The top reported proficiency rate is 16% in English language arts. The lowest is 4% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Thompson Middle School
Thompson Middle School sits on Court Street in Saginaw, a city whose identity was forged in lumber and then automobile manufacturing under General Motors. Like much of the Rust Belt, Saginaw has watched its industrial base contract over decades, losing population and jobs as the plants that once anchored the local economy scaled back or closed. The city still carries a higher share of manufacturing employment than the national average, and current economic development efforts lean toward clean energy, innovation, and manufacturing exports. Downtown Saginaw, hugging the Saginaw River about fifteen miles inland from Saginaw Bay, holds the civic and cultural life of the city in venues like the Castle Museum, the Temple Theatre, and the Dow Event Center. The surrounding watershed includes the largest contiguous freshwater coastal wetland in the United States, and a National Wildlife Refuge sits nearby.
Thompson serves seventh and eighth graders as a regular public school in the Saginaw School District of the City of. The enrollment is modest for a middle school, and the student body is predominantly Black, with a substantial Hispanic presence and a smaller White population. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, reflecting the economic conditions of the surrounding community. The data does not include information on English learners or students with individualized education programs, so those populations are not characterized here.
On state assessments, Thompson's results are low across every subject and grade level. Math proficiency is minimal in both tested grades, with only a small handful of students reaching proficiency. English language arts shows somewhat higher rates, particularly in the upper grade, where roughly a quarter of tested students met the proficiency bar. Science and social studies results for the highest grade are similarly low. When measured against other districts in Saginaw County, Thompson sits in the bottom quartile for overall proficiency. A parent weighing this school may want to look into what academic supports and interventions the school offers, and how it plans to address these outcomes, since the data alone tells the story of a school with considerable ground to cover.
No participation rates were reported for any of the state assessments, so it is not possible to say from the data how complete the testing was. Chronic absenteeism figures were not available for Thompson, nor were discipline, course access, or staffing details. Because Thompson is a middle school, it does not have a graduation rate; that measure simply does not apply to this grade band. Program offerings were not included in the data, so any question about electives, extracurriculars, or specialized pathways would need to go directly to the school.
The housing market around Thompson is among the most affordable in the state. Typical home values in the school's zip code sit well below both the Michigan and national benchmarks, and rents are similarly low. The price-to-income ratio is close to the national norm, meaning that for local wage earners, ownership is relatively attainable compared with most of the country. Home values have been rising modestly year over year, and rents have crept up slightly, but neither has moved dramatically. For a family prioritizing low housing costs, the area offers that in clear terms.
The district itself recently underwent a major restructuring. In fall 2024, Saginaw United High School opened, merging what had been Arthur Hill High School and Saginaw High School into a single facility. The former Arthur Hill building became the Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy, and the former Saginaw High building became Saginaw Middle School. These changes reshape attendance boundaries and grade configurations across the district, and families with children moving beyond Thompson should expect the pathway into high school to look different from what older siblings may have experienced.
For a parent reading this, Thompson is a small, community-rooted middle school in a city working through the long aftermath of deindustrialization. The academic data is the most prominent feature of the picture, and it points to real challenges in student proficiency. The housing is affordable, the district is reorganizing, and the school sits in a city with a deep industrial heritage and a river-and-wetland geography that shapes the region. Whether Thompson fits a given family depends heavily on what the school offers day to day beyond what the data captures, and that is worth asking about directly.
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