The top reported proficiency rate is 27% in Math. The lowest is 23% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Edgemont Elementary School
Edgemont Elementary School sits in the small lakefront city of Belleville, Michigan, part of the Van Buren Public Schools district. Belleville wraps around the southern shore of Belleville Lake, the largest inland lake in Wayne County, and retains a small-town texture with a traditional downtown of restaurants, shops, and service businesses. The city is car-dependent, sitting near I-94 and other major highways, roughly equidistant from Detroit and Ann Arbor. Its population has been drifting slightly downward in recent years, and the city recently completed a full update of its Master Plan to guide future development. Schools here are within or near the downtown area rather than on remote campuses, given the city's compact footprint.
Edgemont serves kindergarten through fifth grade, though the current enrollment shows no students in the fifth grade. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. Its enrollment is moderate for an elementary building. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is majority white with a sizable Black population and smaller Hispanic and multiracial groups. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not available, so those populations could not be characterized here.
State testing results come from Michigan's M-STEP assessment. In math, roughly a quarter of third graders and close to a third of fourth graders demonstrated proficiency. In English language arts, proficiency was somewhat lower, with about a fifth of third graders and just over a quarter of fourth graders reaching proficiency. A science result was available only from an older testing cycle and showed very few students meeting the benchmark. Participation rates were not reported. Taken together, the current math and ELA results place Edgemont's overall proficiency above the midpoint among Wayne County districts, which is a reasonable standing given the county's wide range of outcomes. Still, proficiency levels leave room for growth, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly in early literacy where the results are softest.
No graduation rate, chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing, or course access data was provided for this school. Some of those gaps reflect the grade band: an elementary school does not produce a graduation rate, and certain high-school-oriented measures do not apply. Others simply were not reported in the available data.
The broader district context is relevant for families. Van Buren Public Schools passed a bond proposal that funds district-wide facility improvements, including a replacement building for Tyler Elementary, safety upgrades, HVAC and roofing repairs, technology, and athletic facility work at Belleville High School. That bond carries a property tax increase for residents, supplemented by a state grant for the Tyler Elementary project. Construction on the new Tyler Elementary began in late 2023 and the school is expected to open in fall 2025. While these improvements do not directly affect Edgemont's building, they signal a district investing in its physical plant and learning environments.
The housing market in Edgemont's zip code is relatively affordable compared with state and national benchmarks, with home values and rents both sitting below those wider reference points. The county-level market shows ample active listings and moderate days on market, with demand having cooled somewhat year over year. Rents remain modest relative to estimated mortgage costs, which may appeal to families not yet ready to buy.
What Edgemont offers is a conventional public elementary pathway in a small, lakeside commuter community with reasonable access to both Detroit and Ann Arbor. Its academic standing is middling-to-fair relative to Wayne County peers, with math stronger than literacy and science a lingering question mark. Families drawn to Belleville's character and affordability will find a school that fits the profile of its setting: unpretentious, community-rooted, and working within a district that is actively upgrading its facilities.
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