The top reported proficiency rate is 11% in English language arts. The lowest is 7% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Marquette Elementary School
Marquette Elementary School sits in the city of Muskegon, the county seat of Muskegon County and the most populous city along Lake Michigan's eastern shore. It is a regular public school in the Muskegon Public Schools of the City of district, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The enrollment is modest for an elementary building, with the bulk of students concentrated in the early grades. Nearly every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is predominantly Black, with smaller Hispanic, white, and multiracial groups. The school lists a pre-kindergarten grade, though current enrollment shows no students in that grade.
On the most recent state assessments, Marquette's proficiency results are low across every tested subject and grade. Third-grade math proficiency is near the bottom of the reported range, with only a handful of students reaching proficiency. Fourth-grade math is somewhat higher but still low. Fifth-grade math fell into the lowest reported band, with no students scoring proficient. English language arts follows a similar pattern: third, fourth, and fifth grade each showed proficiency in the low teens or below. Science proficiency among fifth graders was also low, and social studies proficiency for the same grade fell into the lowest reported range, with no students reaching proficiency. Against the comparison set of districts in Muskegon County, Marquette's overall proficiency index sits in the bottom quartile. A parent weighing this school may want to look into how the building supports students working below grade level and what interventions are in place.
The data does not include participation rates for the state assessments, and IEP and English learner counts were not reported, so those dimensions are not available here. Chronic absenteeism figures were also missing from the comparison data, so attendance patterns could not be assessed.
Muskegon itself is a working lakefront city with a manufacturing heritage rooted in lumber, then paper, automotive parts, tools, machinery, and chemicals. It remains the largest port on Lake Michigan's eastern shore. Downtown stretches along Muskegon Lake and serves as the county's civic hub, with a convention center completed in 2021, Trinity Health Arena, the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts, the Muskegon Museum of Art, and a farmer's market that draws heavy summer traffic. The Muskegon Lakeshore Bike Trail connects the lakefront to Lake Michigan, and Pere Marquette Beach is the largest free public beach on the eastern shore. Muskegon Community College sits on its own campus, with university partnerships through its Stevenson Center. The city has been turning a corner on environmental cleanup, with the EPA moving to remove Muskegon Lake from its Areas of Concern list, a step expected to draw new investment to downtown and nearby lakefront neighborhoods.
Housing in the school's zip code is affordable relative to state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit below the Michigan median and well below the national median, and rents are moderate. Price-to-income ratios are favorable, and rent takes up a modest share of household income. For families renting, this is a relatively accessible market; for those looking to buy, mortgage costs remain close to or below rents, though current mortgage rates are elevated.
At the district level, Muskegon Public Schools recently passed a bond proposal for building improvements, with the tax debt rate held steady, meaning facility upgrades without a property tax increase. The district also secured a state career-tech expansion grant to grow four specialized programs at the secondary level: Business and Entrepreneurship, Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing, Criminal Justice and First Response, and Digital Media and Design. These do not affect Marquette directly, but they signal a district investing in secondary pathways that students here would eventually feed into.
Marquette is a small, high-poverty elementary school in an affordable lakefront city with active civic life and a district putting money into facilities and career programs. The academic results as measured by state tests are weak across the board, and that is the central fact a family should weigh. What the school is doing to move those numbers, and how it supports children behind grade level, is the question worth asking directly.
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