National city placement
One campus shapes the city average
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Ishpeming has more public-school enrollment than 8% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Aspen Ridge Elementary School enrolls 42.6% of Ishpeming's public-school students. That is enough concentration for one institution to pull the citywide enrollment, staffing, and Resource Index averages toward its own profile. The smaller campuses below should therefore be compared directly rather than inferred from the headline mean; their grade configurations and program footprints can be materially different even inside the same district.
Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio
3 of Ishpeming's 5 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.
The composite and staffing measures point in different directions
Ishpeming's average Resource Investment Index sits at the 15th percentile, while its teacher-staffing measure sits at the 52nd percentile. The 37-point percentile gap is a reminder that the index is not a class-size score: counselors, gifted-program reporting, and attendance also affect it. Compare those components directly when two schools have similar index totals; the same headline score can arise from a different mix of reported resources.
