571%

School 71% · District 71%

▲ 32 pts above state median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 47%

▲ 9 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 61%

▲ 32 pts above state median

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 62%

▲ 19 pts above state median

This schoolHarbor Springs School District, 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income25%Higher-income44%19 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income56%Higher-income68%11 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income43%Higher-income74%31 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income50%Higher-income63%13 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income75%Higher-income76%1 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income25%Higher-income46%21 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income50%Higher-income68%18 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income38%Higher-income63%25 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income30%Higher-income40%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income25%Higher-income36%11 pp gap