Geer Park Elementary School, Dearborn MI

Original Research by School Decision on Geer Park Elementary School

Geer Park Elementary School sits on Prospect Street in Dearborn, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of Dearborn City School District. It is a regular public school with an enrollment typical for an elementary building of its grade band. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller Black and Hispanic populations and a few students of Asian and multiracial background. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, reflecting the economic profile of the surrounding neighborhoods. The school did not report counts for English learners or students with individualized education programs, so those populations are hard to gauge from available data; a parent may want to ask the school directly about support services in those areas.

On Michigan's M-STEP assessments, results were mixed across subjects and grade levels. English language arts tends to be the stronger area, with proficiency rising as students move into the upper elementary grades and reaching a moderate level by fifth grade. Math is more uneven. Third graders showed the best math performance among the tested grades, while fourth grade proficiency dropped sharply before recovering somewhat in fifth. Science, tested only in fifth grade, landed at a moderate level. Social studies, also a fifth-grade-only test, was the weakest area reported. When placed against other schools in Wayne County, Geer Park's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint, meaning students here outperform the typical county school across tested subjects and grades, though the gaps in math and social studies are areas a parent may want to look into further with the school.

Dearborn itself is a dense inner-ring suburb of Detroit with a distinct identity. It is the world headquarters of Ford Motor Company, and the River Rouge Complex remains a defining industrial presence. The city became the first Arab-majority city in the United States, with Warren Avenue and surrounding corridors lined with Arab American-owned restaurants, markets, halal butchers, and small businesses shaped by waves of Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Iraqi, and Yemeni immigration. The built environment is largely suburban and auto-oriented, though the Warren Avenue corridor has pedestrian-scale commercial activity. The city has an extensive park system with multiple pools, and the Rouge River provides natural corridors. Major institutions are spread across separate campuses rather than clustered in a single downtown, including the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Henry Ford College, the Henry Ford museum complex, and the Arab American National Museum. Dearborn has one of the only growing populations in Michigan, with a young age profile that the city emphasizes as part of its appeal.

The housing market around Geer Park is relatively affordable compared with state and national benchmarks. Home values sit well below what you would find in many Michigan communities, and rents are moderate. Within Wayne County more broadly, the market has been cooling, with rising inventory and softening demand, which may give families more room to maneuver.

Dearborn City School District offers a distinctive benefit: free K-14 education, allowing students to earn an Associate's degree at no cost. The district also launched a Virtual K-12 program, providing a fully online option with district teachers that remains available to families across Wayne County. For a family considering Geer Park, the school provides a standard elementary pathway within a district with unusually broad offerings, situated in a community with strong cultural character and affordable housing, though academic results suggest math and social studies are the areas most worth probing.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 335%

School 35% · District 54% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 413%

School 13% · District 43% · ▼ 30 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 41% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 43% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 434%

School 34% · District 45% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 49% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Science

Grade 534%

School 34% · District 34%

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 26% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

This schoolDearborn City 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 4Lower-income31%Higher-income44%13 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income36%Higher-income46%10 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income9%Higher-income25%16 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income23%Higher-income31%7 pp gap