Lansing Charter Academy, Lansing MI

Original Research by School Decision on Lansing Charter Academy

Lansing Charter Academy is a charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade on Lansing's south side. The school draws a student body that is predominantly Black, with a sizable Hispanic share and a notable multiracial population, and nearly all of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment is moderate for a K-through-8 charter, with students spread fairly evenly across the grade levels and a slight tapering in the upper grades.

On state assessments, the school's results tell a mixed story. Third grade is the clear bright spot, where close to half of tested students reach proficiency in both math and English language arts. From fourth grade onward, proficiency drops off and stays low across most subjects and grades. Math is the softest area: proficiency declines steadily from third through seventh grade before ticking up slightly in eighth. English language arts is more variable, with a strong eighth-grade result where more than half of tested students reach proficiency, a departure from the lower middle-grade numbers. Science and social studies results are also low across the two tested grades. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency sits below the midpoint among districts in Ingham County. The county comparison set is drawn from district-level reporting, and this school's standing reflects the pattern seen in the grade-by-grade results: early strength that does not carry through the upper elementary and middle grades. A parent weighing this school may want to ask what supports are in place for students as they move from third into fourth and beyond, and what the school attributes the eighth-grade English language arts result to.

Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and that gap reflects the grade band rather than a missing measure. The same is true of the absence of PSAT-based graduation metrics. We looked for data on chronic absenteeism, disciplinary incidents, course access, staffing ratios, special education rates, and English learner counts, and the school did not report these in the available data, so we left them out rather than guess.

Lansing itself is Michigan's state capital, a mid-sized city whose economy is anchored by state government, insurance companies headquartered in the area, healthcare systems, and manufacturing tied to the region's automotive heritage. Michigan State University sits in adjacent East Lansing, and Lansing Community College operates in the city. The built environment is largely auto-oriented, with a riverfront trail system along the Grand River and a downtown organized around the state capitol building. For a family considering this school, the surrounding housing market is quite affordable by both state and national standards, with home values well below the Michigan benchmark and rents similarly modest. Both values and rents have been rising at a moderate pace recently. The school sits in a working residential part of the city, not in the downtown core, and daily life around it reflects that suburban-style street pattern.

We searched for parent-relevant district-level changes such as curriculum shifts, facility investments, or governance updates and found little publicly reported, so we left that out. What the available data does convey is a charter school serving a high-need student population in an affordable capital-city neighborhood, with early-grade academic strength that a family would want to see sustained further up the grade ladder.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 345%

School 45% · District 45%

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 426%

School 26% · District 26%

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

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 21%

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 620%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 716%

School 16% · District 16%

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

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 21%

▼ 7 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 343%

School 43% · District 43%

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 420%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Grade 534%

School 34% · District 34%

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 630%

School 30% · District 30%

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 721%

School 21% · District 21%

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 53%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Science

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 23%

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

Grade 827%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 13%

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

Grade 827%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

This schoolLansing Charter 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.