The New Standard Academy, Flint MI

Original Research by School Decision on The New Standard Academy

The New Standard Academy is a charter school on Flint's west side, serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade on a single campus along Carpenter Road. As a charter, it operates as its own district under state authorization, which gives families a school-choice option within a city where public education has weathered decades of disruption. The enrollment is sizable for a single building spanning all grade bands, and the student body is overwhelmingly Black, reflecting the surrounding north Flint neighborhood. Nearly every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school among the highest-poverty schools in Genesee County.

Flint itself is a post-industrial city shaped by its automotive past and a long arc of population decline. General Motors once anchored the local economy at a scale that made Flint a manufacturing powerhouse; those jobs contracted sharply over decades, and the city's footprint now includes vacant lots and demolished structures interspersed with older residential blocks and a downtown core along Saginaw Street with cultural venues like the Capitol Theatre. The University of Michigan-Flint campus sits near downtown, and the Mass Transportation Authority provides public transit. Flint's lead water crisis drew national attention; publicly reported sources indicate the city has since secured a new water source, replaced lead service lines, and distributed filters. The housing market around the school reflects the broader economic context. Home values in this zip code are far below both state and national benchmarks and have been declining, which means housing is inexpensive but also that homeownership wealth is limited for families in the area.

On state assessments, The New Standard Academy's results are low across subjects and grade levels. In math, proficiency is minimal in most grades, with the strongest showing in fourth grade and the weakest in seventh and eighth grades, where very few students reached proficiency. English language arts results are somewhat stronger, with the highest proficiency rate appearing in eighth grade, though most grades still show only a small fraction of students meeting benchmark. Science and social studies proficiency follows a similar pattern of low attainment. Compared with districts across Genesee County, the school's overall proficiency sits in the bottom quartile. These are difficult numbers, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking what instructional approaches and interventions are in place and how the school is working to move students forward.

The school appears to use multi-tiered systems of support and positive behavior interventions, with staggered start times for the current school year, according to publicly reported information. Beyond that, we looked for details on specific academic programs, course access, advanced coursework, career pathways, staffing ratios, discipline practices, and attendance and found little in the available data, so those elements are left out rather than guessed. Graduation rate data was not available for this school, and chronic absenteeism figures were also missing. IEP and English learner counts were not reported, so the picture of student support services is incomplete.

What a family gets here is a single-site charter option spanning the full pre-K through high school range in a neighborhood where poverty is concentrated and housing costs are low. The continuity of staying in one building from early childhood through graduation can be a real draw for families who value stability and a familiar environment. The academic results, though, are a central concern, and families considering this school should ask direct questions about what is being done to strengthen instruction and raise student achievement.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 310%

School 10% · District 10%

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

Grade 425%

School 25% · District 25%

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

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 16%

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

Grade 68%

School 8% · District 8%

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

Grade 85%

School 5% · District 5%

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

English language arts

Grade 37%

School 7% · District 7%

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 21%

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

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 23%

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

Grade 613%

School 13% · District 13%

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

Grade 714%

School 14% · District 14%

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

Grade 832%

School 32% · District 32%

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Science

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 14%

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

Social studies

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 29%

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

Grade 811%

School 11% · District 11%

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

This schoolThe New Standard 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.