The top reported proficiency rate is 26% in English language arts. The lowest is 16% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Regent Park Scholars Charter Academy
Regent Park Scholars Charter Academy is a single-school K-8 charter district operating in Wayne County, Michigan, in the Detroit metro area. It serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade, with enrollment distributed fairly evenly across those grades. The student body is predominantly Black, with a small number of students identifying as two or more races and a handful from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. The data did not include free-or-reduced-price lunch counts, English learner counts, or special education enrollment, so the economic and special-population picture here is incomplete. Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and no AP, career pathway, or dual-credit data to draw on.
On Michigan's state assessments, the most recent results paint a mixed and generally concerning academic picture. In math, third grade starts as the strongest point, with proficiency at a moderate level, but results drop sharply in fourth and fifth grades to very low levels. Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade math proficiency remains in the teens. The pattern suggests students arrive with some foundation that erodes as they move through the upper elementary years and does not recover in middle school.
English language arts tells a more interesting story. Proficiency in third through sixth grade hovers in a low band, with fifth grade the weakest point. But seventh grade shows a clear uptick, and eighth grade stands out as a genuinely strong result on the PSAT, with well over half of tested students reaching proficiency. That eighth-grade ELA result is the single brightest data point in the school's academic profile. Science and social studies follow a similar arc, with fifth-grade results quite low and eighth-grade results markedly stronger, suggesting the school may be doing its most effective work with older students as they approach high school transition.
Compared with other districts in Wayne County, Regent Park's overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint of the county's districts, which is a large set of over a hundred districts. Per-pupil current spending falls in the lower half of the middle range for the county, meaning the school operates with less financial resource than the typical Wayne County district but not at the very bottom. The chronic absenteeism rate, though, is in the bottom quartile for the county, well above the county median. That level of chronic absenteeism is a serious challenge and likely interacts with the proficiency results, since students who are not consistently present cannot build skills steadily. A parent considering this school would want to ask directly about what the school is doing to improve attendance and what supports exist for families facing transportation or other barriers.
No program offerings, staffing details, discipline data, or course-access information were available in the provided data, so there is little to say about extracurriculars, enrichment, or school climate beyond the assessment and attendance figures. No locale brief or community economic context was provided, so housing, neighborhood character, and local demographics are not covered here. A publicly reported search for recent district-level changes turned up nothing meeting a lasting-impact bar, so there are no recent program launches, closures, or governance shifts to note.
What the data does show is a school with a homogenous student body, lean funding, a serious attendance problem, and math results that need attention across nearly every grade. The eighth-grade ELA, science, and social studies results suggest the school can produce capable students by the end of the K-8 sequence, at least in some subjects. Whether that late-grade strength can be pushed earlier into the elementary years is the central question a parent should bring to a conversation with school leadership. For a family seeking a small, predominantly Black charter environment in the Detroit area, Regent Park is an option worth visiting, but the proficiency and attendance figures warrant careful follow-up before committing.
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