The top reported proficiency rate is 61% in English language arts. The lowest is 21% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Vanderbilt Charter Academy
Vanderbilt Charter Academy is a single-school charter district in Ottawa County, Michigan, serving kindergarten through eighth grade. It operates as its own district entity with one building, and its enrollment is modest for a K-through-8 charter. The student body is majority Hispanic, with a substantial white population and smaller shares of multiracial, Black, Asian, and American Indian students. Information on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, special education enrollment, and English learner status was not available in the data provided, so those pieces of the picture are missing here rather than absent from the school itself. A parent wanting a full sense of the student support profile would want to ask the school directly.
On state assessments, the academy shows a clear pattern: younger grades tend to perform well, particularly in English language arts. Third, fourth, fifth, and seventh graders all post ELA proficiency rates that are strong, with seventh grade standing out as especially high. Math is stronger in the early grades too, with third grade performing well, but it dips notably in fifth grade and stays lower through eighth. The same slide appears in science and social studies, where proficiency in the tested grades is low, and social studies proficiency in fifth grade is especially weak. The overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places Vanderbilt below the midpoint among Ottawa County's districts. A parent may want to look into how the school supports students through the upper elementary and middle-grade transition, since the data suggests that is where results thin out.
Because Vanderbilt serves only through eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. That is expected for a school with this grade band, not a gap in performance. There are also no Advanced Placement, dual-credit, or career pathway data in the payload, which is consistent with a K-through-8 setting where those programs would not typically apply.
Chronic absenteeism is a concern. The rate sits in the bottom quartile among Ottawa County's districts, well above the county median. This is the kind of figure that can quietly undermine classroom learning even when instruction is solid, and it is worth asking the school what attendance supports are in place. Per-pupil current spending falls in the middle range of county districts, on the lower half, which tells a parent that resourcing is neither unusually lean nor especially high compared with neighbors.
The district brief search found no specific recent changes such as curriculum shifts, referendums, or property-tax actions, and no locale brief was available for the surrounding community. Without that context, it is hard to say how housing, commuting, or neighborhood growth might shape a family's experience here. What the data does support is a picture of a small, diverse charter school where early literacy is a genuine strength, where math and science get shakier as students move into the upper grades, and where absenteeism is high enough to warrant attention. Families drawn to a smaller, culturally mixed K-through-8 environment may find a fit here, particularly for the early grades, and should pair that with direct questions about middle-grade academic support and attendance strategy.
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