Dollar Baytamarack City Area K12 School, Dollar Bay MI

Original Research by School Decision on Dollar Baytamarack City Area K12 School

Dollar Bay-Tamarack City Area K12 School is a single building serving prekindergarten through twelfth grade in Dollar Bay, an unincorporated community on the north side of Portage Lake in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It is the only school in the Dollar Bay-Tamarack City Area Schools district, and it functions as the civic center of a community that has no formal downtown. Publicly reported sources describe the school as a hub for local activities and events, which makes sense given the settlement pattern: a spread-out, car-dependent residential area along the M-26 highway corridor with no dense commercial grid of its own.

The student body is small for a school spanning every grade. More than half of enrolled students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a substantial share that points to real economic need in the surrounding area. The enrollment is almost entirely white, with only a handful of students identifying as Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, or multiracial. The school does not report English-learner counts or special-education counts in the data we received, so we cannot characterize those populations. A parent with questions about special education services or language support would want to ask the school directly.

State testing results from the most recent year show a mixed academic picture. In mathematics, proficiency across the tested elementary and middle school grades swings widely, with some grades reaching roughly half of tested students proficient and others falling well below that. The pattern is similar in English language arts: fifth grade stands out as a strong year, while sixth and seventh grades show comparatively low proficiency. The one exception is eighth-grade ELA, where the reported proficiency rate was suppressed into a high range, suggesting strong performance on the PSAT-based measure. Science results are a clear bright spot, with both tested grades showing a majority of students proficient, and one grade reaching a strikingly high level. Social studies is more uneven, with a low elementary result offset by a stronger middle-grade showing. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index lands in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Houghton County. That comparison set includes the county's districts, and Dollar Bay sits below the county median and near the bottom of the group. The tested cohort sizes are small in every grade, which means a few students moving above or below the proficiency line can shift a grade's results sharply. A parent reading these numbers should keep that volatility in mind and ask the school how it tracks cohort progress over time rather than year to year.

We looked for a graduation rate and for chronic absenteeism data and found neither reported for this school. We also searched for the district's recent parent-relevant changes and found little, so we left that out rather than guess. No course-access, staffing, attendance, discipline, or program-offering information was available in the data we received. These are gaps a parent may want to fill by visiting the school's website or calling the office, since a prekindergarten-through-twelfth-grade building in a small community likely offers programs the data does not capture.

The housing market around the school is modest by any standard. Home values in the Dollar Bay zip code sit well below both the Michigan and national benchmarks, and the price-to-income ratio is favorable compared with much of the country. Dollar Bay began as a copper mining settlement, and that industry is gone. No specific major employers were identified within the community itself, and publicly reported sources note that the local economy is tied to the broader Houghton County region, where Michigan Technological University in nearby Houghton is a dominant employer. Construction shows up as a locally active industry. The population has fluctuated over the past decade and is currently declining slightly, a pattern consistent with many small Upper Peninsula communities. There is no indication of major new housing development or infrastructure investment on the horizon.

For a family weighing this school, the academic results are genuinely uneven but show real strength in science and in certain grades and subjects. The small-school environment means close proximity across grade levels and likely deep familiarity between staff and families. The community is quiet, affordable, and oriented around the lake and the school. What the data cannot tell you is what happens in the high school grades, how the school supports struggling students, and what electives or activities fill the school day. Those are the conversations worth having before deciding.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=80%Cohort of 29 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

1,027 schools plotted. 80 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 343%

School 43% · District 43%

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 425%

School 25% · District 25%

▼ 13 pts below state median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 18 pts above state median

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 732%

School 32% · District 32%

▲ 4 pts above state median

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 46%

▲ 18 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 433%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 8 pts above state median

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 10 pts below state median

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 10 pts below state median

Science

Grade 571%

School 71% · District 71%

▲ 32 pts above state median

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 25 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 29%

even with state median

Grade 854%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 11 pts above state median

This schoolDollar Bay-Tamarack City Area Schools, 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 7Lower-income25%Higher-income22%3 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income38%Higher-income28%10 pp gap