Summary:
Taylor Exemplar Academy is a single K-8 charter school in Taylor, Michigan, serving 660 students within the Taylor Exemplar Academy district, where nearly 77% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
This school shows a clear and consistent strength in English Language Arts (ELA), with several grades now outperforming the state average. In the most recent testing year, 7th grade ELA proficiency hit 49.2%—nearly 11 points above the state—while 5th and 6th grades also exceeded state averages by 5 to 7 points. The most dramatic story is 5th grade ELA, which jumped an incredible 22.2 percentage points in a single year, from 27% to 49.2%. Even 8th grade PSAT ELA shines at 68.1% proficiency, above the state’s 64.8%. However, math tells a very different story. Every grade level tested falls below state averages in math, with 8th grade PSAT math particularly weak at just 23.4% proficiency—nearly 10 points behind the state. Science is also a persistent weakness, running 11 to 12 points below state averages in both 5th and 8th grades, and 5th grade social studies proficiency sits at a troubling 9.7%, less than half the state rate.
Perhaps the biggest barrier to improvement is chronic absenteeism. At 42.4%, the school’s rate is 14.5 percentage points higher than the state average, which likely hampers cumulative learning in subjects like math and science. The school’s overall state ranking has hovered in the 37th to 44th percentile over the past three years, earning a 2-star rating. While the ELA gains suggest targeted interventions can work, the school must apply similar strategies to math and science, and address attendance, to lift its high-poverty student population toward more balanced success.
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