The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in English language arts. The lowest is 23% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Ferndale Upper Elementary Campus
Ferndale Upper Elementary Campus sits on Rosewood Street in Oak Park, an inner-ring Detroit suburb laid out on a grid of mile roads in Oakland County. The school is part of Ferndale Public Schools, one of three districts that split Oak Park's territory alongside Oak Park Schools and Berkley School District. The campus serves the upper elementary band, with the bulk of its enrollment concentrated in grades three through five, plus a small number of first and second graders. Ferndale recently restructured its elementary grades, opening a Lower Elementary School for K through two in Fall 2024, also on Rosewood Street, so this Upper Elementary campus is the receiving school for children aging out of the lower building.
The student body is modest in size for a grade band this narrow. It draws a nearly even mix of Black and White students, with a smaller group identifying as two or more races. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school does not report English-learner or special-education figures in the data provided, so families whose children need those services will want to ask the school directly about what is available.
Oak Park itself is a dense, postwar suburban community bordered by Eight Mile Road to the south and Eleven Mile to the north, with the Reuther Freeway running along its northern edge. Publicly reported amenities include a community center, library, municipal pool, ice arena, sledding hill, and sports courts at Shepherd Park and other sites. Annual events like Summerfest, Winterfest, and the Independence Day parade bring periodic street life to what is otherwise a quiet residential and commercial landscape. The city has described itself as business-minded and family-centered, with a FedEx distribution center and the WeatherGard window manufacturing headquarters among its larger employers. Census data shows a slight population decline since 2020, following decades of explosive mid-century growth driven by the GI Bill and highway construction. Housing in the school's zip code sits well below both state and national benchmarks for typical home value, and rents are similarly modest relative to the broader county. Oakland County's market has been cooling somewhat, with median listing prices easing and days on market lengthening, which may give families more room to find entry-level homes near the school.
On Michigan's M-STEP assessments, the school shows a clear pattern. English language arts results are the strongest area, with proficiency rates approaching half of tested students across all three grades. Science proficiency for fifth graders lands in a similar range. Mathematics is the softer spot, with third-grade proficiency declining as students move into fourth and fifth grades, where fewer than a quarter of tested students reach proficiency. Fifth-grade social studies results are also low. Measured against the set of districts in Oakland County, the school's overall proficiency sits below the midpoint. This is a place where literacy instruction appears to be landing more firmly than math, and a parent whose child tends to need extra support in quantitative subjects may want to look into what intervention resources the school offers. Trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say from the provided information whether these results represent improvement or decline from prior years.
Because this is an elementary campus, there is no graduation rate to report, and the absence of that metric simply reflects the grade band served. Similarly, chronic absenteeism and discipline data were not provided, so those dimensions of school climate cannot be characterized here. Course access and staffing details were also absent from the data.
What the picture supports is a school serving a working- and middle-class community in an affordable corner of Oakland County, with a diverse student body and solid literacy outcomes but math results that trail the county's middle tier. Families drawn to Oak Park's density, civic amenities, and relative housing affordability may find here a straightforward public elementary pathway, with the caveat that math support is worth asking about before enrolling.
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