Report ranks Michigan's top 20 public and charter high schools

A report from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy lists the top 20 public and charter high schools in Michigan based on a "CAP" score.

The organization said the "Michigan Context and Performance Report Card measures school performance by adjusting standardized test scores to account for student background," or the “context” of a school.

You can read the full report here

Click here for an online, searchable database of all the school rankings.

From the Mackinac Center for Public Policy: 

The 2016 Michigan Public High School Context and Performance Report Card is the third edition in a series of analyses designed to measure high school performance. The first report was published in 2012 and was followed by a 2014 analysis. This report is a school-level assessment of academic performance based on a four-year average of state standardized tests. This report card is unique in that it takes into consideration the socioeconomic status of students when assessing an individual school’s performance.

The goal of this report card is to better inform the debate around relative school effectiveness and to provide parents, educators and school leaders with a more accurate picture of school performance. Unfortunately, many of the official state rankings and grades handed out by the Michigan Department of Education do not take student poverty rates into account when measuring performance. For example, the state’s Top-to-Bottom Rankings more accurately serve as a proxy for student poverty than as a helpful measure of school quality.

This report includes a brief explanation of the data and methodology used to rank schools, as well as more statistical information in adjoining appendices. Selected results are also presented, including the best- and worst-performing high schools in the state according to this analysis. Finally, this report card includes a full list of all the results for every public high school, including their letter grade and statewide percentile rank.

Star International Academy, a charter school in Dearborn Heights, is ranked No. 1 with a CAP score of 126.80. The report notes:

Though charter schools make up less than 12 percent of the schools ranked on this report card, they represent more than 33 percent of the top 20 ranked schools listed below. For the third straight time, Star International Academy in Dearborn emerged as the top-scoring public high school in Michigan. 

Here are the top 20 schools in the report:

 

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The US News and World Report has its own list of the top schools in Michigan -- view here. The stark contrast between these two organizations' rankings are charter schools -- the US News and World Report ranks far fewer charters in its list of top Michigan high schools. 

International Academy in Bloomfield Hills is ranked No. 2 and No. 1 in these lists, respectively. 

Read about how US News and World Report ranks schools here

Here are its top 20 Michigan high schools from the 2016 US News and World Report: 

  • International Academy -- Bloomfield Hills Schools
  • International Academy of Macomb -- Chippewa Valley Schools
  • City Middle/High School -- Grand Rapids Public Schools
  • Excel Charter Academy-Grand River Prep School -- Excel Charter Academy
  • East Grand Rapids High School -- East Grand Rapids Public Schools
  • Ernest W. Seaholm High School -- Birmingham Public Schools
  • Saline High School -- Saline Area Schools
  • Grosse Pointe South High School -- Grosse Pointe Public Schools
  • Troy High School -- Troy School District
  • Arbor Preparatory High School
  • Novi High School -- Novi Community School District
  • Okemos High School -- Okemos Public Schools
  • Northville High School -- Northville Public Schools
  • Stoney Creek High School -- Rochester Community School District
  • Black River Public School
  • Hudsonville High School -- Hudsonville Public School District
  • Rochester Adams High School -- Rochester Community School District
  • Pioneer High School -- Ann Arbor Public Schools
  • Pewamo-Westphalia Middle/High School -- Pewamo-Wetphalia Community Schools
  • Central High School -- Forest Hills Public Schools
  • View the US News and World Report's full rankings here.