U.S. News rankings: Once again, top open-enrollment schools in Detroit are all charter schools

By almost every metric and ranking, the top open-enrollment public schools in Detroit are always charter schools. That’s true once again as U.S. News and World Report recently released its annual ranking of the Best High Schools in America.

The U.S. News rankings show that the top five open-enrollment high schools in Detroit are all charter schools.

An open-enrollment school is one that’s defined as a school that doesn’t have entrance requirements and allows any student to enroll no matter where they live in the state. Every charter school in Michigan is an open-enrollment school, as are many traditional public schools.

Also, according to the Michigan rankings, one of the top open-enrollment high schools in the state is Black River Public School, a charter school in Holland that’s authorized by Grand Valley State University. Black River is ranked No. 14 among all types of high schools in Michigan; almost all of the 13 schools ranked ahead of it are all selective-enrollment schools or districts that don’t accept out-of-district students.

Other charter schools ranked in the top 100 among all schools included:

26. West Michigan Aviation Academy, Grand Rapids
50. Canton Preparatory High School, Canton

64. West Michigan Academy of Environmental Science, Walker
77. Grand River Preparatory High School, Grand Rapids
80. Star International Academy, Dearborn Heights
92. Wellspring Preparatory High School, Grand Rapids

In the rankings for Detroit, the top five open-enrollment high schools are all charter schools:

The U.S. News rankings are considered the gold standard of high school rankings. The methodology focuses on six factors: college readiness, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth and graduation rates. College readiness specifically measures participation and performance on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams.