Summary:
Chandler Park Academy Middle School is the sole middle school within the Chandler Park Academy district, serving grades 6-8 in Harper Woods, Michigan, with 514 students and a predominantly economically disadvantaged population (91.63% qualifying for free or reduced lunch).
This school is in the early stages of a recovery, having improved its state ranking from the 2nd percentile in 2023-2024 to the 10th percentile in 2025-2026, though it still remains in the bottom 10% of Michigan middle schools. The most critical concern is mathematics, where proficiency rates are alarmingly low: only 4.55% of 6th graders and 9.1% of 7th graders meet state standards, with 8th grade PSAT math at just 6.2%—a gap of 24-27 percentage points below state averages. In contrast, the school shows relative strengths in 8th grade social studies (25.9% proficient) and PSAT English Language Arts (39.1% proficient), which is its highest subject score. Notably, these two subjects saw dramatic year-over-year improvements, with social studies doubling from 12.3% to 25.9% and PSAT ELA jumping from 26.5% to 39.1%, suggesting targeted interventions in 8th grade humanities are working.
Chronic absenteeism is a severe challenge, with 46.0% of students missing 10% or more of school days—61% higher than the district average and 65% higher than the state average. This factor, combined with a 17.9:1 student-teacher ratio and per-student spending of $12,298, raises questions about resource allocation effectiveness. The school's test scores are identical to the district's across all subjects, confirming it is the dominant school in its district, leaving no internal comparison points for improvement. For parents, the key takeaway is that while the school is showing promising gains in humanities and social studies, the mathematics crisis and attendance issues require immediate attention—addressing chronic absenteeism may be the single highest-leverage intervention to support academic recovery.
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