Morse Elementary School, Troy MI

Original Research by School Decision on Morse Elementary School

Morse Elementary School sits on Cherry Drive in Troy, a mature, car-oriented Detroit suburb known for its corporate office parks, regional malls, and residential subdivisions. The school is part of the Troy School District, which operates twelve elementary schools, four middle schools, and two high schools spread across the city. Troy has no traditional walkable downtown; civic life clusters around destinations like the Somerset Collection and the city's community center rather than a pedestrian core. The housing market here is moderately expensive relative to the state, with typical home values well above Michigan's baseline and rents that have held roughly flat year over year. Oakland County's listing inventory has been rising, giving buyers more options than a year ago, but prices remain firm.

The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and has a moderately sized enrollment for an elementary building. Its student body is one of the more diverse in the area. Asian students make up the largest single group, followed closely by white students, with smaller Black and Hispanic populations and a handful of students identifying as two or more races. About two-fifths of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a meaningful share though not unusually high for Oakland County. The data did not include English learner or special education counts, so those pictures are incomplete here.

On state M-STEP assessments from the most recent school year, Morse shows a clear pattern. Third graders performed well in math, with a strong majority reaching proficiency, and a slim majority of third graders were proficient in English language arts. Results dip as students move up. Fourth grade math and ELA proficiency both land near the middle, and by fifth grade, math proficiency drops further. Fifth-grade science and social studies results are lower still, with only a quarter to a third of tested students meeting the proficiency bar. The trend is consistent across subjects: stronger early, softer later. A parent considering Morse may want to ask the school how it supports students in the upper elementary years, particularly in math and science, where the decline is most visible.

Against its Oakland County peers, Morse lands above the midpoint on a combined proficiency index across tested subjects and grades. That positions it as a solidly average-to-above-average school in a county with a wide performance range, even though its own results vary considerably by grade and subject.

Because Morse is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report, and the state does not test pre-kindergarten through second grade, so those grades have no assessment results. The data set did not include chronic absenteeism figures or participation rates for the tested grades.

Troy itself is a largely built-out suburb where growth has plateaued after decades of postwar expansion. Development now tends toward infill and redevelopment along commercial corridors rather than greenfield building. The city is home to major automotive and financial-sector employers, and its school district is one of the larger ones in the county. For families already in Troy or considering a move, Morse offers a diverse peer environment and respectable early-grade academic results, with questions worth raising about how well the school sustains that momentum through the upper elementary years.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 370%

School 70% · District 78% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 445%

School 45% · District 66% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 66% · ▼ 27 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 352%

School 52% · District 68% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 445%

School 45% · District 66% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 544%

School 44% · District 68% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Science

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 61% · ▼ 31 pts below district

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

Social studies

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 51% · ▼ 26 pts below district

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

This schoolTroy 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-income38%Higher-income61%24 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income29%Higher-income58%29 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income36%Higher-income49%13 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income56%Higher-income80%24 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income38%Higher-income51%14 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income24%Higher-income47%23 pp gap