Original Research by School Decision on Old Redford Academy High
Old Redford Academy High is a charter high school on Detroit's west side, sitting along West Outer Drive in the 48235 ZIP code. It serves grades nine through twelve and operates under the Old Redford Academy charter district, an independent public school academy rather than part of the Detroit Public Schools Community District. The school's enrollment is moderate for a single high school, with students fairly evenly distributed across the four grade levels.
The student body is nearly entirely Black, reflecting the surrounding neighborhood in northwest Detroit. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school firmly in the category of serving a high-poverty community. Data on special education enrollment and English learner status was not reported, so it is not possible to characterize those populations here.
What stands out most about this school is how little academic data is available in the sources reviewed. State assessment results were not reported, which means there is no proficiency picture to draw from. No graduation rate was available either. Chronic absenteeism figures were also missing. Without these measures, a parent cannot look to the data record for evidence of academic outcomes, and the gaps are broad enough that they cannot be attributed to grade-band testing issues alone. The school serves a fully tested grade range, so the absence of results is worth asking about directly. A parent considering this school would want to understand from the administration what current performance looks like and what the school's improvement plan contains.
The district brief does note one item worth attention. Old Redford Academy High has been identified as a Comprehensive Support and Improvement school, a federal designation tied to low performance. The research could not confirm exactly when this designation was applied, so it is presented here as a publicly reported status rather than a recent change. What this means in practice is that the school has been flagged for additional state-level support and intervention, and families may want to ask what specific turnaround efforts are underway and how progress is being measured.
No program offerings data was provided. There is no information on Advanced Placement courses, career and technical education, dual enrollment, arts, athletics, or extracurricular activities. This is a substantial gap for a high school, where program breadth often drives a family's decision. Similarly, no data on staffing ratios, teacher qualifications, discipline practices, or course access was available.
The surrounding community is Detroit, a major urban center and the seat of Wayne County. The school sits in a residential part of the city where housing values are well below both state and national benchmarks. Home values in this ZIP code have been declining modestly year over year, while rents have risen slightly. For families considering renting rather than buying, the area remains relatively affordable compared to the broader region. Detroit itself has shown recent signs of population stabilization after decades of decline, with growth concentrated in areas closer to downtown and Midtown rather than in outer neighborhoods like this one. The city's economy is anchored by the automotive industry and major healthcare and financial employers, and publicly reported revitalization efforts have focused on the downtown core, the riverfront, and a few nearby neighborhoods. The area around the school is more car-dependent than the city's central districts, which is typical for Detroit's outer residential stretches.
Positioning this school against its Wayne County peers is not possible from the available data. The comparison set drawn from the county's districts returned no applicable metrics for proficiency, graduation, or attendance, all because the school's own values were missing. So a parent is left without the comparative academic context that neighboring schools and districts might provide.
What remains is a charter high school serving a high-poverty, predominantly Black student population in northwest Detroit, operating under a federal improvement designation, with very little public performance data on the record. A family exploring this school would need to go directly to the school for current test results, graduation outcomes, program offerings, and details on the support plan tied to its CSI status. The data profile as it stands does not answer those questions on its own.
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