Mark Twain Elementary School, Roseville MI

Original Research by School Decision on Mark Twain Elementary School

Mark Twain Elementary School sits on Calahan Road in Roseville, a mature inner-ring Detroit suburb in Macomb County. Roseville is a car-dependent community with no traditional walkable downtown. Commercial life runs along Gratiot Avenue, the main arterial that bisects the city, with retail anchors like the Macomb Mall and Eastgate Shopping Center drawing shoppers from the surrounding area. Interstates and mile roads shape daily travel here. The city has been slowly losing population for years, and its built environment is largely settled out, with most housing and commercial stock dating to the mid-twentieth century. Public schools are distributed across the city rather than clustered in a center, and Mark Twain is one of two Fraser Public Schools elementary buildings located within Roseville's boundaries, even though the Fraser district extends beyond the city.

Mark Twain serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade as a regular public school. It is not a charter or magnet school. The enrollment is modest for its grade band, with class sizes at each grade level in the mid-forties range. The student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful Black population and a smaller share of students identifying as Hispanic, Asian, or two or more races. Just over half the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which gives the school a working-class to lower-middle-class peer environment. Information on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not available in the data we received, so a parent wanting detail on those supports would need to ask the school directly.

On Michigan's M-STEP assessments for the most recent school year, the academic picture is mixed. English language arts results climb as students move up through the grades, with third grade posting the lowest proficiency rate and sixth grade the highest, a pattern that suggests students grow in literacy as they progress through the building. Math results move in the opposite direction, with third grade the strongest and sixth grade the weakest, hovering below a third of tested students showing proficiency by the upper grades. Fifth-grade science landed in a middling range, while fifth-grade social studies was the weakest subject area by a wide margin. When the school's overall proficiency is compared against districts in Macomb County, Mark Twain sits just above the midpoint, essentially in line with the county median. That places it as an average performer within its peer set, neither standing out near the top nor falling to the bottom.

No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results are improving, declining, or holding steady. Participation rates for the assessments were also missing from the data. A parent might want to look into both of those with the school or the Fraser district office.

Because Mark Twain is an elementary school serving only through sixth grade, it has no graduation rate, and that metric does not apply here. Chronic absenteeism data was not reported either. We looked for program offerings such as gifted services, arts, or extracurriculars, but the data did not include any, so we left that out rather than guess. The same is true for staffing details, discipline data, and course access information. The district brief for Fraser Public Schools did not return specific information about recent consolidations, closures, or strategic changes, so we cannot speak to those.

The housing market around Mark Twain is affordable by most benchmarks. Home values in the school's zip code sit well below the state and national medians, and rents are similarly modest. The county-level market shows a healthy supply of active listings with moderate demand, and homes tend to sell within a reasonable window. For a family looking to buy, the estimated monthly mortgage cost runs somewhat higher than local rent, which is worth weighing depending on how long a family plans to stay. Median household income in Roseville is below the national median, and the largest local employment sectors are manufacturing, health care, and retail trade. The community is not growing, but property values have been edging upward modestly.

What this school offers is a straightforward neighborhood elementary experience in an established, affordable suburb, with academic results that track close to the county average. Families whose priorities include a lower-cost housing market and a conventional public school pathway may find it fits. Those seeking above-average proficiency, specialized programs, or richer extracurricular offerings would want to dig further before deciding.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 46% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 35% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 26% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 628%

School 28% · District 35% · ▼ 6 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 39% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 38% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 544%

School 44% · District 38% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 51% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Science

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 34% · ▲ 6 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 20%

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

This schoolFraser 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 3Lower-income28%Higher-income50%22 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income33%Higher-income45%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income35%Higher-income55%20 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income38%Higher-income59%21 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income28%Higher-income56%29 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income13%Higher-income45%32 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income22%Higher-income46%24 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income24%Higher-income35%11 pp gap