Thompson K8 International Academy, Southfield MI

Original Research by School Decision on Thompson K8 International Academy

Thompson K8 International Academy is a regular public school in the Southfield Public School District, serving kindergarten through eighth grade on Lincoln Drive in Southfield, Michigan. It sits in Oakland County, an inner-ring suburb of Detroit with a strong commercial and business identity. The school's name signals an international focus, though the data provided does not describe specific international programming, language offerings, or curricular themes beyond what the name implies. A parent drawn by that label would want to ask the school directly what the international academy designation means in practice.

The student body is predominantly Black, with smaller Hispanic, white, and multiracial populations. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Enrollment is moderate for a K-through-eight building, with the largest cohorts in kindergarten and seventh grade. The data does not include IEP or English-learner counts, so those population details are missing here. Because this is a K-through-eight school, there is no graduation rate to report; that metric applies to high schools.

On Michigan's M-STEP assessments in math, Thompson's results are low across every tested grade. Third grade posts the highest math proficiency rate, with roughly a quarter of tested students reaching proficient or above. From there, the numbers decline. Fifth grade math proficiency drops to a single-digit share, and sixth and eighth grade land in the lowest reported range, with no students scoring proficient in either grade as reported. Eighth grade takes the PSAT rather than M-STEP for math, and the result there is similarly low.

English language arts results are somewhat stronger but still modest. Third, fourth, and fifth grades each see roughly a quarter to just over a quarter of students proficient, which is the highest band the school reaches. Sixth grade ELA proficiency falls lower, seventh grade recovers partially, and eighth grade on the PSAT lands near the school's middle range. Science and social studies results, tested in fifth and eighth grades, are low throughout. Fifth grade science and social studies both sit in the single digits to low teens, and eighth grade science is even lower, with social studies only slightly above that.

Against the comparison set of Oakland County districts, Thompson's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile. The county's district median proficiency sits well above where this school lands, and the gap is wide. This is the clearest signal in the data: academic attainment as measured by state tests is a soft spot across subjects and grades, and a parent considering this school may want to look into how the school and district are responding, what intervention and support systems are in place, and whether the international academy framing carries specific academic programming that might not show up in state test results.

Southfield itself is an auto-oriented city organized around major freeways, with separated office parks, commercial strips, and residential neighborhoods rather than a continuous walkable fabric. The Southfield City Centre near the interstate interchange functions as a mixed-use business and civic node, and the former Northland Center mall site is being redeveloped into a mixed-use residential and commercial complex. The city has a large stock of office space, major automotive and technology employers, and institutional anchors including Lawrence Technological University and Oakland Community College. The Civic Center complex houses City Hall, the public library, courts, and recreation facilities, and the city maintains substantial parkland with two golf courses and trails.

Housing in the school's zip code is more affordable than both the state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit below the state median and well below the national figure, and rents are moderate. The county-level market shows rising inventory, with active and new listings both up year over year, and median listing prices have softened slightly. Days on market have ticked up modestly. For a family buying or renting near Thompson, this means relative affordability in a county that is otherwise among the more expensive in the region, with a market that appears to be loosening.

The Southfield Public School District recently passed a bond issue to improve and right-size facilities, a capital investment that shapes buildings across the district and carries property-tax implications for residents. The district consolidated to a single high school, Southfield A&T, after merging its two previous high schools. For a Thompson family, that consolidation means a unified secondary pathway, though the data here does not describe how eighth graders transition into it.

What the data does not tell you is as important as what it does. Participation rates for state assessments are missing across every grade and subject, so it is hard to gauge whether low proficiency reflects full participation or something else. IEP and English-learner counts are absent. No program offerings, course access, staffing ratios, discipline data, or attendance figures were available. The school's Title I status is not reported. These gaps mean a parent would need to go directly to the school and district for a fuller picture of daily academic life, support services, and school climate. The state test results are a real concern, but they are one piece, and the missing pieces are substantial.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 325%

School 25% · District 32% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 419%

School 19% · District 22% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

Grade 57%

School 7% · District 13% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Grade 715%

School 15% · District 19% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 328%

School 28% · District 34% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 425%

School 25% · District 35% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 36% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 613%

School 13% · District 27% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 722%

School 22% · District 34% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 48% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 40 pts below state median · ▼ 53 pts below county median

Science

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 25% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 39 pts below county median

Grade 89%

School 9% · District 19% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 44 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 510%

School 10% · District 18% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 28% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 43 pts below county median

This schoolSouthfield Public School 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

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income27%Higher-income31%4 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income26%Higher-income23%2 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income26%Higher-income30%5 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income12%Higher-income33%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income25%Higher-income17%8 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income23%Higher-income29%7 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income5%Higher-income12%6 pp gap