The top reported proficiency rate is 31% in English language arts. The lowest is 7% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Collins Elementary School
Collins Elementary School sits in Houghton Lake, an unincorporated lakeside community in Roscommon County that wraps around the southwest and western shores of Michigan's largest inland lake. The area is strongly seasonal, oriented around resort life, fishing, and boating, with a winter carnival called Tip-Up-Town USA drawing visitors over two January weekends. The population skews older and retirement-heavy, with a comparatively small share of children, which shapes the rhythm of the community. It is car-dependent by nature, spread across several townships along shoreline roads rather than clustered in a walkable center. No public transit system was identified in publicly reported sources.
The school is a regular public elementary serving preschool through sixth grade as part of Houghton Lake Community Schools. Enrollment is moderate for an elementary in this grade band. The student body is predominantly white, with a small Hispanic presence and very small shares of other racial groups. A very large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, marking this as a high-poverty school by that measure. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not available in the provided records, so those populations cannot be characterized here. Title I status was also not reported.
On Michigan's M-STEP assessments for the most recent reported year, results across grades and subjects were uneven. Third and fourth grade math proficiency landed in the low-to-moderate range, with roughly a third of tested students meeting proficiency. Sixth grade math was similar. Fifth grade math was markedly lower, with only a small fraction proficient. English language arts followed a related pattern: third, fourth, and fifth grade results were below what most families would hope to see, but sixth grade ELA stood apart as a relative strength, with nearly half of tested students reaching proficiency. Science and social studies, both assessed only in fifth grade, were both quite low.
Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint relative to districts in Roscommon County. There is a wide spread of outcomes by grade and subject, and the fifth grade results in particular are soft enough that a parent may want to look into this further with the school. At the same time, the sixth grade ELA result suggests that some students are hitting their stride as they prepare to transition to secondary schooling. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent a recent dip, a stable pattern, or movement in either direction.
Because Collins serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and that metric does not apply here. Chronic absenteeism data was not available. Discipline, course access, staffing, and attendance details were absent from the provided data, so those dimensions of school life cannot be described. Program offerings were not reported. We looked for recent parent-relevant changes in the Houghton Lake Community Schools district, such as bond proposals, millage votes, curriculum shifts, or facility projects, and found little in the way of verifiable, lasting developments, so that is left out rather than guessed at.
Housing in the school's zip code is affordable by both state and national benchmarks, with typical home values well below the Michigan median and further below the national figure. The price-to-income ratio sits at a level that suggests homeownership is within reach for many working families, though current mortgage rates are a factor. Rent data was not available for this area. The local economy is tourism- and recreation-oriented, and no major employers were named in publicly reported sources. The lake itself is the primary civic and recreational anchor, supported by a state forest campground and a local chamber of commerce. No public library was identified in search results.
For a family considering Collins, the picture is of a small-town lakeside elementary serving a high-need population, with assessment results that vary considerably by grade and subject and a community built around seasonal recreation rather than concentrated civic infrastructure. The affordability of housing may be a draw, and the sixth grade ELA performance is worth noting as a bright spot amid otherwise modest results.
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