Stephenson Area Public School, Stephenson MI

Original Research by School Decision on Stephenson Area Public School

Stephenson Area Public School is a single building serving kindergarten through twelfth grade in the small Upper Peninsula city of Stephenson, in Menominee County. It is the kind of place where the school sits inside city limits along US-41, woven into the downtown fabric rather than set apart on a separate campus. The city itself is tiny, covering barely a square mile, with the Little Cedar River running through its middle. A bakery, grocery store, a few banks, a movie theater, restaurants, bars, a winery, and five churches make up the commercial and civic core. Manufacturing is the largest employment sector, followed by health care and social assistance. The town operates its own water, sewer, and electrical systems. Fire and EMS are volunteer-based, and no public library or transit system was identified.

The community is in slow population decline, continuing a trend that stretches back several decades with only a brief interruption. Home values here are far below both state and national levels, and the homeownership rate sits above the national average. For a family looking at housing, this is one of the more affordable corners of Michigan. Mortgage costs are modest relative to typical incomes, though the trade-off is a car-dependent rural setting where daily life requires driving and economic opportunity is concentrated in a handful of local sectors.

The school serves a modest enrollment spread across all thirteen grades, with class sizes small enough that each grade cohort is intimate. The student body is predominantly white, with a small Hispanic presence and very few students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the working-class character of the surrounding area. Data on special education, English learner services, and English learner populations was not reported, so those gaps stand as gaps rather than as signs of absence. The same is true for discipline, course access, staffing, attendance, and program offerings: none of these fields carried data, so there is little to say about AP courses, career pathways, dual enrollment, clubs, or extracurriculars. A parent considering this school would want to ask the district directly about what academic and enrichment options exist beyond the standard curriculum.

On state testing, the most recent results paint a mixed picture across grade levels. Third graders performed well in both math and English language arts, with a clear majority testing proficient. That strength narrows in fourth grade and drops sharply by fifth and sixth grade, where math proficiency falls to quite low levels and ELA hits its lowest point in sixth grade. Middle school results recover somewhat in seventh and eighth grade, where ELA in particular bounces back to a majority-proficient level. Math in the upper middle grades stays below the strongest early-elementary marks but improves on the fifth and sixth grade dips. Science and social studies results follow a similar arc, with fifth grade science and social studies at modest levels and eighth grade science lower while eighth grade social studies comes in higher.

Measured against other districts in Menominee County, Stephenson's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it in the top quartile. That positioning reflects the strength of the early elementary grades pulling the average up, even as the middle grades show softer results. Four-year graduation rate data was not available for comparison, and chronic absenteeism figures were also missing, so there is no way to place the school against its neighbors on those measures.

The parent district, Stephenson Area Public Schools, had no publicly reported recent changes such as referendums, curriculum overhauls, or tax shifts, so there is little to flag on the governance or fiscal front. For a family weighing this school, the appeal is likely the small, close-knit setting where everyone knows everyone, the housing is affordable, and the youngest learners are testing well. The question worth pursuing with the school directly is what happens between the early grades and the middle grades, where proficiency declines, and what academic supports or program options exist to address that dip.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=90%Cohort of 42 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 378%

School 78% · District 78%

▲ 36 pts above state median

Grade 453%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 622%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 741%

School 41% · District 41%

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 837%

School 37% · District 37%

▲ 10 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 25 pts above state median

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 548%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 6 pts above state median

Grade 619%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 752%

School 52% · District 52%

▲ 18 pts above state median

Grade 860%

School 60% · District 60%

▼ 2 pts below state median

Science

Grade 548%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 9 pts above state median

Grade 829%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 8 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 32%

▲ 4 pts above state median

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 1 pts above state median

This schoolStephenson Area Public 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 4Lower-income50%Higher-income39%11 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income58%25 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income59%Higher-income61%2 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income36%Higher-income67%31 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income25%Higher-income32%7 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income18%Higher-income27%9 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income24%Higher-income50%27 pp gap