Mar Lee School, Marshall MI - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Mar Lee School

Mar Lee School is a single-building public school district serving kindergarten through eighth grade outside Marshall, in rural Calhoun County. It is a small, community-rooted school with a modest enrollment spread across those nine grades. The student body is predominantly white, with a smaller Hispanic presence and very few students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on English learners and special-education enrollment was not available, so those populations could not be characterized here.

On Michigan's state assessments, the school's results tell a mixed but broadly above-average story for the region. When all tested subjects and grades are averaged, Mar Lee sits in the top quartile among districts in Calhoun County, above the county median. That standing is driven largely by strong English language arts performance, particularly in the upper grades. Third-grade ELA starts strong, dips through the middle elementary grades, recovers in sixth grade, and then posts a striking result in eighth grade, where the large majority of tested students reached proficiency on the PSAT. Eighth-grade science and social studies results are also strong, with clear majorities of students clearing the proficiency bar in both subjects.

Math is the soft spot. Proficiency begins at a moderate level in third grade, then declines through the middle grades, with sixth and seventh grade posting the lowest results. Eighth-grade math on the PSAT recovers somewhat but remains modest. The gap between the school's literacy and numeracy outcomes is wide enough that a parent considering Mar Lee may want to look into how math instruction is structured across the grade bands, especially as students move from elementary into middle grades. Small tested cohorts at each grade level mean year-to-year results can swing with the composition of a single class, so the pattern matters more than any one grade's result.

Because the school stops at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. That gap reflects the grade band, not a missing outcome. Data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing ratios, and course access was also not available in the sources reviewed, so those dimensions of school environment could not be assessed. No information on specialized programs, extracurriculars, or curricular pathways was provided, and the district brief turned up no recent referendums, curriculum changes, or other parent-relevant developments.

Marshall itself is a small historic city and the Calhoun County seat, known for a large National Historic Landmark District with architecture spanning Greek Revival through Art Deco. The town has deep agricultural roots, with strong FFA and 4-H tradition and the oldest operating county fair in Michigan. A walkable downtown lines Michigan Avenue along the old Business Loop I-94, with the courthouse, city hall, and historical society museums clustered in the core. The surrounding area is rural and compact. Housing in the school's zip code sits below both the state and national benchmarks, with a price-to-income ratio that looks affordable by national standards, though current mortgage rates near six and a half percent shape what that affordability means in monthly terms for a family buying now.

The publicly reported Ford BlueOval Battery Park project on the Marshall Megasite looms over the area's near future. The battery manufacturing facility, sited in adjacent Marshall Township with land transferred to the city for utility access, represents a major industrial shift for a town whose identity has long been tied to preserved historic character and small-town civic life. Public opposition accompanied the land transfers, and the project will likely reshape employment, population, and demand for local services over the coming years. For a family settling in the Mar Lee attendance area, that transition is the backdrop to watch. The school's standing relative to its county neighbors is solid today, but the community around it is in the early stages of a change whose full shape is still taking form.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 42%

even with state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 425%

School 25% · District 25%

▼ 13 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 28%

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 615%

School 15% · District 15%

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 718%

School 18% · District 18%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 28%

even with state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 353%

School 53% · District 53%

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

Grade 436%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 46%

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

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 880%

School 80% · District 80%

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Science

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 865%

School 65% · District 65%

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

Social studies

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 38%

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

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 63%

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

This schoolMar Lee School District, 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 5Lower-income29%Higher-income44%14 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income30%Higher-income22%8 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income24%Higher-income30%7 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income30%Higher-income13%17 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income16%Higher-income38%22 pp gap