The top reported proficiency rate is 30% in English language arts. The lowest is 18% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Prevail Academy
Prevail Academy is a charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade on Cass Avenue in Mount Clemens, the county seat of Macomb County. It operates as its own single-school charter district rather than falling under a traditional public district umbrella. The enrollment is modest for a K through 8 building, and the student body is predominantly Black, with a meaningful share of students identifying as two or more races, and smaller Hispanic and White populations. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school among the highest-poverty schools in the county. Data on special-education enrollment and English-learner status was not available, so those population sizes remain unknown here.
On Michigan's M-STEP assessments, Prevail Academy's results sit below the midpoint among districts in Macomb County. Math proficiency is the softer area. Third grade posts a modest share of students scoring proficient or above, and fourth grade rises somewhat, but proficiency drops through the upper elementary and middle grades, with seventh grade particularly low. Eighth grade, assessed through the PSAT rather than M-STEP, lands slightly higher but still well below what most county peers post. ELA tells a somewhat different story. Third-grade ELA proficiency is low, but it climbs in fourth and fifth grades, reaches its highest point in sixth grade, and holds reasonably through seventh before eighth grade shows a strong jump on the PSAT, with nearly half of tested eighth graders reaching proficiency. Science and social studies are tested only in fifth and eighth grades. Fifth-grade science and social studies results are low, while eighth-grade social studies shows a healthier share of students meeting the bar.
The pattern across subjects suggests that older students at Prevail tend to perform better in reading and writing than in math, and that eighth graders as a group outpace their younger schoolmates on several measures. Whether that reflects growth across grades or differences between cohorts is something a parent may want to ask the school about directly. No multi-year trend data was available in the provided records, so there is no way to tell from this data whether results are improving, flat, or declining over time.
Because Prevail Academy stops at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and that metric does not apply. Chronic absenteeism data was also missing. No information on program offerings, advanced coursework, extracurriculars, discipline practices, or staffing was provided, so those pieces of the picture are absent here rather than implied to be lacking.
Mount Clemens itself is a small city with a genuine downtown clustered around Macomb Street and the Clinton River riverfront. Coffee shops, restaurants, and civic buildings sit within a compact, walkable core, and the city hosts summer concerts, art fairs, and festivals that bring street life to the center. Residential streets around downtown hold a mix of nineteenth-century mansions, mid-century bungalows, and brick ranches. The broader city is car-dependent outside that core. County government is the dominant employer, with Selfridge Air National Guard Base nearby and light manufacturing including auto parts and food products. The city has seen slight population decline but has secured grants for road work and wastewater upgrades. A long-standing fiscal challenge is that a large share of properties are tax-exempt, which limits municipal revenue.
Housing in the school's zip code is affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit well below the Michigan median and far below the national figure, and rents are similarly moderate. For a family considering Prevail Academy, the housing market near the school offers relatively low-cost entry points, though the broader city faces economic headwinds that shape the community context.
The district brief turned up no parent-relevant changes, such as curriculum shifts, facility investments, or governance changes, in recent reporting. That search came back empty, so nothing can be said about recent initiatives beyond what the academic and enrollment data already show.
Prevail Academy fits a family looking for a small, charter-run K through 8 option in an affordable, centrally located Macomb County community, with a student body that is largely Black and predominantly low-income. Its reading results in the upper grades are a relative bright spot, while math proficiency across most grades is an area a parent would want to understand better before enrolling. The missing information on programs, staffing, discipline, absenteeism, and special populations means a visit or direct conversation with the school would be necessary to fill in the rest of the picture.
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