St Clair Middle School, Saint Clair MI

Original Research by School Decision on St Clair Middle School

St. Clair Middle School sits in the small riverfront city of St. Clair, Michigan, serving grades five through eight as part of the East China School District. The school draws from a community that blends residential neighborhoods with a downtown anchored by Palmer Park and its freshwater boardwalk along the St. Clair River. The area has a working industrial side, with Cargill Salt operating a large solution mine and evaporation facility in town, while the riverfront itself carries upscale housing. St. Clair has long attracted visitors from Metro Detroit, and seasonal events like the Art Fair, Boat Races and River Fest, and a Shakespeare festival give the downtown a lively summer rhythm. Home values in the school's zip code sit above the Michigan state benchmark but below the national one, with recent year-over-year appreciation outpacing both the state and national rates. The price-to-income ratio suggests a market that is manageable for many working families but not inexpensive, especially along the river.

The middle school's enrollment is moderate for its grade band, with students spread fairly evenly across the four grades. The student body is predominantly white, with small representation from other racial and ethnic groups. Just over a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not available, so those population sizes are unknown here.

On state assessments, the school shows a clear pattern: English language arts is the stronger subject, while math lags. In ELA, proficiency rates range from the upper thirties to low forties in the middle grades, and eighth grade stands out with a strong majority of students scoring proficient. Math results are weaker across all four grades, with proficiency rates mostly in the low twenties to high twenties, though seventh grade reaches the upper thirties. Science proficiency sits in the upper thirties for both tested grades. Social studies shows a wide gap between fifth grade, where results are low, and eighth grade, where a majority of students reach proficiency. When measured against districts in St. Clair County, the school's overall proficiency lands below the midpoint, with the county's higher-performing districts reaching well above and the lower-performing ones sitting well below.

A parent weighing this school will see real strength in literacy and writing, particularly as students approach high school. The math results are a softer area, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking what supports, interventions, or curriculum adjustments are in place for students who are not yet proficient. The data does not include participation rates, so it is not possible to confirm how completely each grade was tested. Multi-year trend data was not available, so there is no way to tell from the provided information whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability.

The broader district context offers some reasons for optimism about investment in programming. The East China School District recently opened an Early Childhood Center and an Innovation Center on the same campus as its administration building, both within the past few years. These additions signal a district that has been putting resources into expanding its educational facilities, though the provided data does not detail what specific middle school programming has changed as a result.

Information on discipline, chronic absenteeism, staffing ratios, course access, and school locale classification was not available in the data provided. Those gaps leave questions about the day-to-day school environment that a family would want to explore directly. Graduation rates do not apply here, since this is a middle school serving grades five through eight. State testing data and demographic information are the strongest parts of what is available, giving a family a reasonable if incomplete picture of academic outcomes and peer composition.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 33% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 620%

School 20% · District 21% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 737%

School 37% · District 34% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 31% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 52% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 36% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 741%

School 41% · District 41%

▲ 7 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 872%

School 72% · District 67% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Science

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 42% · ▼ 3 pts below district

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 839%

School 39% · District 39% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median · even with county median

Social studies

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 27%

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 856%

School 56% · District 53% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

This schoolEast China 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 5Lower-income43%Higher-income56%13 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income22%Higher-income50%28 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income35%Higher-income42%7 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income67%Higher-income75%8 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income23%Higher-income32%9 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income30%Higher-income39%9 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income18%Higher-income35%18 pp gap