The top reported proficiency rate is 20% in English language arts. The lowest is 10% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on United Oaks Elementary School
United Oaks Elementary School sits in Hazel Park, a compact inner-ring suburb of Detroit, where single-family homes on tree-lined streets define the neighborhoods and commercial life clusters along Nine Mile Road. The city is small and dense, with civic functions anchored at the corner of Nine Mile and John R Road, where city hall, the public library, the police station, and the post office all share a single block. Interstate 75 cuts through the city, and the former Hazel Park Raceway site is being redeveloped into warehouse space for an Amazon distribution center, adding a commercial and industrial layer to what has been a predominantly residential community. Publicly reported sources note that Hazel Park's population has declined slightly in recent estimates, and the housing stock is split between owner-occupied and renter-occupied homes. Schools in the city have been recently renovated, and the Hazel Park Promise Zone program guarantees resident graduates of Hazel Park Schools a tuition-free path to an associate's degree.
United Oaks is a regular public school serving kindergarten through fifth grade, part of the Hazel Park School District of the City of. The enrollment is moderate for an elementary building in this area, with fairly even distribution across the grade levels. The student body is diverse in composition, with white and Black students each making up the largest shares, and smaller percentages of multiracial, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Asian students. A very large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic conditions of the surrounding community. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not available in the provided sources, so those figures cannot be characterized here.
On state assessments, United Oaks shows proficiency rates that are low across subjects and grade levels. In mathematics, proficiency declines as students move up, with third grade posting the highest rate among the tested grades and fifth grade the lowest. English language arts follows a similar pattern, with proficiency in the upper teens to low twenties across grades three through five. Science, tested only in fifth grade, shows a similarly modest share of students reaching proficiency. Social studies, also a fifth-grade test, posts the lowest proficiency rate among all reported subjects. When compared to districts across Oakland County, United Oaks sits in the bottom quartile for overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades. The comparison set used here is the county's districts, and within that group United Oaks falls well below the county median. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking what instructional supports and interventions are in place and how the building is working to move students toward grade-level expectations.
No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent a decline, stability, or improvement over time. Participation rates were also missing from the data. Because United Oaks is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report, and the same applies to chronic absenteeism data, which was not provided in the available sources.
The housing market in the surrounding zip code is modest relative to both Oakland County and the state as a whole. Home values sit well below county and state benchmarks, and the estimated monthly mortgage on a typical home in this area is lower than the typical rent, suggesting that ownership may be relatively accessible for families with stable income. Rents are also moderate. At the county level, the housing market shows active and new listings increasing year over year, with homes spending roughly a month on the market.
United Oaks fits a family looking for a small, neighborhood elementary school in a diverse, working-class community where housing costs are comparatively low. The academic results are a soft spot, and families considering the school would benefit from asking direct questions about how the building supports students who are below grade level and what the district's improvement priorities are. We searched for recent district-level changes and found little of lasting impact reported, so there is no major shift or restructuring to flag here.
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