David Ellis Academy

Located at 18977 SCHAEFER HWY, in DETROIT, Michigan, David Ellis Academy is a small K-12 campus that caters to 206 students (grades pre-K through 12), operated by David Ellis Academy. Enrollment runs roughly 27% below the state mean of about 281.

David Ellis Academy is a school of David Ellis Academy, the district that handles curriculum, staffing, and budget for the campus.

For racial and ethnic makeup, David Ellis Academy logs that the student body is overwhelmingly Black (100%). By comparison, Wayne County as a whole is about 37% Black, so the school skews meaningfully more Black than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, David Ellis Academy has 15 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 14.2:1. The state averages around 17.3:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. An estimated 93% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Wayne County runs at roughly 66%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

Around the school, census data for Wayne County shows the typical household earns roughly $60,539 per year, 28% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 16%. Across Wayne County's 573 public schools (combined enrollment of about 259,786 students), David Ellis Academy is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Vernor Elementary School, around 0.6 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools.

The campus sits in a city-core setting. As a public charter, David Ellis Academy runs on public funding but with greater curricular and operational autonomy than a typical district school.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at David Ellis Academy has declined 39%, going from 340 students in 2018 to 206 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 20.0:1 in 2018 to 14.2:1 today.

Inside the community feed, the feed for David Ellis Academy typically covers sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.