Clifford H Smart Middle School

Clifford H Smart Middle School, a heavily attended middle-grades school in COMMERCE TOWNSHIP, Michigan, operated by Walled Lake Consolidated Schools, educates 888 students, covering grades 6 through 8. By comparison, Michigan's public schools average about 502 students each, so Clifford H Smart Middle School sits 77% larger than that benchmark.

Across the 19 schools in Walled Lake Consolidated Schools (11,640 students total), Clifford H Smart Middle School accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Demographically, Clifford H Smart Middle School lists that nearly all students (84%) are White. The remainder consists of 6% Hispanic, 5% multiracial, 3% Black, 3% Asian. By comparison, Oakland County as a whole is about 69% White, so the school skews meaningfully more White than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, Clifford H Smart Middle School has 43 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 20.8:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 17.5:1 average. An estimated 20% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Oakland County runs at roughly 32%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat below the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Clifford H Smart Middle School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 57.4%, the actual is 59.8%, a residual of +2.5 points.

Around the school, community-level numbers for Oakland County indicate median household income runs about $97,760, roughly 51% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 5% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Oakland County's 345 public schools (combined enrollment of about 169,926 students), Clifford H Smart Middle School is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Keith Elementary School, around 1.0 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Clifford H Smart Middle School. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Clifford H Smart Middle School ranks 4th on composite proficiency, above the local average of 55.4%.

The campus sits in a residential setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 19%: 1,099 students in 2018 compared to 888 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 88% to 84% across the same window. Class-load math has narrowed: from 22.9:1 in 2018 to 20.8:1 in 2025.

On this page, members of the Clifford H Smart Middle School community share and discuss classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.