Pentwater Public School, Pentwater MI

Original Research by School Decision on Pentwater Public School

Pentwater Public School is a single-building school district serving pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade in the village of Pentwater, on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Oceana County. It is a small school by any measure, with roughly two hundred-plus students spread across every grade from preschool through senior year. About half of those students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly white, with a Hispanic minority and a small number of students identifying as two or more races. Data on special education enrollment and English learners was not reported, so we cannot characterize those populations here.

The village itself is a compact lakeside community with a year-round residential base and a strong seasonal tourist economy. Downtown Pentwater centers on Hancock Street and the Village Green, with shops, restaurants, galleries, and a municipal marina on Pentwater Lake. Charles Mears State Park sits along the Lake Michigan shore. US Highway 31 runs just east of the village, connecting it to Muskegon to the south and Ludington to the north. The population has been stable and small, with modest growth over the past decade. The township has publicly stated a commitment to responsible growth and preserving natural surroundings, though no major new housing developments surfaced in available sources. Civic life is concentrated downtown, and the search results did not specify where the school building sits relative to the village core.

State assessment results from the most recent year paint a mixed but broadly encouraging picture, particularly in English language arts. In ELA, proficiency rates across grades three through six cluster around the mid-fifties to mid-sixties percent range, and grade eight stands out with a particularly strong showing on the PSAT. Grade seven dips notably lower in ELA, and a parent may want to look into that further with the school. Math results are more uneven. Grade three starts at a solid level, but grade four drops sharply. Grades five and six recover somewhat, and grades seven and eight land in the low-to-mid thirty percent range. Science and social studies, tested only in grades five and eight, show moderate proficiency with the eighth grade again performing stronger than the fifth. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency places it in the top quartile relative to districts in Oceana County, which is a meaningful strength given its size and resource base.

A few caveats accompany these results. The tested cohorts are small in every grade, which means a few students moving in or out can shift results noticeably from year to year. Participation rates were not reported. Trend data was not available, so we cannot say whether these numbers represent improvement, decline, or stability. The state flagged a cut-score change in social studies, making year-over-year comparisons in that subject unreliable.

We looked for graduation rate data and found none reported for this school. Because Pentwater serves high school grades, that absence is not explained by grade band, so a parent seeking information on how many students finish on time would need to ask the district directly. Chronic absenteeism data was also missing. No civil-rights data on discipline, course access, or staffing was available. Program offerings such as AP courses, career pathways, or dual enrollment were not reported, which limits what can be said about the academic pathway for older students. The district brief turned up no recent referendums, curriculum changes, or property tax shifts.

On housing, the local market sits above the state benchmark but roughly in line with national figures. The typical home value in the Pentwater zip code is moderately higher than the Michigan statewide typical, and the price-to-income ratio is close to the national average. Mortgage rates hover in the mid-six percent range. Rental data was not available for this area, which may reflect the village's small size and its seasonal housing dynamics.

What emerges is a picture of a very small, community-rooted school in a seasonal lakeside village. Its ELA results are a genuine strength, its math results vary by grade, and its overall proficiency stands tall among neighboring Oceana County districts. The gaps in graduation, absenteeism, and program data are real, and a family evaluating this school for the upper grades should ask the district to fill in those blanks directly.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=80%Cohort of 21 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 350%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 8 pts above state median

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 21%

▼ 18 pts below state median

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 40%

▲ 8 pts above state median

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 40%

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 731%

School 31% · District 31%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 836%

School 36% · District 36%

▲ 8 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 356%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 18 pts above state median

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 23 pts above state median

Grade 653%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 20 pts above state median

Grade 731%

School 31% · District 31%

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 871%

School 71% · District 71%

▲ 9 pts above state median

Science

Grade 545%

School 45% · District 45%

▲ 5 pts above state median

Grade 864%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 27 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 545%

School 45% · District 45%

▲ 17 pts above state median

Grade 864%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 21 pts above state median

This schoolPentwater Public 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 4Lower-income40%Higher-income64%24 pp gap