Detroit Service Learning Academy Campus, Detroit MI

Original Research by School Decision on Detroit Service Learning Academy Campus

Detroit Service Learning Academy Campus sits on West Seven Mile Road in a residential stretch of Detroit's north side, part of Wayne County. It is a charter school serving prekindergarten through eighth grade, with the bulk of its enrollment spread fairly evenly across kindergarten and the upper elementary and middle grades. The student body is almost entirely Black, and virtually every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. The school does not report data for English learners or students with individualized education programs, so it is hard to say from the available information how those populations are served.

On state assessments, the most recent M-STEP and PSAT results show proficiency levels that are low across nearly every tested grade and subject. In math, the share of students reaching proficiency sits at the bottom of what the state reports, with several grade levels showing no proficient students at all and others reaching only a small handful. English language arts results are somewhat stronger, particularly in the eighth grade, where the proficiency rate rises above what the lower grades produce. Still, even the better ELA results remain well below what most schools in the county post. Science and social studies follow a similar pattern, with eighth grade outperforming fifth grade but both sitting low. When the school is placed against other districts in Wayne County, its overall proficiency lands in the bottom quartile. The county's proficiency midpoint is more than double this school's average, and the gap to the top-performing schools in the county is wide. A parent considering this school may want to look into what academic supports and interventions are in place and how leadership plans to address these results.

Because the school ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and that metric does not apply here. Chronic absenteeism data was not available, nor were discipline reports, course access details, staffing figures, or attendance records. Program offerings were not reported in the data provided, so there is no way to describe extracurriculars, dual-credit pathways, or specialized academic tracks from the available information. We searched for parent-relevant changes within the charter district and found little publicly reported, so that gap is left as a gap rather than filled with speculation.

The housing market around the school's zip code is among the more affordable in the state. Home values in this area sit far below both the Michigan and national benchmarks, and rents are modest relative to broader metro-area pricing. That affordability reflects the broader history of this part of Detroit, where decades of disinvestment followed industrial restructuring and population loss. The area remains car-dependent, with limited walkability compared to Detroit's denser corridors like Midtown or Corktown.

Detroit itself is in a period of renewed growth after a long population decline that stretched back to the mid-twentieth century. The city has now posted population gains for consecutive years, driven partly by immigration and new housing development. Revitalization has been concentrated downtown and along the riverfront, with major projects including a mixed-use tower at the former Hudson's site and the Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit to Windsor. Those investments have not yet reached uniformly into every neighborhood, and the stretch around Seven Mile Road still reflects the challenges of a city whose recovery is uneven. The school sits in a community where housing is inexpensive but where the academic results, at least as measured by state tests, indicate real difficulty in moving students to proficiency. Families weighing this school will want to weigh the affordability and accessibility of the neighborhood against the academic picture and ask direct questions about what is being done to strengthen instruction.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 34%

School 4% · District 10% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 63%

School 3% · District 2% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 84%

School 4% · District 3% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 37%

School 7% · District 12% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 414%

School 14% · District 10% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 9%

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 612%

School 12% · District 9% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Grade 79%

School 9% · District 10% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 829%

School 29% · District 34% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 53%

School 3% · District 3%

▼ 37 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 810%

School 10% · District 9% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grade 810%

School 10% · District 8% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

This schoolDetroit Service Learning 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.