Scripps Middle School, Lake Orion MI

Original Research by School Decision on Scripps Middle School

Scripps Middle School sits in Lake Orion, a small village in northeast Oakland County that began as a resort town and has grown into something of a bedroom community. An all-sports lake anchors the village, with seasonal and year-round residences on its islands and a compact historic downtown along Broadway Street. The wider Orion Township area offers extensive trail systems and green space, though the township itself is more car-dependent than the walkable village core. Lake Orion Community Schools serves the area, and the district has recently invested in facilities: Blanche Sims Elementary was rebuilt and reopened, and a dedicated Early Childhood Center opened in fall 2021.

Scripps itself is a regular public school serving grades six through eight, with an enrollment that is moderate for a middle school in this band. The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic students forming the next largest group, followed by smaller Asian and multiracial populations and a very small Black enrollment. A relatively low share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which lines up with the area's housing market and income profile. The school does not carry a charter or magnet designation. Data on Title I status, special education rates, English learner counts, discipline, staffing, and attendance was not available in the sources we reviewed, so those dimensions remain open questions a parent may want to raise directly with the school.

Academically, Scripps posts strong results across the board on Michigan's state assessments. In English language arts, proficiency rates are solid in sixth and seventh grade and then jump sharply in eighth grade, where students take the PSAT rather than the M-STEP. Math proficiency is more mixed, with seventh grade dipping below the sixth and eighth grade results, while eighth grade math on the PSAT lands close to the sixth grade M-STEP figure. Eighth grade science and social studies proficiency are both healthy. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it in the top quartile relative to districts in Oakland County, which is a high-bar comparison set given the county's concentration of affluent suburban districts.

Because Scripps is a middle school, there is no graduation rate to report. That metric simply does not apply to this grade range. Chronic absenteeism data was also missing from the available sources. We looked for trend data comparing this year's results to prior years, but the state flagged a cut-score change in social studies, making clean year-over-year comparisons unreliable, so we have left that out rather than draw a conclusion the data does not support.

The housing market around Scripps reflects a comfortable suburban setting. Home values in the school's zip code sit above both the state and national benchmarks, and the county-level market shows steady activity with a healthy supply of active listings and homes moving at a moderate pace. Median listing prices in Oakland County have eased slightly year over year, while the local zip code's value has continued to climb. Mortgage rates hover in the mid-six range, and the estimated monthly mortgage for a typical home in this area is substantial, though rent affordability looks more manageable relative to local incomes.

For a family weighing Scripps, the picture is one of a well-performing middle school in a lake-oriented community with a modest downtown and strong outdoor recreation access. The academic results are a clear strength, particularly in English language arts. The gaps in available data on special populations, discipline, and staffing mean that parents whose children need specific supports or accommodations will want to ask the school directly about those services rather than infer from what is published. The seventh grade math dip is worth a conversation as well, since it stands out against otherwise consistent results.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 658%

School 58% · District 52% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 748%

School 48% · District 50% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 858%

School 58% · District 49% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 665%

School 65% · District 60% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Grade 759%

School 59% · District 58% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 880%

School 80% · District 78% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Science

Grade 860%

School 60% · District 63% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Social studies

Grade 867%

School 67% · District 69% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

This schoolLake Orion 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 6Lower-income52%Higher-income69%17 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income37%Higher-income65%28 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income61%Higher-income85%25 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income36%Higher-income63%27 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income17%Higher-income56%39 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income42%Higher-income62%20 pp gap