For the third year in a row, a charter school has been ranked as the best open-enrollment high school in the state by U.S. News & World Report. The magazine released its annual rankings of the “Best High Schools in America” this week, and charter schools performed extremely well in both the state and national rankings.
Black River Public School, a charter school in Holland, was ranked No. 6 on the list of Michigan high schools, but four of the schools ahead of it are selective-enrollment schools, while another (Rochester Adams High School) is not in a schools-of-choice district. That makes Black River Public School the No. 1 open-enrollment school in the rankings.
It marks the third year in a row that a charter school has ranked as the No. 1 open-enrollment school on the prestigious U.S. News rankings, following Wellspring Preparatory High School in Grand Rapids in 2017 and Grand River Preparatory High School in Grand Rapids in 2018.
The U.S. News “Best High School” list is considered the gold standard of high school rankings. The publication ranked every high school in America based on these factors: college readiness; math and reading proficiency and performance; underserved student performance; and college curriculum breadth.
Several other charter schools made it into the top 100 in Michigan, including Grand River Preparatory High School in Grand Rapids (No. 13), West Michigan Aviation Academy in Grand Rapids (No. 42), West Michigan Academy of Environmental Science (No. 65), Canton Preparatory High School in Canton (No. 67), Charyl Stockwell Preparatory Academy in Brighton (No. 73), International Academy of Flint (No. 74) and Wellspring Preparatory High School in Grand Rapids (No. 96).
It’s also worth noting that in Detroit, the top eight open-enrollment high schools in the U.S. News rankings are all charter schools.
- Detroit Edison Public School Academy
- Cesar Chavez Academy
- Jalen Rose Leadership Academy
- University Preparatory Academy
- Voyageur Consortium High School
- University Preparatory Science and Math
- Henry Ford Academy: School for Creative Studies
- Universal Academy
This is more significant evidence that charter schools continue to do an excellent job of preparing students for success in college and beyond. It’s worth noting that most of the traditional public schools in the top 100 are either selective-enrollment schools or are in affluent communities, while all of the charter schools are open-enrollment schools, many of which are in urban areas. Michigan’s charter schools continue to bring educational excellence to the parts of the state that need it the most.
- MAPSA President, Dan Quisenberry
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