Davison Elementarymiddle School, Detroit MI

Original Research by School Decision on Davison Elementarymiddle School

Davison Elementary-Middle School sits on the east side of Detroit, serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade as part of the Detroit Public Schools Community District. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and its enrollment sits in the mid-range for a Detroit K-through-8 building. The student body is roughly split between Black and Asian students, with small numbers of students from other racial backgrounds. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic conditions in the surrounding neighborhood. Data on English learners and special education populations was not reported, so those profiles remain unknown here.

State assessment results from the most recent school year show a mixed picture across subjects and grades. In math, proficiency rates were generally low in the elementary grades, dipping in fourth grade before climbing modestly in fifth and sixth. Seventh grade stood out as a bright spot, with a majority of tested students reaching proficiency, before results fell back in eighth grade under the PSAT assessment. English language arts followed a similar pattern of variability, with fifth and eighth grades showing the strongest relative performance and several grades in the middle range trailing behind. Science results were modest at both tested grade levels. Social studies was the school's strongest subject, with well over half of tested students proficient in both fifth and eighth grades. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint among Wayne County districts, a position driven largely by the seventh-grade math result and the social studies showing. The wide variation from grade to grade, though, suggests uneven outcomes that a parent may want to explore with the school directly.

Because Davison stops at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism and discipline data were not available in the provided materials. Program offerings, staffing details, and course access information were also absent, so nothing can be said here about extracurriculars, advanced coursework, or teacher experience. These gaps may reflect what the state and district chose to report rather than anything about the school itself.

The surrounding community is in one of Detroit's older residential areas. The city as a whole has seen a modest population turnaround in recent years after decades of decline, with growth attributed to immigration and new housing construction concentrated in neighborhoods like Midtown, Corktown, and the East Riverfront. The school's immediate zip code tells a different housing story from those revitalizing corridors. Home values here are well below both the state and national benchmarks, and the typical home value has edged down slightly over the past year. Rents, by contrast, have risen modestly. The county-level market shows ample active listings and a median listing price that has softened somewhat year over year, with homes sitting on the market longer than they were a year ago. For a family considering buying near the school, affordability is relatively favorable compared with much of the region, though the market is not particularly hot.

Detroit's public schools are distributed across the city's neighborhoods rather than clustered on a single campus, and Davison fits that pattern as a community-based school. The district has announced a multi-year facilities improvement plan to renovate and modernize school buildings, which could affect the learning environment at Davison in coming years, though specific impacts on this building were not detailed in the available materials.

For a family weighing Davison, the academic data points to a school with genuine strengths in certain grades and subjects alongside persistent proficiency challenges in core math and literacy. The social studies results and the seventh-grade math showing suggest that strong teaching is happening in pockets. A parent trying to understand whether those pockets reflect a deliberate program or year-to-year variation would benefit from asking the school directly. The surrounding neighborhood offers affordable housing in a city undergoing selective reinvestment, with the usual urban tradeoffs around walkability and services that vary block by block.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 16% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 412%

School 12% · District 13% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 9% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 617%

School 17% · District 10% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 757%

School 57% · District 13% · ▲ 44 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 41 pts above county median

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 10% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 319%

School 19% · District 13% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 415%

School 15% · District 15% · ▲ 1 pts above district

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

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 17% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 17% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 16% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 834%

School 34% · District 31% · ▲ 3 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 13% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 17% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 10% · ▲ 50 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 43 pts above county median

Grade 858%

School 58% · District 21% · ▲ 37 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

This schoolDetroit Public Schools Community District, 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

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income55%Higher-income69%14 pp gap