Best High Schools in Michigan? US News & World Report Weighs In

Three Michigan high schools are among the top 100 in the country, according to the new 2020 US News & World Report Best High Schools rankings – with the International Academy of Macomb in Clinton Township rated as No. 8.

The other top local schools were International Academy in Bloomfield Hills at No. 43 and Washtenaw International High School in Ypsilanti at No. 83.

The US News teamed up with the North Carolina-based RTI International, a global nonprofit social science research firm to come up with the best high schools rankings.

RTI International and US News looked at data from more than 23,000 public high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia that had 12th grade enrollment and sufficient data for analysis.

Information from the 2018-19 school year was the main focus.

The ranking method

This year, U.S. News replaced the former four-step process with one that bases a school performance on six factors: college curriculum breadth, math and reading proficiency, math and reading performance, underserved student performance, graduation rate and college readiness.

Each school is scored in each one of these areas. Those scores are then standardized and then divided by standard  deviations (how far apart the scores are from one another) and then weighted in each area.

Those weighted scores, were then transformed into a percentile score between zero and 100.

The overall score indicates a school’s position out of the final 17,245 schools that were ranked. That means 20 percent of schools rank higher than a school with a score of 80, and 80 percent rank lower.

That overall score was then rounded two decimal places to show how close the schools are to one another. This change in methodology allows high schools to be ranked more accurately, and on both a state and federal level.

The local winners

Curious where your child’s high school fell? We’ve rounded up the top 50 Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne county schools that scored highest and provided both their state and national ranking.

All schools listed here are in numerical order locally. Their overall state score is listed in the parenthesis, followed by their national score.

1. International Academy of Macomb, Clinton Township (state #2, national #26)
2. International Academy, Bloomfield Hills (state #3, national #40)
3. Washtenaw International High School, Ypsilanti (state #4, national #78)
4. Rochester Adams High School, Rochester Hills (state #5, national #209)
5. Troy High School, Troy (state #6, national #323)
6. Novi High School, Novi (state #8, national #429)
7. Northville High School, Northville (state #10, national #443)
8. Pioneer High School, Ann Arbor (state #11, national # 523)
9. Ernest W. Seaholm High School, Birmingham (state #12, national #541)
10. Chelsea High School, Chelsea (state #16, national #705)
11. Stoney Creek High School, Rochester Hills (state #17, national #722)
12. Skyline High School, Ann Arbor (state #18, national #752)
13. Saline High School, Saline (state #19, national #756)
14. University High School Academy, Lathrup Village (state #23, national #857)
15. Grosse Pointe South High School, Grosse Pointe Farms (state #25, national #869)
16. Athens High School, Troy (state #26, national #882)
17. Huron High School, Ann Arbor (state #30, national #937)
18. Rochester High School, Rochester Hills (state #31, national #1010)
19. Wylie E. Groves High School, Beverly Hills (state #34, national #1156)
20. Salem High School, Canton (state #35, national #1178)
21. Plymouth High School, Canton (state #36, national #1190)
22. Canton High School, Canton (state #37, national #1225)
23. Bloomfield Hills High School, Bloomfield Hills (state #39, national #1237)
24. Walled Lake Northern High School, Commerce Township (state #45, national #1471)
25. Renaissance High School, Detroit (state #47, national #1517)
26. Crestwood High School, Dearborn Heights (state #47, national #1544)
27. Grosse Ile High School, Grosse Ile (state #51, national #1607)
28. Royal Oak High School, Royal Oak (state #53, national #1644)
29. Michigan Mathematics and Science Academy, Warren (state #54, national #1691)
30. Berkley High School, Berkley (state #57, national #1743)
31. South Lyon High School, South Lyon (state #58, national #1793)
32. Grosse Pointe North High School, Grosse Pointe Woods (state #59, national #1812)
33. Lake Orion Community High School, Lake Orion (state #65, national #1909)
34. Henry Ford II High School, Sterling Heights (state #67, national #1978)
35. South Lyon East High School, South Lyon (state #68, national #1980)
36. North Farmington High School, Farmington Hills (state #70, national #2051)
37. Community High School, Ann Arbor (state #73, national #2180)
38. Eisenhower High School, Shelby Township (state #76, national #2257)
39. West Bloomfield High School, West Bloomfield (state #79, national #2292)
40. Stevenson High School, Livonia (state #81, national #2335)
41. Farmington High School, Farmington (state #82, national #2386)
42. Dexter High School, Dexter (state #83, national #2398)
43. Allen Park High School, Allen Park (state #86, national #2499)
44. Dearborn High School, Dearborn (state #89, national #2547
45. Canton Preparatory High School, Canton (state #90, national #2582)
46. Walled Lake Central High School (state #91, national #2642)
47. Adlai Stevenson High School, Sterling Heights (state #96, national #2725)
48. Star International Academy, Dearborn Heights (state #98, national #2793)
49. Milan High School, Milan (state #104, national #3044)
50. Cass Technical High School, Detroit (state #108, national #3168)

Looking for even more school data? Check out the latest public elementary school and the middle school rankings. 

This post was originally published in 2014 and is updated regularly.