The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in Social studies. The lowest is 21% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on David Ellis Academy
David Ellis Academy is a small, single-district charter operator in Wayne County, Michigan, running two schools that together serve a little over two hundred students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Although the official grade span lists PK through 12, the enrollment data shows no students in grades nine through twelve, so the school functions as an elementary and middle school in practice. The student body is entirely Black, which is a defining characteristic of the school's peer environment. Free-or-reduced-price-lunch data, special-education counts, and English-learner figures were not available in the data we received, so we cannot speak to those dimensions.
On Michigan's M-STEP and PSAT assessments, the most recent results paint a mixed picture. Math proficiency is low across nearly every tested grade, with only a small share of students reaching proficiency in grades three through eight. English language arts tells a different story. The middle grades stand out, with sixth-grade ELA proficiency reaching a level well above what the elementary grades show, and eighth-grade ELA proficiency reaching a notably high mark. Science and social studies results fall in between, with eighth-grade social studies particularly strong while fifth-grade science and social studies remain low. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint among Wayne County's districts, which is a reasonable standing given the county's wide range of outcomes. A parent looking at these numbers may want to ask the school about how it supports math instruction in the elementary and early-middle grades, and about what drives the stronger ELA results in the upper grades.
The school's chronic absenteeism rate, by contrast, is among the lower rates in the county, placing David Ellis Academy in the top quartile among Wayne County districts on that measure. That is a genuine strength, since attendance is foundational to everything else a school tries to do. Per-pupil spending sits in the upper range compared with peer districts, suggesting the school directs a relatively high level of resources toward each student.
No graduation rate is reported here, and the reason is straightforward: the school does not currently enroll students in the high school grades, so the standard four-year graduation metric does not apply. A family looking at David Ellis Academy for a high school pathway would need to look elsewhere or ask the school directly about its plans for the upper grades, since the stated PK-through-12 designation does not yet have enrolled high school students behind it.
The district brief points to one clear directional shift. David Ellis Academy is in the process of becoming an official Leader In Me school, adopting Stephen Covey's 7 Habits as a leadership-development framework woven alongside core academics. This is a pedagogical choice that emphasizes personal responsibility, goal-setting, and student leadership, and families who value that character-and-leadership orientation may find it appealing. Those who prefer a more conventional or specialized academic model may want to understand how much classroom time is devoted to the framework.
We looked for a locale brief, housing data, and community context for the surrounding area, but none was available in the data provided, so we cannot describe the neighborhood, housing market, or broader economic setting. The comparison fact-set, which positions the school among Wayne County's districts, is the only external benchmark we have. Within that set, David Ellis Academy reads as a small, intensely focused school serving a uniform student population, with respectable attendance, above-average resource levels, uneven but sometimes strong academic results, and a leadership-oriented pedagogy now taking root.
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