Flint Cultural Center Academy, Flint MI

Original Research by School Decision on Flint Cultural Center Academy

Flint Cultural Center Academy is a public charter school on Flint's east side, situated along Robert T. Longway Boulevard near the city's cultural corridor. It opened as a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school and has been expanding toward a full kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade pathway, adding a separate high school campus at the Northbank Center Building in downtown Flint. That expansion gives families a continuous path within a single charter district, though the high school grades are still growing in and had no enrolled students in the most recent data. The enrollment is moderate for a Flint charter, with fairly even class sizes across the elementary and middle grades.

The student body is predominantly Black, with a smaller White population and a group identifying as two or more races. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on special education and English learner populations was not reported, so those supports cannot be characterized here. A parent may want to ask the school directly about how it serves students with individualized education programs and multilingual learners.

On Michigan's M-STEP and PSAT assessments, the school's proficiency results sit below the midpoint among Genesee County districts. Math proficiency is strongest in third grade and declines steadily through the middle grades, with the lowest results in eighth grade. English language arts follows a similar pattern in the elementary grades, though eighth-grade ELA on the PSAT stands out as a relative bright spot. Science and social studies results are also low across the tested grades. Taken together, the state testing picture suggests that many students are not yet meeting grade-level benchmarks, and a family considering enrollment would want to understand what interventions and instructional supports the school has in place, particularly in the upper elementary and middle school math sequence.

No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results are improving, holding steady, or declining over time. No graduation rate, chronic absenteeism, or course access data was reported. The graduation rate gap is expected given that the high school grades are still being added and had no enrolled students. Chronic absenteeism and course access information was simply not provided.

Flint itself is a post-industrial city shaped by decades of population decline following General Motors' workforce reductions. The built environment mixes older residential neighborhoods, vacant lots from demolition activity, a downtown core with theaters and cultural venues, and commercial strips along major roads. Walkability is concentrated downtown along Saginaw Street, where cultural institutions like the Capitol Theatre and the University of Michigan-Flint campus sit. Outside that core, the city is largely auto-dependent. Civic anchors include the Flint River, the public library, Willson Park, and cultural institutions such as the Sloan Museum and Applewood Estate. Annual events like Back to the Bricks and the Flint Jazz Festival draw people downtown and reflect the city's automotive heritage and community revitalization efforts.

The housing market around the school is highly affordable compared with both state and national benchmarks. Home values in the school's zip code are a fraction of the statewide typical home value, and rents are similarly low relative to the state. Values and rents have been rising modestly in recent months. For a family looking to buy, the cost barrier is low, though the broader context is a city still working through long-term disinvestment and recovery rather than rapid growth.

This is a school with a clear identity tied to Flint's cultural assets, a continuous kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade vision, and a student population that reflects the surrounding community. Its academic results, as measured by state assessments, are currently below where most of its Genesee County peers sit. Families drawn to the cultural-center mission and the promise of a single school home through high school will want to weigh that against the testing data and ask direct questions about the school's plan for raising proficiency.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 332%

School 32% · District 32%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 22%

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

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 20%

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

Grade 612%

School 12% · District 12%

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

Grade 717%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 810%

School 10% · District 10%

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

English language arts

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 29%

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

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 23%

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

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 9 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 621%

School 21% · District 21%

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

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 10 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 856%

School 56% · District 56%

▼ 6 pts below state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 16%

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

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 22%

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

Social studies

Grade 58%

School 8% · District 8%

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

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 25%

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

This schoolFlint Cultural Center 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.