David Ellis Academy West

David Ellis Academy West is an alternative public charter school located in Redford, Michigan, serving grades PK-12 with a total enrollment of 719 students. The school serves a predominantly low-income student population, with 88.57% to 89.89% of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch.

David Ellis Academy West faces significant challenges in terms of chronic absenteeism and academic performance. The school has consistently high chronic absenteeism rates, ranging from 29.5% to 37.3%, which is significantly higher than the state average. Academically, the school's proficiency rates on state assessments (M-Step) are consistently lower than the state averages across all grade levels and subject areas, particularly in Mathematics, where proficiency rates range from 6.9% to 21.1%, compared to the state averages of 31.5% to 42.7%. The school's performance on the PSAT assessment for 8th-grade students is also significantly lower than the state averages.

While David Ellis Academy West is an alternative school, it performs significantly lower than some of the other nearby alternative schools, such as Howe Trainable Center and Montessori, which has higher proficiency rates in English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science. The high chronic absenteeism rates at David Ellis Academy West appear to be closely linked to the school's low academic performance, suggesting that addressing attendance issues could be a key lever for improving student outcomes. Additionally, the relatively lower spending per student at David Ellis Academy West compared to some of the nearby alternative schools does not seem to translate into better academic performance, indicating that simply increasing funding may not be the sole solution to improving student outcomes.