Original Research by School Decision on Coppin Academy
Coppin Academy is a small charter high school in Baltimore, serving grades nine through twelve as part of Baltimore City Public Schools. It draws from the city's western corridor, with an enrollment that is nearly entirely Black and includes a substantial share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school operates as a regular public charter, meaning it has some autonomy from the district while remaining publicly funded and accountable to its authorizer.
On state assessments, only one year of testing data was available, covering the 2024-25 school year. That single snapshot shows a notable gap between subjects. In English language arts, proficiency was moderate, while in mathematics it was very low. Algebra 1 results mirrored the math picture. Because only one year of data exists, there is no trend to assess whether these results reflect a pattern or a starting point. Parents seeking a school with consistent academic growth will want to ask the school directly about its trajectory and any improvement plans.
The peer environment is shaped by the school's size and demographics. It is a relatively small high school, which can allow for more individualized attention, but the reported data does not include class sizes or student-to-teacher ratios. The student body is economically disadvantaged by a wide margin, and the racial composition is overwhelmingly Black, with a small Hispanic presence and negligible representation of other groups. Information on students with disabilities and English learners was not reported in the data provided, so a parent with a child who has an IEP or is learning English would need to contact the school for specifics on supports.
The housing market in the surrounding area is among the most affordable in Maryland. Home values are well below the state median, and rents are modest, though the cost of shelter nationally has been rising. For a family considering relocating into the attendance zone, the practical affordability is a factor, though Coppin Academy is a charter school and may have a citywide enrollment zone rather than a strict neighborhood boundary. The city of Baltimore itself is a dense urban environment with a mix of historic rowhouse neighborhoods, a walkable core around the Inner Harbor, and major employers anchored by Johns Hopkins. The city's population has been declining slightly, and a major infrastructure project to replace a collapsed bridge is underway.
From the district level, no recent parent-relevant changes or program shifts were reported in the data. That may simply mean nothing of large scale has been adopted recently, or that the research did not capture it. The school is part of Baltimore City Public Schools, a district that covers the entire city and serves a high-poverty student population across many schools.
Several pieces of information that parents commonly use to evaluate a high school are missing from the data. There is no graduation rate reported, no chronic absenteeism rate, no disciplinary data, and no list of course offerings, advanced placement, or career and technical education programs. Without these, a family cannot compare Coppin Academy to other high schools in Baltimore city on the metrics that matter most for college and career readiness. The comparison set that exists for this school, relative to districts in Baltimore city, could not be populated because the school's own data was absent for proficiency, graduation, and attendance measures. That absence does not imply weakness; it simply means the information was not available in the sources used for this profile.
For a parent, the picture is incomplete. Coppin Academy presents as a small, economically disadvantaged charter high school where literacy performance is a relative bright spot and math performance is a clear challenge. The school's leadership, instructional approach, and student culture are not captured in these figures. A family considering this school would need to visit, ask about math intervention, graduation pathways, and postsecondary outcomes, and look for signs of engagement and support that the data does not show.
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