Summary:
Cesar Chavez Academy is a four-school charter district in Detroit, Michigan, serving roughly 2,294 students from kindergarten through 12th grade, with nearly all students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The district holds a 1-star rating, but the schools vary meaningfully in performance, trends, and areas of strength.
Among the four schools, Cesar Chavez Academy High School stands out as the relative bright spot. It is the only school with a graduation rate above the state average (88.1% vs. 84.0%), and it has shown the most positive momentum, climbing from the 12th to the 25th percentile in state rankings over two years. Its social studies proficiency (38.5%) is just 4.7 points below the state average—the smallest gap in any subject district-wide. In contrast, Cesar Chavez Academy Intermediate is the area of greatest concern, with the lowest state ranking (10th percentile), 100% student poverty, and steep year-over-year declines in elementary ELA. Cesar Chavez Academy Middle School shows slow, steady improvement (23rd to 26th percentile), while Cesar Chavez Academy Elementary serves grades K-2 and has no test data, making its performance impossible to measure—despite having the highest per-student spending at $13,959.
District-wide, math proficiency is critically low at every level, from 9.3% on high school SAT math to roughly 12-18% in elementary and middle school. Chronic absenteeism is a crisis, affecting 37.5% to 48.6% of students—nearly double the state average of 27.9%. Encouragingly, ELA proficiency improves as students advance, and the high school achieves strong graduation outcomes despite the lowest per-student funding ($11,635) and highest student-teacher ratio (19.7:1). For parents, the high school offers the most promising path, while the intermediate and elementary levels face the steepest challenges in attendance and early academics.
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