The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 34%.
Original Research by School Decision on New Bedford Academy
New Bedford Academy is a single-school charter district in Monroe County, Michigan, serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It is authorized by Ferris State University, which publicly reported a reauthorization covering a new five-year term running through June 2029. That gives families some near-term certainty about the school's continued operation, which matters for a place this size.
The enrollment is very small. The current data shows a little over eighty students spread across kindergarten through eighth grade, with no pre-kindergarten students reported despite the grade band listing. A publicly reported district brief notes that enrollment has declined substantially over recent years, falling to sixty-three in the most recent CCD listing. For a single-school charter, that trajectory raises fair questions about program viability and economies of scale, and a prospective family would want to understand whether the school has a stabilization plan.
The student body is majority white, with a meaningful Hispanic presence and a notable share of students identifying as two or more races. Smaller numbers of Black and American Indian or Alaska Native students round out the enrollment. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not available, and the school's counts for students with individualized education programs and English learners were also missing, so the portrait of economic need and special-population support is incomplete from what was provided.
On state testing, most grade-level results were suppressed because too few students sat for the exams. That suppression is a direct consequence of the school's tiny tested cohorts, not a signal of weak performance being hidden. What is visible is limited. In fourth-grade English language arts, about a quarter of the small group tested reached proficiency. In seventh-grade ELA, roughly four in ten did. Seventh-grade math showed no students reaching proficiency in the tested group, with the reported range capped at the low end. No other grade or subject produced reportable results. The composite proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places the school in the bottom quartile among Monroe County's districts, though given how few cells produced data at all, that index should be read as a thin signal rather than a full picture.
Chronic absenteeism is a concern. The rate sits in the bottom quartile among the county's districts, well above the county median, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand what is driving it and what interventions are in place.
Per-pupil current spending is in the lower range among Monroe County's districts, below the county median. For a charter of this size, that can reflect lean overhead but also tighter margins for staffing and programming.
Because the school serves only through eighth grade, there is no graduation rate and no high school course access data. That is expected for the grade band, not a gap in reporting.
No locale brief, program offerings, staffing detail, civil-rights data, or discipline information was available in the payload, so those dimensions are left out rather than guessed.
What a parent is looking at here is a very small charter option with a stable authorization through 2029, modest available test results that lean low, a high chronic absenteeism rate, and declining enrollment. The strengths of a small-school setting, individual attention, and a known community are real, and a family drawn to that should weigh them against the thin academic evidence, the absenteeism level, and the enrollment trend. Asking the school directly about its academic plan, attendance strategy, and long-term enrollment outlook would be a reasonable next step.
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