The top reported proficiency rate is 53% in English language arts. The lowest is 30% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Patrick Henry Middle School
Patrick Henry Middle School sits in Woodhaven, a Downriver suburb of Detroit, and serves eighth and ninth graders as part of the Woodhaven-Brownstown School District. The school enrolls a sizable student body for a two-grade building, with the two grades nearly equal in size. Just under half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is majority white, with Black, Hispanic, and Asian students making up the next largest groups, along with smaller shares of multiracial, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander students. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not available, so those portions of the picture remain unfilled.
One thing stands out about the academic data and deserves a clear flag. The state assessment results provided here cover fifth and sixth grade, and the source records them under the name Woodhaven Upper Elementary rather than Patrick Henry Middle School. Since Patrick Henry serves grades eight and nine, those results almost certainly belong to a different building in the same district and do not reflect this school's own performance. Michigan does assess eighth graders through M-STEP, so Patrick Henry should have its own testing results, but they were not included in the data we received. A parent looking into this school would want to ask the district directly for the current eighth grade M-STEP results in math, English language arts, science, and social studies. The neighbor comparison places the building in the top quartile among Wayne County districts on a proficiency index, but that index is built from the fifth and sixth grade results and likely reflects a different school. We are naming this gap plainly rather than letting the comparison stand as a measure of Patrick Henry itself.
No graduation rate applies here, since the school stops at ninth grade. Chronic absenteeism data was also not reported, and no information was available on discipline, course access, staffing ratios, or attendance patterns. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and its Title I status was not reported.
Woodhaven itself is a car-dependent residential community with no traditional downtown. Commercial life clusters along Allen Road and West Road, where big-box retail, restaurants, and strip malls form the main corridor. Interstate 75 runs through the center of the city, giving residents a straight shot toward Detroit roughly to the north. The Ford Woodhaven Stamping Plant is the dominant industrial employer, and retail along the main roads provides additional local jobs. Civic functions center on City Hall, and the high school sits in neighboring Brownstown Township rather than within Woodhaven's own limits. The city grew rapidly from the 1970s through the 1990s and has seen only modest population change since. A publicly reported neighborhood guide describes newer homes and family-oriented living, pointing to some continued residential development.
Housing in the school's zip code sits well below both the state and national benchmarks for typical home values, making this one of the more affordable corners of Wayne County for buyers. Rents are also moderate relative to income. The county market has seen listing prices soften somewhat over the past year, with supply rising and demand cooling, which may give families shopping for homes a bit more room to work with than in tighter markets. The estimated monthly mortgage on a typical home here costs meaningfully more than renting, a gap that factors into household decisions in the area.
The Woodhaven-Brownstown School District recently passed a substantial bond, publicly reported as covering facility improvements across all ten of its school buildings. The scope includes security upgrades, heating and cooling replacements, technology investments, a new transportation facility, and building-by-building improvements. The district stated the bond would not raise the tax rate, which may be relevant to families weighing the long-term condition of school facilities.
What the data does not tell you about Patrick Henry is as important as what it does. The school's own test results, its staffing profile, its absenteeism patterns, and its discipline record are all missing from what we received. What is present is a community context that is affordable, suburban, and anchored by both industrial and retail employment, served by a district investing in its facilities. For a family considering this school, the next step would be to ask the building directly about its eighth grade assessment results, its approach to supporting students transitioning into high school, and how it serves students who may need additional academic or language support.
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