NCES CCD 2024-25 8 schools MI

Best-Resourced Schools in Alpena, MI

Compiled from official source data by .

8 public K-12 schools in Alpena from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

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8
Schools
3,177
Students
23.1/100
Avg Resource Index
17.2:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Lean reported-resource profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Alpena has more public-school enrollment than 31% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Alpena's average Resource Investment Index falls in the lower portion of the 4,487-city comparison set. The index is a resource snapshot, not an academic grade: it reflects the federal staffing, counselor, gifted-program, and attendance fields available for local campuses. The most useful next step is to open the individual schools below and identify which component is pulling each score down, because the same city average can hide very different campus-level constraints.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

4 of Alpena's 8 listed schools are elementary campuses. That composition means citywide enrollment and staffing averages are influenced more by early-grade operating patterns than by the city's 1 middle and 0 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

A small portfolio contains radically different campus scales

Alpena lists only 8 schools, yet reported enrollment runs from 45 to 1,091 students, a 24-fold range. In a portfolio this compact, the smallest record may be a specialized or nonstandard setting rather than a miniature version of the largest campus. That distinction affects how ratios and program fields should be read. Compare similarly configured grade levels first; combining the extremes into one city average conceals more than it explains.

City enrollment
Top 69%
School count
Top 54%
Resource Index average
2nd percentile
Teacher staffing
32nd percentile

Alpena High School accounts for 34.3% of all Alpena public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Alpena-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: Combined. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Alpena school enrollment varies 24× across entities

Alpena school enrollment ranges from 45 students (lowest) to 1,091 students (highest), a spread of 1,046 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Alpena reports 53.7% free-lunch eligibility

The reported share clears the 50% majority mark. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Alpena student-teacher ratio is 17.2:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Variation between sub-units within Alpena is typically wider than the Alpena-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Pied Piper School 33
2. Besser Elementary School 32
3. Aces Academy 30
4. Thunder Bay Junior High School 21
5. Lincoln Elementary 20
6. Hinks Elementary 19
7. Alpena High School 15
8. Ella M White Elementary 15

What do families ask about schools in Alpena?

Which Alpena school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Pied Piper School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Alpena schools in this federal-data comparison at 33/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Alpena, MI? ▼

Alpena has 8 public schools with a total enrollment of 3,177 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 17.2:1.

Other Cities in Michigan

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187 schools
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131 schools
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50 schools
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46 schools
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Saginaw
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Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Michigan →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.