The top reported proficiency rate is 28% in Social studies. The lowest is 9% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Escuela Avancemos
Escuela Avancemos is a charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade on Howard Street in Detroit, inside Wayne County. Its name signals a bilingual academic mission, and its enrollment reflects that orientation: nearly every student identifies as Hispanic, and the entire student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. The school draws from a neighborhood in a city where housing costs sit well below both state and national benchmarks, making it one of the more affordable parts of the metro for families renting or buying.
Detroit itself is a major urban center shaped by its automotive history and decades of population decline, now experiencing renewed growth driven by immigration and new residential development concentrated in Midtown, Corktown, and along the East Riverfront. The school sits within this broader context of a city in transition, one where revitalization has not yet reached every neighborhood evenly. Publicly reported information describes a community anchored by the Big Three automakers, Henry Ford Health, the Detroit Medical Center, and a growing civic infrastructure that includes the Detroit Riverwalk and Belle Isle. Walkability varies sharply by area, and the school's immediate surroundings on Howard Street, southwest of downtown, fall into a part of the city where car dependence is common.
Academically, the state testing picture for Escuela Avancemos is a serious concern. Across every grade tested in math through the M-STEP and PSAT, proficiency rates sit in the single digits or near zero. Third grade, fourth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade all show only a handful of students reaching proficiency. Fifth grade math recorded no proficient students at all. This pattern places the school in the bottom quartile among districts in Wayne County for overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades.
English language arts tells a somewhat different story. The lower grades again show very low proficiency, but the upper grades improve. Sixth and seventh grade reach the mid-teens, and eighth grade stands out, with roughly two in five students scoring proficient on the PSAT. Science and social studies follow a similar arc: fifth grade results are very low, while eighth grade science and social studies each show about a quarter or more of tested students reaching proficiency. The contrast between the early grades and eighth grade suggests that some students do build stronger skills as they progress, though the overall numbers remain low across the board.
No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability over time. Participation rates were missing from the state data as well, which means the testing context cannot be fully assessed. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism data was also unavailable. Information on English learner status and individualized education program counts was missing from the reported data, which is a gap worth noting given that a school serving a predominantly Hispanic population in Detroit likely has a substantial share of English learners. A parent may want to ask the school directly about how it supports language development and special education services.
The district brief returned no parent-relevant changes for Escuela Avancemos, which functions as a single-school charter district. No recent strategic priorities, program additions, or leadership changes meeting the threshold for parent-relevant impact were found in publicly available information. Program offerings beyond what the state assessment data implies were not provided, so it is unclear what enrichment, arts, sports, or after-school opportunities exist. Families considering this school should ask about those offerings directly.
What the data does show clearly is a school serving a specific community with a specific cultural and linguistic identity, operating in an affordable part of a city undergoing broad change. Its eighth grade results suggest some students find a stronger academic footing by the time they leave, but the persistent low proficiency across the earlier grades is a reality a parent should weigh carefully. Asking the school about its approach to math instruction in particular, and about what supports are in place for students who arrive performing below grade level, would be a reasonable next step.
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