Mark C Roose Elementary School, Warren MI

Original Research by School Decision on Mark C Roose Elementary School

Mark C. Roose Elementary School sits on Marcy Street in Warren, a large inner-ring suburb of Detroit and the most populous community in Macomb County. Warren is an auto-oriented city built on a six-by-six-mile grid of mile roads and wide arterial corridors, with no traditional downtown and a texture defined by mid-century residential subdivisions, strip commercial strips, and major industrial employers. General Motors, the U.S. Army Detroit Arsenal, and Stellantis all operate major facilities here, making Warren one of the most industrially significant suburbs in metro Detroit. The city has been losing population gradually for years, and its housing stock is aging, but it remains Michigan's third-largest city.

Roose is a regular public elementary school serving kindergarten through fifth grade, part of Center Line Public Schools. The district, though based in the small enclosed city of Center Line, serves portions of surrounding Warren as well. Roose itself was renovated recently, and the district has made capital investments in its K-5 buildings, including a newly built Peck Elementary. At the high school level, the district has restructured into wall-to-wall career academies combining Career and Technical Education, Advanced Placement, and global offerings, with the goal that every graduate earns post-secondary credit or an industry-recognized certification. That pathway structure is something a Roose family would eventually feed into.

The school's enrollment is moderate for a K-5 building. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is racially diverse, with Asian, white, and Black students each making up roughly a quarter to a third of the population, smaller shares of Hispanic and multiracial students, and a tiny American Indian presence. Data on English learners and special education populations was not available, so those figures cannot be characterized here.

On Michigan's M-STEP assessments, Roose shows a clear pattern: younger grades are weaker, and proficiency climbs substantially by fifth grade. Third-grade math and English language arts proficiency rates are low, with roughly one in five students proficient in math and fewer than that in ELA. Fourth grade improves modestly in both subjects. By fifth grade, the picture shifts: math proficiency reaches a level approaching half the class, and ELA proficiency gets close to half as well. Fifth-grade science and social studies results land in a similar range. The school's overall proficiency index, which averages results across tested subjects and grades, sits below the midpoint among districts in Macomb County. The county's range is wide, and Roose falls in the lower portion of it. A parent may want to look into what drives the fifth-grade jump, whether it reflects cumulative instruction, smaller class composition, or something else, and how the school supports the earlier grades where proficiency is lower.

No graduation rate, chronic absenteeism rate, or participation rate data was available. The first two do not apply to a K-5 school. Participation rates were reported as missing by the source. No trend data across years was available for comparison.

Warren's housing market is relatively affordable. Home values in the school's zip code are well below both state and national benchmarks, and rents are modest. The broader Macomb County market has seen a recent increase in active listings and a slight pullback in median listing price, with homes spending a little over a month on the market. The area offers a price-to-income ratio that looks manageable against national norms, though current mortgage rates add carrying cost. For a family weighing Roose, the community context is a mature, working-class to middle-class suburb with deep ties to the auto industry, modest housing costs, and a school that serves a diverse, high-need student population with room to grow academically.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 320%

School 20% · District 25% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 16% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 20% · ▲ 22 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 317%

School 17% · District 23% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 428%

School 28% · District 21% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 549%

School 49% · District 30% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Science

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 22% · ▲ 18 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 20% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

This schoolCenter Line Public Schools, 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 4Lower-income24%Higher-income46%22 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income47%Higher-income58%12 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income18%Higher-income30%12 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income19%Higher-income31%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income42%Higher-income42%0 pp gap