Huron Academy Grades 38, Clinton Township MI

Original Research by School Decision on Huron Academy Grades 38

Huron Academy is a charter school serving grades three through eight in Clinton Township, Michigan. It sits on Utica Road in a suburb that sprawls along wide arterial roads, with no traditional downtown and daily life organized around driving. The school itself is part of the Huron Academy district, a single-school charter authorized by Ferris State University. That authorization was renewed in mid-2023 and runs through mid-2030, which gives families some assurance of continued operation in the near term.

The school serves a moderately sized enrollment spread fairly evenly across its six grades. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is diverse in racial and ethnic composition, with a white plurality and a large Black representation, along with smaller Asian, Hispanic, and multiracial groups. Data on English learners and special-education enrollment was not available, so those dimensions of the student population cannot be described here.

Academic results tell a mixed and uneven story across subjects and grade levels. In English language arts, proficiency is moderate in the elementary grades and climbs steadily through middle school, reaching a very strong level by eighth grade on the PSAT. That eighth-grade ELA result is the school's clearest academic bright spot. Math, by contrast, starts at a middling level in third grade, drops sharply in fourth and fifth, begins recovering in sixth and seventh, and lands at a better level by eighth grade on the PSAT. The middle grades show a clear pattern of ELA outperforming math. Science and social studies results are available only for fifth and eighth grades; fifth-grade scores in both subjects are low, while eighth-grade scores are stronger, particularly in social studies.

Placed against other districts in Macomb County, the school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits below the midpoint. This is a fair characterization of the data: the school is not at the bottom of the county, but it is on the lower side, with its strongest showings concentrated in the upper grades and in ELA specifically. A parent weighing this school may want to ask what drives the dip in math proficiency in the fourth and fifth grades and what interventions or curricular changes address it. The school does not report graduation rate, which is expected because it serves only through eighth grade and does not graduate high school seniors. Chronic absenteeism data was not available. Trend data comparing this year to prior years was not available either, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability.

Information on specific programs, course access, staffing levels, discipline practices, and school climate was not provided, so those aspects of the school cannot be assessed here. Title I status was also not reported.

Clinton Township is Michigan's most populous township, a northern suburb of Detroit with a mix of residential neighborhoods, retail corridors, and industrial areas. The Gratiot Avenue corridor is the primary commercial spine, and the Mall at Partridge Creek functions as the closest thing to a community gathering place. There is no walkable downtown. Housing in the school's zip code is more affordable than the state benchmark and well below the national figure, with home values and rents both showing modest year-over-year increases. For families considering the area, this means access to relatively affordable housing in a car-dependent suburb with established retail and parks, including the large Civic Center Park complex and the Clinton-Macomb Public Library system nearby.

The township hosts multiple K-12 districts, so Huron Academy operates as a charter alternative within a landscape that includes Chippewa Valley, Clintondale, L'Anse Creuse, Fraser, and Mount Clemens public districts. Families choosing this school are choosing a smaller charter environment over the larger traditional district options, with the academic trade-offs that the state testing data describes.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 41%

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 411%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 510%

School 10% · District 10%

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 18%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 731%

School 31% · District 31%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 843%

School 43% · District 43%

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 331%

School 31% · District 31%

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 39%

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 32%

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 36%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 740%

School 40% · District 40%

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 881%

School 81% · District 81%

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Science

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 40%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 15%

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 47%

▲ 4 pts above state median · even with county median

This schoolHuron Academy, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income22%Higher-income43%21 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income31%Higher-income49%18 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income25%Higher-income48%23 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income34%Higher-income41%7 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income29%Higher-income64%35 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income39%Higher-income43%4 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income8%Higher-income15%8 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income16%Higher-income23%7 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income24%Higher-income46%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income44%Higher-income36%8 pp gap