The top reported proficiency rate is 38% in English language arts. The lowest is 15% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Max Paun School
Max Paun School is a regular public elementary school in Lincoln Park, Michigan, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. It is part of the Lincoln Park School District of the City of, a system whose campuses are spread across the city's residential neighborhoods rather than clustered in a single downtown core. The school sits on Bailey Avenue, in a community that developed as a bedroom suburb for workers at Detroit-area steel mills and auto plants. Today Lincoln Park is among the most densely populated municipalities in Michigan, with walkable neighborhoods and commercial corridors along Fort Street and Southfield Road.
The school enrolls a modest number of students for its grade band. Nearly all qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic profile of the surrounding community. The student body is majority Hispanic, with a substantial White minority and a smaller Black enrollment. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not reported, so those figures are not available here.
On Michigan's M-STEP assessments, Max Paun's results show a mixed but generally improving trajectory as students move up the grades. Third-grade proficiency is the softest point in both math and English language arts. By fourth grade, proficiency rises notably in both subjects, with English language arts reaching the school's strongest mark. Fifth-grade results hold fairly steady in math and English language arts but dip in science and social studies. Science proficiency is low, and social studies is lower still. When these results are combined into an overall proficiency index and compared against districts in Wayne County, Max Paun sits above the midpoint. That positioning gives a reasonable read: the school is performing better than many of its county peers on state assessments, even as the absolute proficiency levels leave clear room to grow. A parent concerned about the third-grade numbers or the fifth-grade science and social studies results may want to look into this further with the school.
No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability over time. Participation rates were also not reported. The school does not have graduation rate data, which is expected because it serves only elementary grades. Chronic absenteeism figures were not available either.
The housing market around Max Paun is affordable by both state and national standards. Home values in the school's zip code are well below the Michigan median and far below national benchmarks. Rents are similarly modest. The broader Wayne County market has seen inventory grow and listing prices ease somewhat, which could give families more options. Lincoln Park's population has been declining in recent years, and no major new housing developments were identified in publicly reported sources. The city has been investing in infrastructure, including a water meter replacement program, and Hispanic-owned businesses continue to open along the main commercial corridors.
We looked for recent district-level changes that might affect families and found little of lasting impact, so there is nothing to report on that front. Program offerings, staffing details, discipline data, and course access information were not provided for this school.
Max Paun fits a family looking for a small, community-rooted elementary school in an affordable, dense, walkable suburb. Its assessment results are above the county midpoint despite serving a student population with very high economic need. The weaker spots in early-grade proficiency and in fifth-grade science and social studies are real, and worth asking about. But the upward movement between third and fourth grade suggests the school is doing something right as students progress through the building.
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