The top reported proficiency rate is 45% in English language arts. The lowest is 22% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Pierce Middle School
Pierce Middle School is a regular public school serving grades six through eight in the Waterford School District, located on Hatchery Road in Waterford, Michigan. It is one of two middle schools in the district, feeding into a high school system that is itself in transition. The school sits in a sprawling suburban charter township in Oakland County, roughly thirty miles northwest of downtown Detroit, an area defined by its dozens of named lakes and low-density residential subdivisions rather than a traditional walkable downtown.
The enrollment is moderate for a middle school, with roughly equal numbers across the three grade levels. Just over half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is majority white, with a Hispanic population making up the next largest share, followed by smaller Black, multiracial, Asian, and American Indian or Alaska Native groups. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not available, so those populations could not be characterized here.
On state assessments, Pierce shows a mixed academic picture. In English language arts, proficiency is moderate and fairly steady across sixth and seventh grades, then rises notably in eighth grade, where students take the PSAT rather than the M-STEP. That eighth-grade ELA result is the strongest single number in the school's profile. Mathematics tells a different story. Proficiency starts below the Oakland County median in sixth grade and declines through seventh and into eighth, where it drops further on the PSAT. Eighth-grade science proficiency sits below the county midpoint, while social studies lands closer to the middle of the range. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it below the midpoint among districts in Oakland County, a set that includes roughly fifty districts. A parent looking at these results may want to ask the school what interventions or instructional changes are underway in mathematics, particularly as students move from sixth to eighth grade.
No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability. Participation rates were also missing from the dataset. Because Pierce is a middle school, there is no graduation rate to report, and chronic absenteeism data was not provided.
Waterford itself is primarily residential and suburban. The township lost two major commercial tax sources when Summit Place Mall and a General Motors facility closed, and the local economy has been adjusting since. Major employers today are largely governmental and educational, including Oakland County government offices, Oakland Schools (the intermediate school district, headquartered in the township), the Waterford School District, and Oakland Community College's Highland Lakes Campus. Oakland County International Airport is also located here. Housing in the school's zip code is modestly priced relative to the broader county, with the typical home value sitting below the Oakland County median listing price and near the state benchmark. The county housing market has seen a recent uptick in active listings and a slight softening of median listing prices year over year, suggesting a market with growing inventory and somewhat eased competition compared to prior seasons.
The Waterford School District is undergoing changes that will affect Pierce families as they look ahead to high school. In June 2025, the school board voted to close Kettering High School and consolidate its students into Mott and Durant high schools beginning with the 2026-2027 school year, a decision driven by long-term enrollment decline. The redistricting will shift where some Pierce graduates attend high school. Voters in the district have also approved two bond proposals in recent years, one in 2022 and another in 2024, funding facility updates, safety improvements, technology, and conversions of classroom spaces into STEM labs without raising the tax rate.
No data was available on Pierce's program offerings, course access, staffing ratios, discipline, or attendance patterns, so those dimensions of the school environment could not be assessed. A family considering Pierce would benefit from asking the school directly about its math curriculum and intervention strategy, its academic and extracurricular offerings, and how the upcoming high school redistricting will affect its graduating eighth graders.
See more original research from School Decision →