Muskegon Heights Academy

Muskegon Heights Academy is a public charter school in Muskegon, MI, serving 253 students in grades 6 through 12 as part of the Muskegon Heights Public School Academy System.

This school faces significant challenges that parents should understand clearly. Academically, Muskegon Heights Academy ranks at the very bottom of Michigan's 800 high schools—in the 0th percentile—and has consistently ranked in the bottom 2% or lower since 2014. Test scores illustrate the gap: on the 9th-grade PSAT ELA exam, only 13% of students were proficient, compared to 68% at North Muskegon High School and 63.5% at Mona Shores High School. Even Muskegon High School, which serves a similarly high-poverty population, ranks in the 13th percentile—still far above this academy. Perhaps most striking is the chronic absenteeism rate of 81.2%, meaning over four out of five students are regularly missing school. This is dramatically higher than the state average of 27.9% and even exceeds the 50.6% rate at Muskegon High School.

There are some positive signs worth noting. The graduation rate has improved from 56.8% in 2021-2022 to 75.6% in 2024-2025, and the dropout rate has fallen from 22.7% to 12.2% over the same period. The school also spends significantly more per student ($24,455) than nearby traditional public schools like Mona Shores Public School District ($15,497) or Muskegon Public Schools of the City of ($15,433). However, the combination of high spending, bottom-of-state test scores, and an 81% chronic absenteeism rate suggests the fundamental challenge is getting students into classrooms consistently. While fewer students are formally dropping out, most are not attending regularly enough to make academic progress—a cycle that parents should carefully consider when evaluating this school.