North Dickinson School, Felch MI

Original Research by School Decision on North Dickinson School

North Dickinson School is a single-building K through 12 public school in Felch, a rural unincorporated community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It sits along State Highway M-69, roughly fifteen miles northeast of the Iron Mountain-Kingsford area, and serves as the only school in the North Dickinson County Schools district. The enrollment is small for a building spanning kindergarten through twelfth grade, and the student body is nearly entirely white. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on special education enrollment and English learners was not reported, so those pieces of the picture are missing here.

On state assessments, North Dickinson's results are mixed and vary considerably from grade to grade, which is common in small schools where each grade-level cohort is tiny. In English language arts, proficiency ranges from low in third grade to quite strong in eighth grade, where most tested students reached proficiency. The middle grades generally perform better in ELA than in math. Math proficiency swings widely: one elementary grade stands out with a strong showing, while sixth grade dips lower. Science and social studies results land in a middling range. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it above the midpoint among districts in Dickinson County. No trend data was available to show whether these results are improving or declining over time. Graduation rate data was not provided for this school, and chronic absenteeism figures were also absent, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about both.

Felch itself has essentially no walkable commercial core or traditional downtown. It is a spread-out rural community of scattered homes, farms, and a few civic buildings along highway corridors. The area's history runs through iron mining and logging, both of which had largely faded by the early twentieth century. Today the township retains a rural residential and agricultural character, surrounded by state-owned forest land that supports recreation. The township adopted a master plan in 2023 emphasizing preservation of rural character and natural resources. Population has been relatively stable but slowly declining. No major employers were identified within Felch itself; nearby employment centers sit in the Iron Mountain-Kingsford area. There is no public transit and no public library in the community.

Housing in the area is quite affordable compared with both state and national benchmarks. The typical home value sits well below the Michigan statewide figure and far below the national one. Rental market data was not available. For a family considering the area, this means homeownership is within reach on a moderate income, but the tradeoff is distance from services, shopping, and specialized employment.

The district brief turned up no parent-relevant changes such as referendums, curriculum overhauls, or property-tax shifts. The search noted a superintendent or principal search posting, but no clear evidence of lasting district-wide change surfaced. Program offerings, course access data, staffing figures, discipline data, and attendance data were all absent from what was provided, so a family would need to go to the school directly for details on advanced coursework, extracurriculars, support services, and class sizes beyond what the enrollment counts imply.

What the available picture describes is a small, rural, community-rooted school where students stay in one building from kindergarten through graduation. The peer environment is tight-knit by nature of the size. State test results are uneven but land reasonably well relative to neighboring Dickinson County districts, with particular strength in upper-grade ELA. A family drawn to rural life, outdoor recreation, and affordable housing would find Felch a fitting setting, with the understanding that academic breadth, specialized programs, and proximity to services will be more limited than in larger communities.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=50%Cohort of 14 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 344%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 471%

School 71% · District 71%

▲ 32 pts above state median

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 21 pts above state median

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 36%

▲ 8 pts above state median

Grade 744%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 23 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 322%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 559%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 657%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 24 pts above state median

Grade 735%

School 35% · District 35%

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 881%

School 81% · District 81%

▲ 19 pts above state median

Science

Grade 559%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 19 pts above state median

Grade 838%

School 38% · District 38%

even with state median

Social studies

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 47%

▲ 19 pts above state median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 7 pts above state median

This schoolNorth Dickinson County 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.