The top reported proficiency rate is 29% in English language arts. The lowest is 20% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Barhitte Elementary School
Barhitte Elementary School sits on Roberta Street in Burton, a suburban community directly east of Flint in Genesee County. The school serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Bentley Community School District, one of three districts entirely contained within Burton's city limits. The enrollment is modest for an elementary building spanning seven grade levels, and the student body is predominantly white, with smaller Hispanic, multiracial, and Black populations making up the remainder. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which speaks to the economic conditions in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Burton itself has no traditional walkable downtown. Civic life clusters around a municipal campus on South Center Road, where City Hall, the police department, the public works building, and the Veterans Memorial sit together between East Bristol Road and Maple Avenue. The city grew from the Atherton Settlement, an early agricultural community, into a sprawling residential suburb. Publicly reported census figures show a slow, steady population decline over the past decade or so, and the built environment is car-dependent, with residents commuting to work by car. The housing market here is among the more affordable corners of Genesee County. Typical home values in the school's zip code sit well below the state and national benchmarks, and listing prices across the county have been climbing modestly. Homes move at a moderate pace, with inventory and demand roughly in balance. For a family looking to buy into the area, the cost of entry is relatively low compared with much of Michigan.
Academically, Barhitte's state assessment results from the most recent M-STEP cycle show a school working from a lower base. In math, proficiency declines as students move up through the grades, with third graders posting the strongest results and fifth graders the weakest. English language arts follows a different pattern: proficiency rises from third grade to fifth grade, with the oldest tested students reaching a higher level than the youngest. Science and social studies are tested only in fifth grade, and results there land lower than the ELA figures. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint among districts in Genesee County, which is a reasonably positioned result given the county's mix of suburban and urban systems. That said, the absolute proficiency levels remain modest, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand how instruction is structured across the grade bands and what supports are in place for students performing below grade level.
No trend data was available for prior years, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability. Participation rates for the assessments were also missing from the data. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report, and chronic absenteeism data was not provided.
The Bentley district has recently made an investment that directly affects the youngest learners at Barhitte. In 2025, voters approved a bond to renovate a donated medical office building next to the middle school into a dedicated preschool facility, the Little Bulldogs Learning Center, which opened in January 2026. Before this, the district had only a single preschool classroom at Barhitte. The new center expands early childhood capacity, which may ease pressure on Barhitte's pre-kindergarten program and give families more options for the years before kindergarten.
The school's setting is straightforward: a regular public elementary in an affordable, car-oriented suburb with stable enrollment, a student population with substantial economic need, and test results that sit in the middle of the county pack. Families considering Barhitte will find a community where housing costs are low, civic amenities like Kelly Lake Park and the For-Mar Nature Preserve are nearby, and the district has shown a willingness to invest in early childhood infrastructure. The academic numbers are the part a parent would want to probe, asking the school directly about its approach to literacy and math instruction and how it supports children who arrive below grade level.
See more original research from School Decision →