Summary:
Hope Academy is the sole elementary school in the Hope Academy district, serving grades PK-8 for 430 students in Detroit, Michigan, where nearly all students (98.37%) qualify for free or reduced lunch.
This school faces severe academic and attendance challenges. Proficiency rates on state M-Step tests are dramatically below state averages across all subjects—for example, only 6.67% of 3rd graders are proficient in ELA and math, compared to state averages above 37% and 42%, respectively. Even the strongest scores, like 8th-grade PSAT ELA at 37.1% proficiency, still trail the state average of 64.8% by a wide margin. The school’s overall percentile ranking has declined from the 2nd percentile in 2018-2019 to the 0th percentile in 2025-2026, placing it at 1487 out of 1492 Michigan elementary schools. Chronic absenteeism is a critical issue, affecting 58.5% of students—more than double the state rate of 27.9%—which directly undermines instructional continuity and learning outcomes.
Despite spending $16,113 per student—a substantial investment—the school has not reversed its downward trajectory. Year-to-year scores fluctuate wildly (e.g., 3rd-grade ELA dropped from 17% to 6.67% in one year), likely due to small cohort sizes. Notably, 8th graders performed much better on the PSAT than on M-Step tests, suggesting possible differences in test familiarity or cohort strength. The data also shows gaps, with no reported scores for 5th and 6th-grade math or 4th and 5th-grade science, possibly due to very small class sizes. For parents, this school serves an almost universally economically disadvantaged population, and the combination of extreme poverty, chronic absenteeism, and persistently low academic performance indicates that significant wraparound services and targeted interventions are essential to address barriers to learning both inside and outside the classroom.
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