Carpenter School

Carpenter School is an elementary school in Ann Arbor, MI, serving 363 students in grades K-5 as part of the highly-rated Ann Arbor Public Schools district, located in the southeastern part of the city near the Ypsilanti border.

Carpenter serves a more economically diverse student population than many of its district peers, with over half of its students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. This is reflected in its academic performance, which lags behind nearby schools like Martin Luther King Elementary School and Burns Park Elementary School, where proficiency rates in subjects like 3rd grade ELA and 5th grade math are often 40-50 percentage points higher. In fact, Carpenter's scores are more comparable to schools in the neighboring Ypsilanti Community Schools district than to its own district's average. However, the school shows notable strengths: its White and Hispanic students perform well above state averages, and its 4th grade cohort in the most recent testing year scored near district averages in both ELA and math, suggesting that specific grade-level teams and cohorts can achieve strong results. The school also has a lower chronic absenteeism rate (27.2%) than the district average (35.7%), indicating good attendance recovery post-pandemic.

Despite receiving higher per-student funding ($21,784) than more affluent district schools, Carpenter's spending is lower than Mary D. Mitchell School ($26,207), which serves a similar demographic. The most significant challenges are the achievement gaps for low-income students and male students, who rank in the bottom quartile and bottom third statewide, respectively. Additionally, 5th grade social studies proficiency is just 14.3%, a 36-point gap from the district average. For parents, Carpenter offers a supportive, diverse environment with some bright spots, but the inconsistent performance across grade levels and subgroups suggests that outcomes depend heavily on the specific classroom and teacher your child is assigned to.