The top reported proficiency rate is 16% in Social studies. The lowest is 6% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Richfield Public School Academy
Richfield Public School Academy is a charter school on Flint's north side, serving grades three through eight. It is a small school for its grade band, with a fairly even distribution of students across the six grades it covers. The student body is predominantly Black, with a smaller Hispanic population and a smaller White population. Nearly every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school firmly in a high-poverty context. The school operates as its own charter district, so the building on North Center Road is both the school and the district.
State testing results from the most recent year tell a consistent story across subjects and grades. In math, proficiency is very low at every grade level, with some grades showing near-zero rates of students meeting the state benchmark. English language arts results are somewhat stronger, particularly in the upper grades, where eighth-grade proficiency rises to a level that is still modest but clearly above the school's elementary results. Science and social studies follow a similar pattern, with fifth-grade scores near the floor and eighth-grade results climbing to a more moderate level. The overall proficiency index places this school in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Genesee County. A parent considering this school may want to look into the school's instructional approach and academic support structures further, particularly in mathematics and in the early middle grades, where the gap between current results and state expectations is widest.
No graduation rate applies here, because the school does not serve high school grades. The same is true of college-readiness metrics or AP and career-pathway data, which are not part of this grade band. IEP and English learner counts were not reported, so the picture of special-population support is incomplete. Discipline, attendance, staffing, and course-access data were not available either, which limits what can be said about the day-to-day school environment and classroom resources. Program offerings were not provided, so there is no basis to describe extracurriculars, intervention programs, or enrichment activities.
The surrounding community shapes the context considerably. Flint is a mid-sized post-industrial city whose identity was built around General Motors manufacturing. Decades of GM workforce reductions drove population loss and disinvestment, and the built environment today reflects that history: older residential neighborhoods, vacant lots from demolition activity, and commercial strips along major corridors. The downtown core along Saginaw Street has a more concentrated walkable environment with cultural venues like the Capitol Theatre, the Sloan Museum, and seasonal events such as Back to the Bricks and the Flint Jazz Festival. Outside downtown, the city is largely auto-dependent. Civic anchors include the Flint River, the public library, and the parks system. The city has been in a recovery and redevelopment phase since the lead water crisis, with lead service lines replaced and a new water source secured, but large-scale new housing construction was not evident in the available sources.
The housing market around the school is very affordable compared with both state and national benchmarks. Home values in the school's zip code sit well below the statewide level, and rents are similarly low. For families already in the area or those for whom housing cost is a driving concern, this is one of the more affordable parts of the region. That affordability comes with the tradeoffs of a city still working through long-term disinvestment.
The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes such as curriculum overhauls, referendums, or pedagogy shifts. What is available is basic directory and enrollment information. This means there is little public record of recent strategic priorities or academic initiatives that a parent could review to understand the school's direction. Given the low proficiency results, asking the school directly about its improvement plans, tutoring or intervention offerings, and how it supports students reading and doing math below grade level would be a reasonable next step. The school serves a community with real economic challenges, and the academic results reflect that environment, but the absence of program and staffing data means much of what a parent would want to evaluate remains undocumented in the available record.
See more original research from School Decision →