Central Elementary School, Flushing MI

Original Research by School Decision on Central Elementary School

Central Elementary School sits on Coutant Street in Flushing, a small city that grew up as a mill town along the Flint River in the 1830s and today reads as a Flint suburb with its own identity. The Main Street corridor forms the civic and commercial heart, lined with Italianate and early twentieth-century commercial buildings that make up the Main Street Historic District. City Hall, the Flushing Area Museum in a restored railroad depot, and the Flushing Area Library, which relocated to Boman Street in late 2025, all cluster near this spine. Parks thread through daily life here: Riverview Park along the river, Cornwell Park at Main and Chestnut, and the Flushing Riverview Trail connecting the city to Flushing County Park. No public transit system is mentioned in available sources, so a family would likely rely on a car. Publicly reported data describes the population as essentially flat to slightly declining, with no major new housing developments noted.

Central is a regular public school serving grades one through six, part of Flushing Community Schools. The enrollment is moderate for its grade band, and each grade level carries a roughly similar number of students, which gives the school a balanced feel across the years it serves. Just over half the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a substantial share that signals real economic need in the community. The student population is predominantly white, with smaller Black and Hispanic groups and a handful of students identifying as Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or two or more races. Data on English learners and special education populations was not available, so those dimensions of the school's student support picture remain unclear from what we have.

On state assessments, Central's results tell a mixed but generally encouraging story. In English language arts, proficiency climbs as students move up the grades, with the strongest showing in fifth grade and a solid result in sixth. Math results are more uneven: third and fourth grade land in a middling range, fifth grade dips noticeably, and sixth grade rebounds somewhat. The fifth-grade science and social studies results stand out as genuine strengths, with a clear majority of tested students reaching proficiency in both subjects. That science performance is a particularly bright spot.

Against its peer set, Central compares well. Its overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it in the top quartile relative to districts in Genesee County, a position that reflects the school's stronger results more than its weaker ones. The comparison universe is county membership, so this is a read against neighboring Genesee County districts rather than a statewide or national benchmark. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is hard to say whether these results represent steady performance, improvement, or a snapshot in flux. Participation rate data was missing across all tested grades, which a parent may want to look into further with the school to understand how completely the student body was assessed.

Because Central serves only elementary grades, it has no graduation rate, and that metric does not apply here. Chronic absenteeism figures were also unavailable, as were discipline, course access, staffing, and attendance details, so the school environment picture beyond academics and demographics is thin. What the data does show is a school producing solid-to-strong results in several subjects, particularly science and social studies, with English language arts building momentum in the upper grades and math as the area where a family might reasonably ask the most questions.

The housing market around Central is relatively affordable. The typical home value in the school's zip code sits below both the state and national benchmarks, and county-level listing prices have been climbing, with homes moving at a moderate pace. Estimated mortgage costs are modest relative to national income figures, and the price-to-income ratio reads as approachable for a working family. Flushing's flat population and lack of noted new housing development suggest a stable, established community rather than one in rapid transition. For a parent weighing Central, the academic results are a draw, the economic diversity is real, and the setting offers a walkable small-town core with river and park amenities, all at housing costs that look manageable for the region.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 41% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 45% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 33% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 638%

School 38% · District 42% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 334%

School 34% · District 36% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 45% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 45% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 45% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Science

Grade 570%

School 70% · District 58% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 43 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 562%

School 62% · District 44% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 34 pts above state median · ▲ 39 pts above county median

This schoolFlushing Community 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 3Lower-income35%Higher-income33%2 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income28%Higher-income53%26 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income49%Higher-income55%6 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income43%Higher-income49%6 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income30%Higher-income54%24 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income36%Higher-income51%15 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income29%Higher-income31%2 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income29%Higher-income45%16 pp gap