The top reported proficiency rate is 21% in Math. The lowest is 7% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Northeast Elementary School
Northeast Elementary School sits on Fleming Avenue in Jackson, a mid-sized industrial city that serves as the county seat of Jackson County. The school is part of Jackson Public Schools and serves kindergarten through fifth grade. Its enrollment is steady across the grade levels, and the student body is diverse. White students make up the largest share, followed by Black students, students of two or more races, and Hispanic students, with small Asian and American Indian or Alaska Native populations. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places Northeast among the schools serving the highest-need populations in its area. Data on English learners and special education counts was not available, so those figures are left out rather than guessed.
State testing results from the most recent M-STEP administration show Northeast struggling to move students to proficiency. In third grade math, roughly one in five tested students reached proficiency. By fourth and fifth grade math, the reported proficiency range fell to the lowest bracket the state publishes. English language arts followed a similar arc, with third grade showing the strongest result and proficiency declining as students moved into fourth and fifth grade. Fifth grade science and social studies results were also at the bottom of the reported range. Taken together, Northeast's overall proficiency sits in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Jackson County, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand what supports and interventions are in place.
Because Northeast is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism data was not available. Information on staffing ratios, discipline, course access, attendance patterns, and any specialized programs was also absent from the data provided, so those dimensions are named as gaps rather than filled.
Jackson itself has deep roots in automotive manufacturing, with more than two dozen car brands once built there. The auto parts industry remains one of the largest employers of skilled machine operators in the county, and major private employers today include CMS Energy, Henry Ford Health, and Eaton Corporation. Downtown Jackson has a compact core with the Bright Walls mural project, two historic Coney Island restaurants near the train station, and the Michigan Theatre. The Michigan Central Railroad Jackson Depot, the nation's oldest train station in continuous active use, sits on East Michigan Avenue. Outside the downtown core, the city is auto-oriented, built around the junction of I-94 and US highways with several state routes converging on the center.
Jackson has experienced long-term population decline tied to industrial restructuring, though the broader metropolitan area has held more stable. Adaptive reuse is part of the city's development approach, with the Armory Arts Village converting a historic prison building into an artists' residential community. The housing market in the school's zip code is quite affordable compared with state and national benchmarks, with home values well below the Michigan median and roughly a third of the national figure. Rents are modest as well. For families considering buying, the price-to-income ratio is favorable, and estimated monthly mortgage costs run below typical rent levels.
At the district level, Jackson Public Schools has a bond proposal for 2025 that would affect property taxes and school facility investments. Two elementary schools opened in fall 2021, Cascades Elementary and John R. Lewis Elementary, the latter a renovation and reopening of a formerly closed building renamed to honor Congressman John Lewis. These additions expanded the district's elementary options, though Northeast itself was not among the newly opened or renovated buildings.
For a family evaluating Northeast, the picture is one of a school serving a high-need community in an affordable, historically industrial city. The academic results are low across tested subjects and grades, and the school sits near the bottom of its county cohort on proficiency. Those numbers are facts to weigh directly. The surrounding neighborhood offers relatively inexpensive housing and access to a downtown with genuine cultural life, but the academic data points to challenges a parent would want to discuss with school leadership before deciding.
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