Virtual Learning Academy Consortium, Waterford MI

Original Research by School Decision on Virtual Learning Academy Consortium

Virtual Learning Academy Consortium is a full-grade-span public school in Waterford, Michigan, operating under the Oakland Schools intermediate school district. As its name signals, this is a virtual learning environment, serving students from kindergarten through twelfth grade entirely online. The school draws a modest enrollment spread across all grade levels, with the largest concentrations in the upper elementary and high school years. The student body is diverse in composition, with a white majority alongside meaningful Asian, Black, and Hispanic representation, and a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals. Data on English learners and special education populations was not available, so those dimensions of the school cannot be described here.

On state assessments, the school's results are mixed and vary widely by grade and subject. In English language arts, proficiency tends to land in a moderate to solid range across the tested grades, with some of the strongest results appearing in eighth grade. Math tells a different story, with proficiency generally lower and one middle grade showing essentially no students reaching the proficient threshold. Science and social studies results fall somewhere in between, with fifth-grade science standing out as a relative bright spot. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index sits below the midpoint among districts in Oakland County, a comparison set that includes roughly fifty county districts. The tested counts at each grade level are quite small, which means a few students moving in or out of proficiency can shift results noticeably from year to year. A parent evaluating academic rigor may want to look into this further with the school, especially regarding math outcomes in the middle grades.

No graduation rate was reported for this school. No chronic absenteeism data was available either. Course access, staffing, and discipline data were also absent from the available records, so those facets of the school experience cannot be assessed here. The school does not hold charter or magnet status.

Waterford itself is a sprawling charter township in Oakland County, roughly a half-hour northwest of downtown Detroit. It is defined by its many lakes, with Cass Lake being the largest and deepest, alongside Elizabeth Lake, Loon Lake, and Silver Lake among the thirty-four named bodies of water. The built environment is low-density residential subdivisions ringing those lakes, strip commercial corridors along Dixie Highway and Highland Road, and scattered civic uses. There is no traditional walkable downtown; civic functions cluster at the Waterford Civic Center Complex, which houses the Township Hall, police station, and district court, along with the public library. The township has faced economic headwinds since the closure of two major commercial tax sources, the Summit Place Mall and a General Motors facility, though government, education, and infrastructure remain steady employers. Oakland Schools, the intermediate school district, is headquartered here, as is a campus of Oakland Community College. The Oakland County International Airport is another anchor. Pontiac Lake Recreation Area offers outdoor access.

The housing market in the school's zip code is relatively accessible compared with state and national benchmarks, with home values sitting below the Michigan median and well below the national figure. Rents are modest. Thirty-year mortgage rates have been fluctuating in the mid-six range, and the broader unemployment rate has held steady. A family considering this area would find suburban lake-country living with limited walkability but proximity to county government and community college resources.

For a family weighing whether Virtual Learning Academy Consortium fits, the central question is the fit of online learning itself. The school offers a full K-through-twelve pathway in a remote format, with a diverse peer group and a near-even split between students who do and do not qualify for meal assistance. Academic results are uneven across grades and subjects, strongest in English language arts and elementary science, weakest in middle-grade math. Families seeking a structured virtual option within the Oakland County public system may find this worth exploring, while those wanting a fuller picture of outcomes, supports, and staffing should ask the school directly, since much of that data was not available in the records reviewed.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 21%

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 33 pts below county median

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 30%

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 730%

School 30% · District 30%

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

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 20%

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

English language arts

Grade 357%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 446%

School 46% · District 46%

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 50%

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

Grade 628%

School 28% · District 28%

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

Grade 730%

School 30% · District 30%

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

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 63%

even with state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Science

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 834%

School 34% · District 34%

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

Social studies

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 38%

▲ 9 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 829%

School 29% · District 29%

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

This schoolOakland Schools, 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 6Lower-income22%Higher-income33%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income21%Higher-income39%17 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income47%Higher-income74%27 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income21%Higher-income39%17 pp gap