Alice M Birney K8 School, Southfield MI

Original Research by School Decision on Alice M Birney K8 School

Alice M.Birney K-8 School sits on Evergreen Road in Southfield, an inner-ring Detroit suburb that doubles as one of metropolitan Detroit's largest business hubs. The city is built around freeways and office parks rather than a traditional walkable downtown, with a Civic Center complex, Lawrence Technological University, and a redeveloping Northland Center mall site as its main anchors. The housing market in the school's zip code runs well below both the state and national benchmarks, and below the broader Oakland County median listing price. Homes here are relatively affordable for the region, and rents are moderate, though mortgage costs at current rates outpace rents by a meaningful margin. For families looking at the area, the cost of entry is lower than in most of Oakland County.

Birney is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, part of Southfield Public School District. The enrollment is small for a K-8 building, and the student body is almost entirely Black, with a very small number of students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school does not report IEP or English-learner counts in the data we received, so those pieces of the student-support picture are missing here.

State assessment results from the most recent year show a school struggling academically. In math, proficiency is very low across every tested grade, from third grade through eighth, with results sitting in the single digits for most grades and one grade showing essentially no students reaching proficiency. English language arts tells a more mixed story. The upper elementary grades show moderate proficiency, with third, fourth, and fifth grades each landing in a healthier range, and eighth grade on the PSAT posting the school's strongest ELA result. But the middle grades, sixth and seventh, drop back to single-digit proficiency. Science results are low in both tested grades, and social studies is similarly weak, with fifth grade showing near-zero proficiency and eighth grade reaching only a modest share.

Placed against districts in Oakland County, Birney's overall proficiency index lands in the bottom quartile. This is a county with a wide range of outcomes, and the school sits well below the county median. A parent weighing Birney may want to look into what academic support and intervention structures the school and district have in place, particularly in math and in the middle-grade years where results dip most sharply. The ELA results in the upper grades suggest some students are reading at grade level, and understanding what drives that relative bright spot could be useful.

Because Birney ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. The school also does not report chronic absenteeism or course-access data such as AP, dual credit, or career pathways, which is expected for a K-8 building. Discipline and staffing data were not available in what we received.

The district context adds one more layer. Southfield Public School District consolidated to a single high school, Southfield A&T, after a prior school year, and voters passed a bond issue to improve and right-size district facilities. That capital investment may bring changes to buildings like Birney, and it carries property-tax implications for residents. The district's strategic priorities beyond the bond were not available in our data, so we leave that out rather than guess.

What Birney offers is a small, community-rooted K-8 pathway in an affordable corner of a business-heavy suburb, with a predominantly Black student body and a high-needs population. The academic results are a genuine concern, particularly in math, and a family considering this school should ask direct questions about how the building supports students performing below grade level and what the trajectory looks like into the district's consolidated high school.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 32% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 40 pts below county median

Grade 411%

School 11% · District 22% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 42 pts below county median

Grade 69%

School 9% · District 14% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 33 pts below county median

Grade 77%

School 7% · District 19% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 33 pts below county median

Grade 86%

School 6% · District 11% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 323%

School 23% · District 34% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 433%

School 33% · District 35% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 534%

School 34% · District 36% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 611%

School 11% · District 27% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 32 pts below county median

Grade 79%

School 9% · District 34% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Grade 835%

School 35% · District 48% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 40 pts below county median

Science

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 25% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 39 pts below county median

Grade 815%

School 15% · District 19% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 39 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 28% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

This schoolSouthfield Public 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 3Lower-income14%Higher-income39%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income40%Higher-income25%15 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income8%Higher-income18%10 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income8%Higher-income10%2 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income33%Higher-income40%7 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income6%Higher-income14%7 pp gap