Universal Academy, Detroit MI - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Universal Academy

Universal Academy is a single-site charter school in Detroit serving kindergarten through twelfth grade. It sits on Ogden Street in the 48210 zip code, a working-class residential section of the city. The school operates as its own charter district, and publicly reported information about recent district-level changes was limited, so there is little to relay about shifts in governance or programming that a parent might want to track.

The student body is small for a building spanning all thirteen grades. Nearly every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school among the most economically disadvantaged populations in the state. The enrollment is overwhelmingly white, with a small Hispanic presence and a handful of Black students. Data on English learners and special education populations was not reported, so those figures are a gap a parent would want to ask about directly.

Academic results from the most recent state assessments paint a difficult picture. In math, proficiency across grades three through eight sits well below what most Wayne County schools post. The strongest elementary grade reaches only a modest share of students testing proficient, and the middle grades show proficiency at or near the floor. English language arts follows a similar pattern through the elementary and early middle grades, with one bright spot in eighth grade where the PSAT-based proficiency rate rises to a more respectable level. Science and social studies results are also low, with eighth-grade social studies reaching the strongest relative standing among those tested subjects. Against the comparison set of Wayne County districts, Universal Academy's overall proficiency lands in the bottom quartile. A parent evaluating this school should treat the state testing data as a signal worth serious follow-up with school leadership about how instruction is structured and what interventions are in place.

The school does not report a graduation rate, chronic absenteeism rate, or advanced course offerings. These are meaningful absences in the record. The lack of a graduation rate is unusual for a school that serves high school grades, and a parent with a teenager or a younger child progressing toward high school would want to ask the school directly about completion outcomes and post-graduation pathways. Course access data, staffing figures, and discipline information were also not available.

The surrounding neighborhood context matters here. Detroit is a major urban center, historically the heart of the American automotive industry, and the broader city has seen a modest population rebound in recent years after decades of decline. Revitalization has been concentrated in downtown, Midtown, Corktown, and the East Riverfront, with new residential development and restored historic buildings. The area around the school itself is more residential and working-class, and the city as a whole remains car-dependent in its outer neighborhoods, with more walkable pockets near the core. The housing market near the school is very inexpensive by any standard, with typical home values sitting far below both the Michigan and national benchmarks. Rents were not available for this zip code, but the ownership market suggests a relatively accessible entry point for families looking to buy, assuming employment and commuting needs can be met. Major regional employers including the automakers, Henry Ford Health, and Rocket Mortgage are concentrated in and around the downtown core and surrounding suburbs.

What this school offers is a continuous kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade pathway under one roof, in a neighborhood where housing costs are low. The academic results as measured by the state are weak, and the available data does not extend to graduation, attendance, or program offerings. A family considering Universal Academy would want to visit, ask hard questions about how the school supports students who are behind, and understand what the high school years look like in practice before committing.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=90%Cohort of 53 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

1,027 schools plotted. 80 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 316%

School 16% · District 16%

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

Grade 415%

School 15% · District 15%

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

Grade 56%

School 6% · District 6%

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

English language arts

Grade 39%

School 9% · District 9%

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 46%

School 6% · District 6%

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

Grade 67%

School 7% · District 7%

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 25%

▼ 37 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Science

Grade 87%

School 7% · District 7%

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

Social studies

Grade 819%

School 19% · District 19%

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

This schoolUniversal 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.