The top reported proficiency rate is 76% in English language arts. The lowest is 32% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Richard Elementary School
Richard Elementary School sits in Grosse Pointe Farms, an upscale residential suburb on the Lake St. Clair shore, part of the Grosse Pointe Public Schools system. The school serves kindergarten through fourth grade and operates as a regular public school. Because it stops at grade four, it has no graduation rate and no state testing results for the upper elementary science and social studies assessments that Michigan gives in fifth grade and beyond. What is available is a clear picture of early-grade academic performance, a distinctive community setting, and a housing market that shapes who can realistically enroll here.
On the most recent M-STEP results, Richard Elementary posted strong proficiency in both math and English language arts. Third-grade math proficiency sat well above the state midpoint, and fourth-grade math was higher still. English language arts followed the same pattern, with third grade solidly proficient and fourth grade even stronger. These results place the school in the top quartile across Wayne County districts on the combined proficiency index, a position that reflects consistently high performance across the tested grades and subjects. The countywide comparison set includes a large number of districts, many of which serve much higher-need populations, so the context matters. Still, the school's own numbers are genuinely strong.
Science and social studies results are older and come from years when the state tested fourth graders in science and fifth graders in social studies. The science result from the older testing cycle was lower, and the social studies figure from a later cycle was middling. Because Michigan has since shifted its science assessment to a different grade, these older numbers are not directly comparable to the current math and ELA results. A parent looking at the full picture may want to ask the school how science instruction has evolved since those older results.
The student body is small for an elementary school, with kindergarten the largest grade. The enrollment is predominantly white, with small numbers of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. A very small share of students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, among the lowest levels a public school reports. Information on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those dimensions of the school's support environment are gaps a family might ask about directly.
Grosse Pointe Farms itself is a community where schools and civic life are closely intertwined. The school district is the city's largest employer, ahead of the Country Club of Detroit. Richard Elementary, Kerby Elementary, Brownell Middle School, and Grosse Pointe South High School all sit within the Farms, along with the public library's central branch. The downtown commercial district on Kercheval Avenue, with its mix of historic and newer storefronts, functions as the community's center. The built environment is more varied than in the neighboring Grosse Pointes, with a mix of standard grid streets and curving, irregular roadways, and a low ridge running through the city. Pier Park and its harbor on Lake St. Clair, Kerby Field, and the Grosse Pointe War Memorial are key civic anchors. The community is densely institutional for a suburb its size, and families at Richard Elementary are embedded in that fabric rather than commuting to a separated campus.
The housing market in the school's zip code is the main gatekeeper. Typical home values are above the state benchmark, and rents are correspondingly elevated. The broader Wayne County market shows a large inventory of active listings and a median listing price well below the school's zip-level home values, which reflects the range of communities in the county. Within the Farms, the housing stock runs from older bungalows to mansions and some newer luxury homes on subdivided estates. The affordability gap between owning and renting here is modest compared with some markets, but both paths require substantial income. Publicly reported data indicates no major new housing developments in the city, so the school's enrollment footprint is unlikely to shift dramatically from new construction.
The district brief turned up no lasting parent-relevant changes within the recent search window. The most notable recent change publicly reported was the closure of two other elementary schools in the district due to declining enrollment, but that fell outside the window the brief covers and did not directly affect Richard Elementary. No strategic priorities or programmatic shifts were available.
What the assembled data shows is a small, high-performing early-grade school in an affluent, institutionally rich suburb, where academic results are strong, the peer environment is relatively homogeneous, and access is largely determined by the local housing market. Families drawn to a close-knit lakeside community with embedded public institutions and strong early-grade outcomes will find a clear fit here. Those seeking a more diverse peer group or information on specialized services will need to ask the school directly, because the available data does not speak to those questions.
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