The top reported proficiency rate is 26% in English language arts. The lowest is 17% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Brick Elementary School
Brick Elementary School sits on Whittaker Road in Ypsilanti, serving kindergarten through fifth grade as part of Lincoln Consolidated School District. It is a regular public school with an enrollment that is mid-sized for an elementary building in this area. The student body is diverse in composition, with a white plurality, a substantial Black population, and smaller Hispanic and multiracial groups rounding out the enrollment. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which signals the economic pressures many families in this attendance area face.
State testing results from the most recent M-STEP administration paint a picture of a school working from a low baseline. In math, proficiency rates climb as students move up the grades, with third grade showing the weakest results and fifth grade reaching a somewhat higher level. English language arts follows a similar pattern, with fourth grade the strongest of the three tested grades. Fifth-grade science and social studies results land at the lower end as well. Aggregated across tested subjects and grades, Brick's overall proficiency sits in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Washtenaw County. This is a clear soft spot. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking what intervention and support structures are in place and how growth is tracked for individual students. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say from the provided data whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. That gap is a function of the grade band, not a missing expectation. Chronic absenteeism data was not available. Information on staffing ratios, course access, discipline, and attendance was absent from the data we received. We looked for program offerings and found none listed, so we left that out rather than guess. English learner and special education enrollment figures were also missing. Title I status was not reported.
Ypsilanti itself is a college town shaped by Eastern Michigan University. The campus is interwoven with the city's commercial life rather than walled off from it. Downtown and Depot Town, both built around turn-of-the-century architecture, function as the city's civic and social hubs, with the West Cross Street district adding student-oriented dining and nightlife near the university. The Huron River runs through the city, and the Border-to-Border Trail provides a regional recreational path. Ypsilanti holds the second-largest contiguous historic district in Michigan, which gives its core neighborhoods a distinct built character. The city has convenient highway access via I-94 and sits roughly thirty miles west of Detroit.
Economically, Ypsilanti has transitioned from a manufacturing base toward education and services. Eastern Michigan University is the dominant employer. The former GM Powertrain facility has long since closed, and the city has been working on redevelopment strategies for vacant parcels near downtown through its master plan and state economic development programs. That transition is still in progress.
The housing market in the school's zip code is moderately priced by national standards, sitting just below the national benchmark and above the Michigan state benchmark. Typical home values have edged up modestly year over year, and rents have risen at a slightly faster clip. Renting remains meaningfully cheaper than carrying a mortgage at current interest rates, which may matter for families weighing near-term costs against buying into the area.
We searched for parent-relevant changes within Lincoln Consolidated School District and found little of lasting impact reported, so there is nothing concrete to relay on that front. The district-level picture is quiet in the data we received. For a family considering Brick, the core questions are academic: the proficiency numbers are low, and the comparison to neighboring Washtenaw County districts places this school near the bottom. The community offers walkable historic neighborhoods, university-adjacent amenities, and relative housing affordability for the region. What the school is doing to move its students forward is the question worth asking directly.
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