Norup International School, Oak Park MI

Original Research by School Decision on Norup International School

Norup International School sits in Oak Park, a dense inner-ring Detroit suburb in Oakland County, and operates as a K-through-8 building within the Berkley School District. The name carries an international framing, though the data provided does not describe a specific IB or international curriculum, so a parent would want to ask the school directly about what that designation means in practice. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and it draws a moderately sized enrollment for its grade span.

The student body is one of the more diverse profiles you will find in this part of Oakland County. White students make up a slight majority, with Black students forming a large minority and smaller groups of multiracial, Hispanic, and Asian students rounding out the population. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, lower than many urban-ring schools. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not available, so those dimensions of the school's support environment are not described here. A parent may want to look into those details with the school directly.

On state assessments, Norup produces results that place it in the top quartile among Oakland County districts on a composite proficiency index, well above the county median. The standout is eighth-grade English language arts, where proficiency runs remarkably high. Eighth-grade science and social studies are also strong. Across the upper grades, ELA results tend to outpace math. Math proficiency hovers in a moderate band from third through seventh grade, with sixth grade sitting lowest. Fifth-grade social studies is the weakest result in the set, and a parent might reasonably ask how that subject is sequenced and supported across the intermediate grades. The overall picture is a school where literacy and content knowledge in the upper grades are clear strengths, while math is solid but more middle-of-the-pack.

Oak Park itself is a community that publicly brands itself as business-minded and family-centered. The built environment is postwar suburban, laid out on a grid of mile roads with a freeway running along the northern edge. There is no traditional walkable downtown described in the available material. Civic life centers on a municipal complex, and the city offers a community center, library, municipal pool, ice arena, and parks. Annual events like Summerfest and Winterfest bring periodic street life. Publicly reported sources note that the city was once called America's Fastest Growing City during its midcentury expansion, but population has slightly declined since the 2020 census. Major employers include a FedEx distribution center on a former armory site and the WeatherGard window manufacturing headquarters. The city is served by three different school districts, with Berkley being one of them.

The housing market around the school is relatively accessible for the region. Home values in the school's zip code sit below both the Oakland County and state benchmarks, and rents are moderate. Countywide, listing inventory has been growing and median listing prices have eased recently, which may give families more options. Homes move at a moderate pace, with a median time on market of roughly a month.

Within the Berkley School District, two facility changes are worth noting. A new athletics and recreation complex called The BEAR is under construction near the high school and is publicly reported to open in fall 2026. A repurposed facility called The Den will house an adult transition program and a robotics program starting in fall 2025. Neither is at Norup itself, but both signal a district investing in specialized and co-curricular programming that may benefit students as they move through the system.

What Norup offers a family is a diverse, mid-sized K-through-8 pathway with strong upper-grade literacy and content results, situated in an affordable inner-ring suburb with solid public amenities. The math results are competent but not exceptional, and the missing data on special populations leaves a gap that a prospective parent should fill by contacting the school directly.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 362%

School 62% · District 57% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 60% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 57% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 649%

School 49% · District 44% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 756%

School 56% · District 48% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 858%

School 58% · District 50% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 353%

School 53% · District 51% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 56% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 61% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 760%

School 60% · District 59% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 889%

School 89% · District 89%

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Science

Grade 562%

School 62% · District 65% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 878%

School 78% · District 71% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 40 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 47% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 878%

School 78% · District 71% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

This schoolBerkley School District, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income32%Higher-income62%30 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income44%Higher-income59%16 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income68%34 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income23%Higher-income61%38 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income25%Higher-income70%45 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income37%Higher-income74%37 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income25%Higher-income74%49 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income68%38 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income23%Higher-income54%31 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income29%Higher-income63%34 pp gap