The top reported proficiency rate is 13% in Science. The lowest is 9% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Verona Elementary School
Verona Elementary School sits on Capital Avenue in Battle Creek, serving third through fifth graders as part of Battle Creek Public Schools. It is a regular public school with a small enrollment for its three-grade band, and nearly all of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is diverse in composition, with Black students forming the largest group, followed by White, Hispanic, and multiracial students. A small number of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students are also enrolled. English learner and special education data were not available, so those population sizes remain unknown.
The academic picture is the part a parent will want to understand most clearly. On Michigan's M-STEP assessments, proficiency rates across math and English language arts were low in every grade tested. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above sat in the low single digits to low teens across third, fourth, and fifth grades. English language arts results were similar, with proficiency rates hovering in the same range. Fifth-grade science reached only modestly above that level, and fifth-grade social studies results were lower still, with the reported range indicating near-zero proficiency. When measured against other districts in Calhoun County, Verona's overall proficiency index lands in the bottom quartile. This is a school where most tested students are not yet meeting state proficiency benchmarks, and a parent may want to ask the school directly what interventions and supports are in place to move those numbers.
No graduation rate applies here because Verona serves only elementary grades. Chronic absenteeism data was not available, nor were staffing figures or course-access details, so those aspects of the school environment cannot be characterized from the information provided. Title I status was also not reported, though the very high free-or-reduced-price lunch rate suggests the school likely operates under a schoolwide Title I model. Discipline and attendance data were absent as well. The school's locale classification was not provided, so we cannot describe it as urban, suburban, or rural from the data.
Battle Creek itself is a working city in Calhoun County with a history tied to cereal manufacturing and industrial employment. The housing market around the school is relatively affordable compared with both state and national benchmarks. Typical home values in the school's zip code sit well below the Michigan state average and roughly half the national figure, and rents are modest. The price-to-income ratio is favorable, meaning housing costs are manageable relative to area earnings, and estimated monthly mortgage payments run only somewhat above typical rent. For a family considering the neighborhood, housing access is one of the more attainable aspects of the area. We looked for recent parent-relevant changes or strategic priorities from Battle Creek Public Schools but found little publicly reported, so we left that out rather than guess. The locale search returned similarly thin results for civic anchors like libraries and transit, so we cannot describe those from the available data.
What Verona offers is a small upper-elementary setting with a diverse peer group in an affordable part of Battle Creek. The academic results are the central concern: proficiency is low across subjects and grades, and the school sits near the bottom of its county peer set. A family considering Verona would benefit from asking school leadership what is being done to strengthen instruction and raise student achievement, and what supports exist for children who are below grade level. The data shows where the school stands; the conversation with the school is where a parent learns what is being done about it.
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