Charlton Heston Academy, Saint Helen MI

Original Research by School Decision on Charlton Heston Academy

Charlton Heston Academy is a charter school serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade in Saint Helen, an unincorporated community in Roscommon County, Michigan. The school sits along North Saint Helen Road in a rural area built around Lake St. Helen, an all-sports lake ringed largely by state forest. The community has a lumber-town past, and today the local economy leans heavily on seasonal recreation: boating, fishing, hunting, snowmobiling, and trail riding. Housing values here run well below both state and national benchmarks, reflecting a market dominated by modest year-round homes and seasonal cabins. No public library branch or transit system was identified in publicly reported searches of the area.

The school enrolls roughly seven hundred fifty students across all grades, making it a mid-sized institution for a community of this scale. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with small representations from other racial and ethnic groups. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating substantial economic need within the enrolled population. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those populations cannot be characterized here.

On state assessments, the academic picture is mixed and, in mathematics, consistently low. Across grades three through seven, math proficiency rates sit in a narrow band near the low teens, with sixth grade even lower. Eighth-grade math proficiency, measured through the PSAT, falls in the lowest reported range, with no students reaching proficiency. English language arts tells a different story. The lower elementary grades show proficiency in the low teens, but by fifth grade the rate climbs notably, and in seventh and eighth grades, roughly a quarter to half of tested students meet proficiency. Science results land in the upper teens to high twenties depending on grade, and social studies proficiency is modest across both tested grades. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits below the midpoint among districts in Roscommon County, the comparison set used here.

The school's ELA results in the upper grades are the clearest bright spot in the data. Whether that pattern reflects stronger instruction in later grades, smaller cohort dynamics, or other factors is not something the available data can explain. The math results across every grade are the most consistent concern and may be an area a parent wants to discuss with the school directly.

Several categories of information that would help round out a family's picture are absent. No graduation rate was reported for this school, and no chronic absenteeism figure was available. The school does serve high school grades, so the absence of a graduation rate is not explained by grade band alone. Data on course access, staffing ratios, discipline, andTitle I status was also not provided. The district brief, which covers parent-relevant changes such as curriculum shifts, bond measures, or strategic initiatives, returned no recent findings for this single-school charter district.

Saint Helen itself offers a particular kind of setting. There is no traditional walkable downtown; civic and recreational anchors are dispersed around the lake. Cove Park, a public boat launch with an ADA fishing pier, a township campground, a motorsports area, and miles of marked trails through state forest define community life. Population has fluctuated modestly over recent decades, and growth appears tied to seasonal and recreational demand rather than suburban expansion. A farmers market pavilion opening soon and a handful of resort cabins under construction represent the scale of recent development. No major employers were identified in publicly reported sources, and the historical lumber operations that once defined the town are long gone.

Charlton Heston Academy occupies a distinct niche as the community's primary educational institution, carrying a name tied to local history. For families drawn to a rural, lake-centered, low-cost-of-living area, the school provides a full pre-K-through-twelve pathway under one roof. The academic results suggest real strengths in upper-grade literacy alongside persistent challenges in mathematics, and a parent weighing this school would benefit from asking directly about math instruction, graduation outcomes, and what support structures exist for a student body with substantial economic need.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=90%Cohort of 49 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

1,027 schools plotted. 80 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 313%

School 13% · District 13%

▼ 29 pts below state median

Grade 411%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 27 pts below state median

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 13%

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 68%

School 8% · District 8%

▼ 21 pts below state median

Grade 79%

School 9% · District 9%

▼ 20 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 313%

School 13% · District 13%

▼ 25 pts below state median

Grade 410%

School 10% · District 10%

▼ 31 pts below state median

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 625%

School 25% · District 25%

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 725%

School 25% · District 25%

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 50%

▼ 12 pts below state median

Science

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 28%

▼ 12 pts below state median

Grade 819%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 18 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 511%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 18 pts below state median

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 26 pts below state median

This schoolCharlton Heston 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income10%Higher-income27%18 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income8%Higher-income16%8 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income21%Higher-income26%5 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income54%Higher-income36%18 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income7%Higher-income36%29 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income9%Higher-income16%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income11%Higher-income16%5 pp gap