The top reported proficiency rate is 54% in English language arts. The lowest is 37% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Knapp Charter Academy
Knapp Charter Academy operates as a single-school district serving kindergarten through eighth grade in Kent County, Michigan. The school sits in the Grand Rapids metro area, though specific locale and community context was not available in the data provided, so the picture here centers on what the academic and enrollment records show.
The student body is racially diverse, with Black students forming the largest group, followed by White students, and then Hispanic and multiracial students in roughly equal proportion. A small number of Asian and American Indian or Alaska Native students round out the enrollment. The total enrollment is modest for a K-through-8 school. Several important demographic indicators were not reported, including free-or-reduced-price lunch counts, special education rates, and English learner figures. A parent may want to ask the school directly about these supports and the socioeconomic mix of the classrooms.
On Michigan's M-STEP assessments, Knapp Charter Academy shows a clear pattern: English language arts is the stronger subject across most grade levels. Upper elementary and sixth-grade reading results are solid, with a majority of students reaching proficiency in fifth and sixth grade. Eighth-grade ELA, measured through the PSAT, also stands out as a relative bright spot. Third and fourth grade reading is more mixed, with about half of students proficient. Seventh-grade ELA dips noticeably, and a parent may want to look into what happens to reading instruction and support as students transition into the upper middle school grades.
Math tells a more uneven story. Third and fourth grade land around the middle, with roughly two-fifths of students proficient. Sixth grade is the strongest math result, with nearly half of students meeting the bar. But seventh and eighth grade math results drop off, with fewer than a third of students proficient in each. The eighth-grade math assessment shifts to the PSAT, which uses a different scale, but the proficiency level still sits well below the school's reading performance at the same grade. Science and social studies results are mixed, with eighth-grade social studies being the better of the two and fifth-grade social studies being among the weaker results across all subjects.
When placed among Kent County's districts, Knapp Charter Academy's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint, meaning its average proficiency across tested subjects and grades is higher than the county median. This is a reasonable showing for a diverse, modest-sized charter school. The per-pupil spending level falls in the middle range but on the lower half of the county's districts, which may reflect the tighter budgets typical of charter operations in Michigan. A parent might ask how spending levels translate into classroom resources, teacher retention, and specialist support.
Chronic absenteeism is a soft spot. The school's rate sits above the county median, meaning a larger share of students are missing a substantial number of school days than at the typical Kent County district. This is worth asking about, since chronic absence tends to track with lower academic outcomes and can signal challenges with engagement, transportation, or health access in the community.
Because Knapp Charter Academy does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. That gap simply reflects the grade band, not a missing measure of performance. A parent would want to understand where students typically go after eighth grade and how the school prepares them for that transition, but the data provided does not include high school feeder patterns or alumni outcomes.
The district brief search turned up little of lasting parent-relevant change, such as curriculum shifts, facility investments, or governance updates, so there is nothing to report there. No program offerings, course access details, staffing ratios, discipline data, or civil-rights indicators were available either, which leaves a fairly thin picture of the school environment beyond test results and demographics. A family considering Knapp Charter Academy would benefit from a direct conversation with school leadership about academic support structures, how the school addresses absenteeism, and what the transition to high school looks like for its graduates.
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