The top reported proficiency rate is 19% in English language arts. The lowest is 10% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences
Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences is a Wayne County district serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, operating two schools: an elementary building and a middle school. The district sits within Detroit, and its enrollment is almost entirely Black students, reflecting the community it draws from. The district's name suggests an arts-and-sciences orientation, but no program-specific data was available to confirm what that means in daily practice, so a parent would want to ask the school directly about how that identity shapes instruction.
State assessment results from the most recent M-STEP and PSAT cycle paint a difficult academic picture. In math, proficiency rates are low across every tested grade, with the weakest results in eighth grade. English language arts shows a different pattern: proficiency is low in the early grades but rises meaningfully by sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, where roughly a quarter to nearly a third of students reach proficiency. Science and social studies results are also low, particularly in fifth grade. Among Wayne County's districts, the district's overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quartile, well below the county median. These are plainly weak outcomes, and a parent considering this district may want to look into how the school is responding, what intervention supports are in place, and how individual classrooms are approaching literacy and numeracy.
One factor that compounds the academic challenge is chronic absenteeism. The district's chronic absenteeism rate sits in the bottom quartile among Wayne County's districts, meaning students here are missing school at a substantially higher rate than the county median. When a large share of students are frequently absent, it becomes harder for any school to sustain grade-level instruction, and this is something a parent would want to understand: whether the school has attendance recovery efforts, whether transportation or family circumstances are driving the pattern, and what the school is doing to re-engage students who fall out of regular attendance.
On the resource side, per-pupil current spending is in the middle range among Wayne County's districts, sitting in the upper half. So the academic challenges here do not appear to stem from being the lowest-funded district in the county. How those dollars translate into classroom support, staffing, and intervention is a question the data does not answer.
Because the district stops at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and that gap reflects the grade range rather than a missing result. Similarly, the state does not report a four-year graduation rate for an entity that does not serve high school grades.
Several data points that would help a parent form a fuller picture were absent. Free-or-reduced-price lunch counts were not available, though the community context suggests most families would likely qualify. Individualized education program rates and English learner rates were also missing. No locale brief or community economic context was provided, so there is no housing, rent, or neighborhood information to draw on here. The district brief search found no recent parent-relevant changes, such as leadership transitions, program additions, or facility shifts, with lasting impact.
What the available data does say is this: Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences is a small district serving a close-knit, predominantly Black student body in Detroit, with per-pupil spending at a reasonable level relative to its county peers. Its academic results are weak, and chronic absenteeism is a serious headwind. A family considering this district should ask pointed questions about the arts-and-sciences program design, what tiered academic supports exist for students below grade level, and what the school is doing to improve daily attendance.
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