The top reported proficiency rate is 36% in English language arts. The lowest is 24% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Burr Oak Elementary School
Burr Oak Elementary School is the single K-through-8 building serving the Burr Oak Community School District, a small rural district in southeastern St. Joseph County. The village of Burr Oak is a quiet, primarily residential community with a compact downtown of late-1800s commercial buildings, surrounded by agricultural land. Manufacturing is the dominant local industry, followed by health care and social assistance, and most working residents commute to jobs elsewhere. There is no public transit and no active rail service. The nearest limited-access highway is the Indiana Toll Road to the south, with state routes M-66 and US-12 passing through the township. Civic life centers on the township library and township office, both clustered near the village core, and the R-11 Classic Car Museum, a local institution that draws visitors but employs at a small scale. The village's population has held relatively steady with a slight decline over recent census cycles, and the township master plan points to farming and an aging population as defining characteristics. No major housing developments or commercial construction projects appear in publicly reported sources.
The school's enrollment is small, with a single class section per grade. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the working-class character of the community. The student body is predominantly white, with a small Hispanic presence and a small share of students identified as two or more races. Data on individualized education programs and English learners was not reported, so those population sizes are not available here. Because the school tops out at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and the building does not carry high-school-level measures such as AP or career pathway offerings in the available data. Program offerings beyond the standard curriculum were not included in the data provided.
On state assessments, the most recent results show a mixed but generally modest academic picture. In English language arts, the upper grades stand out as the relative bright spot, with sixth and eighth grade producing the strongest proficiency rates among the tested grades. Middle grades ELA performance sits above what several other grades posted and appears to be the school's area of relative strength. Mathematics results are weaker across nearly every tested grade, with most grades landing in the lower portion of the reported range and few students reaching proficiency. Science and social studies results fall in a similar modest band, with fifth and eighth grade science both landing below a third of tested students demonstrating proficiency. The small number of test-takers in each grade means a few students moving above or below the proficiency line can shift a grade's results noticeably from year to year, so these figures should be read with that context in mind rather than as a stable trend.
When positioned against its peers, Burr Oak's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint among districts in St. Joseph County, a set of roughly ten districts. The school lands closer to the middle of the county pack than to the top or bottom, with its ELA results doing more of the lifting and its math results pulling the index downward. This is a school whose academic standing is best described as middling within its county, with a visible gap between literacy outcomes and mathematics outcomes that a parent may want to look into further with the school.
Housing in the Burr Oak zip code is affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit well below the Michigan statewide figure and roughly half the national benchmark, and the price-to-income ratio is favorable for a working household. Year-over-year home values have appreciated at a healthy clip recently, though from a low base. Rent data was not available for this area, so a rental-market read could not be assembled. For a family considering the area, the housing market is accessible, and the community offers a quiet rural setting with short driving distances to civic institutions and the school itself. We looked for district-level changes such as bond issues, curriculum shifts, or property tax referendums and found no publicly reported recent developments, so that section was left out rather than guessed at.
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