The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in English language arts. The lowest is 26% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on The James and Grace Lee Boggs School
The James and Grace Lee Boggs School is a single-school charter district in Wayne County, Michigan, serving kindergarten through eighth grade. It carries the name of two Detroit-based social justice and community organizing figures, which signals a mission-oriented identity rooted in the city's activist history. The school is small, with a single building and a compact enrollment spread across nine grade levels. Class sizes in the upper grades are particularly tight, with only a handful of students per grade in seventh and eighth. That intimacy is a defining feature: children here are known individually, and the peer group in any given year is modest.
The student body is predominantly Black, with a White minority and a smaller share of students identifying as Hispanic, two or more races, or Asian. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not reported, so the economic profile of the enrollment cannot be characterized from what is available. Information on special education and English learner populations was also missing. A parent whose child receives these services may want to ask the school directly about the supports in place, since the public data does not speak to them.
On Michigan's M-STEP assessments, the school's results tell a mixed but in some places encouraging story. English language arts is the stronger subject across the board. Proficiency in third, fourth, and fifth grade ELA sits in a moderate range, while sixth and seventh grade ELA reach higher levels, with seventh grade standing out as a particular bright spot. Math proficiency is more modest in the elementary grades, dipping in fourth and fifth, then rising in seventh. Fifth grade science and social studies results fall into a comparable middle-to-lower band. No eighth grade results were reported for any subject, which the school's own data explains: the tested count for eighth grade was zero, so results were suppressed. This often reflects a very small cohort rather than a lack of testing intent. A parent of an older child may want to ask how the school handles PSAT readiness for its eighth graders given that no results appear in the state record.
Measured against Wayne County's districts, the school's overall proficiency index lands in the top quartile, which is a strong position relative to a large and varied county field. That said, chronic absenteeism sits above the midpoint among county districts, and this is an area a parent may want to look into further with the school. Attendance is often a leading indicator of both academic engagement and school climate, and understanding the school's approach to keeping students coming regularly would be worthwhile. Per-pupil spending falls in the middle range on the lower half of the county's distribution, which is typical for a charter of this size operating without a traditional district's tax base.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. That gap is structural and expected for a K-through-eight entity. Families will need to plan a transition to a separate high school after eighth grade, and given the small size of the upper grades here, that transition will likely come with a noticeable shift in environment.
No locale brief or program offerings were available in the data provided. The district search for recent parent-relevant changes turned up nothing beyond static directory and profile information. Without program details, a parent would need to go directly to the school to learn about electives, extracurriculars, after-school care, or any specialized curricular themes beyond what the name suggests. The school's identity, tied to James and Grace Lee Boggs, points toward a pedagogy centered on community, citizenship, and place-based learning, but the data does not confirm specific programmatic features, so this should be treated as inference from the naming rather than confirmed fact.
What the data does show is a very small, mission-named charter school with a predominantly Black enrollment, solid ELA results that strengthen in the upper elementary and middle grades, more modest math performance, a strong proficiency standing relative to its county peers, and a chronic absenteeism rate that warrants attention. For a family drawn to a small, community-oriented environment and comfortable with the transition planning a K-through-eight school requires, this is a place worth a direct conversation.
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