Best Elementary Schools in Zip Code 48509

Zip code 48509 in Burton, Michigan, is home to two elementary schools—Weston Elementary School and Barhitte Elementary School—serving students from Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade across two separate districts, with both schools facing significant economic and attendance challenges.

For parents, the most important takeaway is that these schools serve a high-poverty population, with free/reduced lunch rates above 72% at both schools. Weston Elementary School, part of the Kearsley Community School District, is a PK-1 only school with 380 students and no standardized test data, making it difficult to gauge academic effectiveness. It does, however, spend more per student ($14,997) than its counterpart. Barhitte Elementary School, in the Bentley Community School District, serves the full PK-5 range with 309 students and provides the only testing data in the area. While its state ranking is low (25th percentile), it shows relative strength in 5th grade English Language Arts at 35.3% proficiency, just 8.5 points below the state average.

Chronic absenteeism is a critical concern at both schools, with Weston Elementary School reporting 40.1% and Barhitte Elementary School at 32.1%, both well above the state average of 27.9%. Academically, Barhitte Elementary School shows a dramatic "5th grade math cliff," with proficiency plummeting from 17.6% to just 5.88% in one year, and social studies proficiency is critically low at 9.8% versus the 27.5% state average. Parents should note that Barhitte Elementary School’s scores mirror its district exactly, meaning it is the sole tested school in the Bentley Community School District. Both schools would benefit from attendance initiatives and targeted academic support, particularly in math and social studies at the upper elementary level.