The top reported proficiency rate is 30% in English language arts. The lowest is 12% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Crescent Academy
Crescent Academy is a public school district in Oakland County, Michigan, serving pre-kindergarten through ninth grade across three schools: Crescent Academy Elementary, Crescent Academy Middle School, and Crescent Academy PK1. The district sits within a county that contains dozens of districts, and Crescent Academy's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it below the midpoint among those neighbors.
The student body is striking in its composition. Nearly every enrolled student is Black, with only a handful of students identified as Hispanic, white, or multiracial. This makes Crescent Academy one of the most racially concentrated districts in a county that, broadly speaking, is far more diverse. The enrollment is modest for a district spanning so many grade levels, with several dozen students per grade in the elementary and middle years and a small ninth-grade cohort. Free or reduced-price lunch data, special education rates, and English learner figures were not available in the data we received, so we cannot characterize the economic profile or the share of students receiving specialized services.
On Michigan's M-STEP and PSAT assessments, the most recent results paint a mixed but generally sobering picture. English language arts is the relative bright spot. Proficiency rates in ELA hold steady from third through seventh grade, sitting in the upper twenties by proportion, and then rise sharply in eighth grade to a level that stands apart from the rest of the district's results. Math tells a harder story. Third and fourth grade math proficiency sits in the low twenties, but by fifth and sixth grade it drops into the teens, and by seventh and eighth grade the reported proficient count falls to essentially zero, placing those grades in the lowest reported range. Science results are low in both tested grades, and social studies is weaker still, with fifth grade proficiency particularly thin. A parent weighing this district for a middle-grade student may want to look into how math instruction is structured in the upper grades, since the decline from elementary to middle school is steep.
The district does not report a graduation rate, and this makes sense given its grade span. Crescent Academy serves through ninth grade, so students who remain in the district would transition elsewhere for the rest of high school. There is no AP, dual-credit, or career pathway data available for this district, and no information on course offerings beyond what the state assessment structure implies.
Chronic absenteeism stands out as a serious concern. Among Oakland County's districts, Crescent Academy's chronic absenteeism rate falls in the bottom quartile, meaning a substantially larger share of students miss school regularly than is typical for the county. The county median for chronic absenteeism is itself elevated, but Crescent Academy sits well above that. This kind of attendance pattern correlates with weaker academic outcomes, and it may partly explain the proficiency gap between Crescent Academy and its neighbors. A family considering enrollment would do well to ask the school directly what attendance supports and interventions are in place.
On the finance side, per-pupil current spending at Crescent Academy sits in the upper half of the middle range among Oakland County districts. The district is investing at a level above the county median, which suggests resources are not the binding constraint relative to peers.
We looked for recent district-level changes that would matter to parents, such as leadership transitions, program additions, or facility updates, but the search did not surface anything specific meeting that bar. No locale brief was available for the community or housing context, so we cannot characterize the surrounding neighborhood, housing market, or commute patterns from the data provided.
What the data supports is this read. Crescent Academy is a small, nearly exclusively Black district in Oakland County with spending above the county median but academic results below the county midpoint, a sharp drop in math proficiency as students move into middle grades, and a chronic absenteeism rate among the highest in the county. ELA is the area of relative strength. Families drawn to a district where their child will be part of a predominantly Black peer environment may find that appeal here, and those whose children are strongest in reading and writing may find more to work with than the math numbers suggest. The attendance and upper-grade math patterns are the questions most worth raising with school leadership before committing.
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