Riverside Academy

The Riverside Academy district in Dearborn, MI, serves 867 students across two schools—Riverside Academy (PK-5) and Riverside Academy West Campus (6-12)—with every student eligible for free or reduced lunch, placing the district in the 10th percentile statewide for overall performance.

For parents comparing the two schools, the most striking difference is the "graduation paradox" at the West Campus. Despite very low proficiency in core subjects—6th-grade math sits at just 4.55% and 6th-grade ELA at 7.5%—the school posts a remarkable 96.1% graduation rate and a 0.0% dropout rate, far exceeding state averages. This suggests the school excels at keeping students on track to earn diplomas, likely through credit recovery or strong support systems, even if state test scores lag. Meanwhile, the elementary school shows more consistent, though still low, performance: 5th-grade ELA proficiency is 18.8% and math is 16.7%, both better than what students achieve once they transition to middle school. That transition is a clear trouble spot—5th-grade math proficiency of 16.7% drops to 4.55% by 6th grade, signaling a need for extra support as students enter the West Campus.

Other key takeaways include a positive outlier in 8th grade, where PSAT ELA proficiency reaches 46%, the closest any grade comes to the state average. Chronic absenteeism at the West Campus (14.5%) is roughly half the state average, indicating decent engagement. However, the district spends over $14,000 per student at both schools, yet high funding hasn't translated into strong academics—a reminder that the challenges here are deeply tied to poverty. The elementary school also enjoys a better student-teacher ratio (14.1:1) compared to the West Campus (21.7:1), which may help explain its relatively steadier scores. Year-over-year volatility, like 7th-grade math swinging from 24.2% to 6%, makes progress hard to gauge, so parents should look at multi-year trends rather than any single year.