The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in English language arts. The lowest is 29% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Dean a Naldrett School
Dean A. Naldrett School is a regular public elementary school in Chesterfield, Michigan, serving preschool through fifth grade as part of the Anchor Bay School District. The school sits on Sugarbush Road in a suburban township that blends residential subdivisions with commercial shopping strips, part of the broader Metro Detroit landscape. The community is auto-oriented, spread across a large land area with no traditional downtown center, and the township's southeastern edge along Anchor Bay and Lake St. Clair gives it a waterfront character with boating and marine activity.
The student body is modest in size for an elementary building, with fairly even distribution across the early grades. The school is predominantly white, with smaller representations of Hispanic, multiracial, and Black students. About three in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not available, so those populations cannot be characterized here.
On Michigan's M-STEP assessment, the most recent results show a mixed but generally solid academic picture. English language arts is the school's stronger subject. Third-grade proficiency sits near the midpoint, fourth grade stands out as the highest-performing grade, and fifth grade drops back to about half of tested students reaching proficiency. Math follows a similar pattern, with third and fourth grade hovering near the midpoint and fifth grade dipping lower. Science proficiency for fifth graders is modest, and social studies is the softest spot, with fewer than a third of fifth graders scoring proficient. A parent may want to look into the fifth-grade dip in math and the low social studies result further with the school, especially if those patterns persist across years. Unfortunately, no multi-year trend data was available, so it is impossible to say whether these results are improving, stable, or declining.
When positioned against other districts in Macomb County, Naldrett's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades lands in the top quartile. That is a meaningful marker of strength, placing it among the higher-performing schools in the county on this measure. Chronic absenteeism data was not reported for this school, so that dimension of student engagement cannot be assessed.
Because Naldrett is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report, and that metric simply does not apply to this grade band.
Families considering this school should be aware that Anchor Bay School District reconfigured its grade levels starting in the 2025-2026 year. Elementary buildings now serve kindergarten through fourth grade, Middle School North serves fifth and sixth, and Middle School South serves seventh and eighth. This changes where and when children transition between buildings. Naldrett's current listing still shows preschool through fifth, so parents should confirm directly with the district how the reconfiguration affects this particular building. At the upper grades, a bond passed in 2022 funded career pathway tracks at the high school in engineering and natural science, health and human services, arts and communication, and business and technology, which gives older students structured options as they move through the system.
Housing in the school's zip code is moderately priced relative to national norms but sits above the Michigan state benchmark. Home values have been appreciating modestly. The county housing market currently has a healthy supply of active listings, and homes are selling at a moderate pace. Estimated monthly mortgage costs run somewhat higher than typical rents, and the area's price-to-income ratio is close to the national average. For families weighing whether to buy or rent near the school, the rental market appears relatively affordable compared to ownership costs.
Chesterfield Township itself offers a suburban lifestyle with parks, a community center, a senior center, and waterfront access for boating and fishing. No public library or township-level transit system was identified. The township has been investing in park expansion through state grants and describes itself as positioned for continued growth. The built environment is car-dependent, with civic and educational facilities distributed across the township rather than concentrated in a walkable core.
For a family seeking a suburban elementary school with above-county-average proficiency, a relatively homogeneous student body, and access to a waterfront community, Naldrett presents a reasonable option. The fifth-grade results and the absence of trend data are the areas worth pressing on, and the district's recent grade reconfiguration is something any prospective family should clarify before enrolling.
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